Religion and the Hermeneutics of Contemplation (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9780521008464)

D.Z. Phillips argues that intellectuals need not see their task as being for or against religion, but as one of understanding it. What stands in the way of this task is certain methodological assumptions about what inquiry into religion must be. Beginning with Bernard Williams on Greek gods, Phillips goes on to examine these assumptions in the work of Hume, Feurerbach, Marx, Frazer, Tylor, Marett, Freud, Durkheim, L vy-Bruhl, Berger and Winch. The result exposes confusion, but also gives logical space to religious belief and shows how the academic study of religion may return to the contemplative task of doing conceptual justice to the world. Religion and the Hermeneutics of Contemplation extends in important ways D.Z. Phillips' seminal 1976 book Religion Without Explanation. It will be of interest to scholars and students of philosophy, anthropology, sociology and theology.

Author: D. Z. Phillips
ISBN-10: 0521008468
ISBN-13: 9780521008464
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Language: English
Published: 07/26/2001
Pages: 346
Format: Paperback
Weight: 1.20lbs
Size: 8.96h x 6.01w x 0.84d