موضوعات ذات صلة
'The Heathen in his Blindness...', Asia, the West and the Dynamic of Religion.
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Today, most intellectuals agree that (a) Christianity has profoundly influenced western culture; (b) members from different cultures experience many aspects of the world differently; (c) the empirical and theoretical study of both culture and religion emerged within the West. The present study argues that these truisms have implications for the conceptualization of religion and culture. More specifically, the thesis is that non-western cultures and religions differ from the descriptions prevalent in the West, and it is also explained why this has been the case. The author proposes novel analyses of religion, the Roman 'religio', the construction of 'religions' in India, and the nature of cultural differences. Religion is important to the West because the constitution and the identity of western culture is tied to the dynamic of Christianity as a religion.
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1 online resource. :
9789004378865
Do All Roads Lead to Jerusalem? : The Making of Indian Religion /
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Do All Roads Lead to Jerusalem? traces the history of western encounters with other cultures on two occasions - the 'pagans' of Greece and Rome and the 'heathens' in India. The West has produced many descriptions of other cultures. A close examination of these descriptions reveals that they tell us more about western culture than about the cultures the West has attempted to describe. This overarching theme is developed by examining one element in western culture, viz. religion. This book argues that religion is not a cultural universal and the belief that all cultures have religion is an assumption on the part of all scholars of religion. The reason for this is that western culture has been shaped by religion so that members of this culture are conceptually compelled to describe other cultures from within the framework of religion. From Biblical scholarship to the Enlightenment, from the Reformation to the Romantics, from believers to atheists, the cognitive scheme is the same - one that has been set in place by the experiential framework of Christianity. Is it any wonder that members of such a culture saw religion wherever they went? By means of methodical arguments and lucid explanations this book demonstrates that religion is not a cultural universal and explains why it is believed to be so. Scholars in the field of religious and cultural studies will find this work illuminating, original, and deeply compelling.
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1 online resource (308 pages) : illustrations. :
Includes bibliographical references and index. :
9789004751590