Abstract

MEYER, Gaelin. Humanist Limits in the Material Phenomenology of Religion. J. Study Relig. [online]. 2019, vol.32, n.2, pp.1-23. ISSN 2413-3027.  https://doi.org/10.17159/2413-3027/2019/v32n2a3.

This article tracks a shared methodological tension within the work of a few classic phenomenologists, based on an epistemological juxtaposition at the heart of their enquiry. This epistemological tension emerges as secular and non-secular concepts are worked with concurrently. A modified form of this tension is present in the materialist phenomenology of religion that David Chidester presents, which links his phenomenology to the earlier classical forms. However, although a methodological tension is maintained in his work, the epistemological juxtaposition that initiated the tension is collapsed along humanist boundaries, with important consequences for the study of religion.

Keywords : Religion; epistemology; materialism; phenomenology; humanism; science; reducibility; systems; contact zones.

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