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Author Murphy, Tim, 1956-

Title The politics of spirit : phenomenology, genealogy, religion / Tim Murphy
Published Albany : State University of New York Press, ©2010

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Description 1 online resource (xii, 393 pages)
Series SUNY series, Issues in the study of religion
SUNY series, issues in the study of religion.
Contents Machine generated contents note: pt. I Introduction, Background, Methodological Issues -- ch. One Phenomenology of Religion: Introduction and Background -- Traditional Historiography of the Phenomenology of Religion: Hegel versus Husserl -- Geist and the Geisteswissenschaften in Nineteenth-Century Continental Thought -- "Explanation versus Interpretation": Previous Critiques of the Phenomenology of Religion -- Pedigree of Classical Phenomenology of Religion -- Terminology: "Phenomenology" and "History of Religions" -- Authorial Stance and Thesis -- ch. Two Discourse, Text, Philosophemes: Elements of a Postcolonial-Genealogical Reading Strategy -- Overview: Method and Rezeptionsgeschitche -- Language (Langue) and Discourse -- Postcolonial Discourse Theory -- Politics of Geist -- pt. II Readings in the Discourse of the Phenomenology of Religion -- ch. Three Geist, History, Religion: Hegel and the Structure of Phenomenology and Religionswissenschaft -- Nature of Historical Change: Hegel's Articulation of the Concept of Entwicklung ("Development") -- Geist and the Unity and Stages of History -- "In" History: Reason, Morality, and the State -- Geist and the Stages of Religious Self-Consciousness -- Spirit as Life and as Community -- ch. Four Religion in Essence and Development: C.P. Tiele, Early Religionswissenschaft, and the Phenomenology of Religion -- Concept of "Entwicklung" (Development) -- Ontology, or the Essence of Religion -- History of Religion/s -- ch. Five "Experience, Expression, Understanding": Wilhelm Dilthey on Geist and the Methodology of the Geisteswissenschaft -- Experience (Erlebnis) -- Expression (Ausdruck) -- Understanding (Verstehen) -- Dilthey and Hegel/Geist und Natur -- ch. Six Geist, Nature, and History: The Phenomenology of Rudolf Otto -- Geist versus Natur: The Structure of the Religious A Priori
Summary A penetrating critique of the dominant approach to the study of religion, The Politics of Spirit explores the historical and philosophical scaffolding of the phenomenology of religion. Although this approach purports to give a value-free, neutral description of religious data, it actually imposes a set of metaphysical and evaluative concepts on that data. A very harmful ethnocentrism has resulted, which plagues the academic study of religion to this day. Analysis of the history, core texts, and discursive structure of phenomenology of religion reveals how this ethnocentrism is embedded within its assumptions. Of particular interest is the revelation of the extent to which Hegel's ideas--over those of Husserl--contributed to the tenets that became standard in the study of religion
Tim Murphy argues that the poststructuralist concept of genealogy, as derived from Nietzsche, can both describe religion better than the phenomenological approach and avoid the political pitfalls of ethnocentrism by replacing its core categories with the categories of difference, contingency, and otherness. Ultimately, Murphy argues that postmodern genealogy should replace phenomenology as the paradigm for understanding both religion and the study of religion --Book Jacket
Bibliography Includes bibliographical references and index
Notes English
Print version record
Subject Religion -- Philosophy -- History
Phenomenology -- History
RELIGION -- Philosophy.
Phenomenology
Religion -- Philosophy
Genre/Form History
Form Electronic book
ISBN 9781441686985
1441686983
1438432895
9781438432892