Rationality in Religion

Religion can be defined narrowly as belief in anthropomorphic supernatural beings. For Levy-Bruhl this meant that prelogical ‘mystic participation’ preceded true religion. For Donald Wiebe and others it means that philosophical-scientific rationality has been struggling to replace religion since the axial age. A broader definition of religion interprets rational post-axial theology as a development within religion, not a replacement of true religion. Both definitions are legitimate. The narrow definition highlights a tendency to superstition in religion. The broader definition recognizes the possibility of an evolution of religious thought.     

宗教与理性的跨文化心理学研究

信仰与世俗化科学之间的对立统一是自启蒙运动以来许多传统宗教社会所面临的问题。在当前的宗教心理学实证研究中,宗教信仰与科学理性的关系也日渐成为科学研究感兴趣的话题。同时在学科内部,宗教和科学关系的研究由于总是单向度的进行着,阻碍了对这一话题的深入探析。本文在相关宗教与理性关系的实证研究基础上,以美国基督徒、伊朗穆斯林、印度教徒等为主要研究对象,对宗教开放性假设进行跨文化的研究和探讨。同时采用意识形态模型(Ideological Surround Model,ISM)研究范式中的对话方式对相关实证研究结果进行进一步的思考和探索,鼓励跨文化的宗教信仰与科学理性的对话以及不同意识形态之间的对话,希望在理论上能够对国内宗教心理学的研究有所助益。     

Rationality,Relativism, and Religion: A Reinterpretation of Peter Winch

Many point to Peter Winch’s discussion of rationality, relativism, and religion as a paradigmatic example of cultural relativism. In this paper, I argue that Winch’s relationship to relativism is widely misinterpreted in that, despite his pluralistic understanding of rationality, Winch does allow for universal features of culture in virtue of which cross-cultural understanding and even critique is possible. Nevertheless, I also argue that given the kind of cultural universals that Winch produces, he fails to avoid relativism. This is because in order to provide the standards without which relativism ensues, one requires a certain kind of criteria of rationality, namely, what I here call substantive universals, a kind of criteria which Winch rejects.     

Mikael Stenmark,Rationality in Science,Religion and Everyday Life: A Critical Evaluation of Four Models of Rationality.

International Journal for Philosophy of Religion -     

制度性宗教VS分散性宗教——关于杨庆堃《中国社会中的宗教》的讨论

<正>杨庆堃的《中国社会中的宗教》中译本问世后,产生了很大的影响。人们在阅读之后,有所消化和吸收,有些学者在学术上深入"反刍",提出了许多值得进一步思考的问题。《世界宗教文化》编辑部特邀《中国社会中的宗教》的主译者、上海复旦大学的范丽珠教授,上海复旦大学     

Instrumental Rationality

Does rationality require us to take the means to our ends? Intuitively, it seems clear that it does. And yet it has proven difficult to explain why this should be so: after all, if one is pursuing an end that one has decisive reason not to pursue, the balance of reasons will presumably speak against one's taking the means necessary to bring that end about. In this paper I propose a novel account of the instrumental requirement which addresses this problem. On the view I develop, the instrumental requirement is normative not because agents have reasons to comply with it, but because it is a normative standard intrinsic to intentional action—i.e., it is a standard that partly spells out what it is to exercise one's agency well.     

Epistemic Rationality

Many epistemologists and philosophers of science, especially those with “naturalist” inclinations, argue that if there is to be any such thing as normativity or rationality in these domains, it must be instrumental—roughly, a matter of goal satisfaction—rather than something involving normative “oughts” that are independent of the satisfaction of our epistemic, cognitive, or other ends. This paper argues that while such an instrumental conception of epistemic rationality is perfectly respectable, even insofar as it concerns specifically epistemic ends, it cannot be the whole story about such normativity. Rather, it must be accompanied by a “categorical,” goal‐independent sort of normativity that cannot be reduced to instrumental rationality, both because instrumental rationality itself depends on a noninstrumental relationship between a belief/claim/theory and the evidence that renders it rational, and because the epistemic rationality of many beliefs is independent of the goals of their believers.     

Collective Rationality

Philosophical Studies -     

Religion in Motion: Continuities and Symbolic Affinities in Religion and Sport

One of the major transformations in religion in contemporary societies has been the decline of church institutions and their reconstruction within a diverse network of associations, therapies, markets and other unconventional spiritual services. Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork on religious behaviours and dynamics in sports contexts, and taking the similarities between sport and religion as the point of departure, this paper analyses, reflects on and theorises about the symbolic affinities of these two contemporary social institutions. The results show that symbolism converges in the religious element, tending to improve aspects related to sports ethics and establishing affective experiences among participants, with positive results for their physical and mental wellbeing. The findings indicate that a symbolic analysis of the various facets of sport is a useful approach for gaining a better understanding of this phenomenon, since besides being biological, diseases are also cultural and social, and thus, disease, religion and ritual are emotionally related.     

Virtual Religion in Context

This article explores the notion of ‘virtual religion’ in various ways. In part, it is a response to a number of ideas found in the articles by Philip P. Arnold, Shawn Arthur, Christopher Helland, Anastasia Karaflogka and Mark MacWilliams which appear in this issue of Religion, but it also discusses religion in online contexts in relation to various important themes such as the character of cyberspace both present and future, the multimedia Web and its alleged postmodern orientations, virtual identity, the dynamics of virtual community, and the controversies concerning the positive and negative ramifications of online life and experience, as discussed by technomystics, technophobes and others who hold more moderate views. The article ends by raising some questions about the future character of religion and spirituality in cyberspace.     

Religion in Contemporary Senegal

Senegal is usually classified as 90% Muslim and 5% Christian. But Senegal’s dominant religious imagination is far different from anything suggested by classical labels like ‘Muslim’ or even ‘Sufi Brotherhoods’. The pervasive religious imagination sees spiritual forces at play everywhere and understands causality primarily in spiritual terms. These spiritual forces can be manipulated by individuals gifted with such powers (marabouts), positively for one’s advancement or negatively to counter or even bring down competitors or opponents. This enchanted religious imagination, often given an Islamic character, is obtrusive in Senegal’s major sports: lutte avec frappe and football. It is inescapable in politics, as politicians admit their recourse to marabouts and even more often accuse opponents of it. For women maraboutage is particularly employed for domestic realities: a husband, children, domestic security. The courts regularly feature cases arising from this imagination. The phenomenon merits research, not just to clarify the nature of Senegal’s religion itself, but also for its effects on the country’s socio-political development generally.     

Religion in Public Schools

If neutrality in religion is truly to be achieved in public schools, then more emphasis must be placed on providing nonbiased instruction on comparative religions and other similar topics.