عنوان

Deconstructing Religion:

LA110724

انگلیسی

Deconstructing Religion:

[Article]

Some Thoughts on Where We Go From Here - A Hermeneutical Proposal

Paul Hedges

Leiden

Brill

This paper overviews contemporary debates on the deconstruction / historization of the category 'religion'. It argues that a hard deconstruction which seeks to suggest the term is an empty signifier and analytically useless is unfounded philosophically and empirically. However, a soft deconstruction which accepts the problems of employing the term, especially as found in the World Religions Paradigm, but suggests that 'religion' remains a useful tool to describe a specific social reality, is well founded. The article extends current debates by showing how philosophical hermeneutics, especially as exemplified by Hans-Georg Gadamer's work, supports the soft deconstructive approach and further shows the conceptual inadequacy of hard deconstruction. This paper overviews contemporary debates on the deconstruction / historization of the category 'religion'. It argues that a hard deconstruction which seeks to suggest the term is an empty signifier and analytically useless is unfounded philosophically and empirically. However, a soft deconstruction which accepts the problems of employing the term, especially as found in the World Religions Paradigm, but suggests that 'religion' remains a useful tool to describe a specific social reality, is well founded. The article extends current debates by showing how philosophical hermeneutics, especially as exemplified by Hans-Georg Gadamer's work, supports the soft deconstructive approach and further shows the conceptual inadequacy of hard deconstruction.

2018

5-24

Exchange

47/1

1572-543X

deconstruction

epistemology

Gadamer

hermeneutics

religion

Paul Hedges

10.1163/1572543X-12341465

p

[Article]

275578

a

Y