Bøger i Expanding Philosophy of Religi serien

Mainstream philosophy of religion has primarily focused on the truth and justification of religious beliefs even though belief is only one small facet of religious life. This collection remedies this by taking practice and embodied action seriously as fundamental elements of any philosophy of religion. Emerging and established voices across different philosophical traditions come together to consider religious actions, including public worship, from perspectives such as trauma and social ontology, sound and silence, and knowledge and hope. Embodied religious practice is viewed through the lens of liturgy, intrinsically connecting religious rituals to human existence to show clearly that, no matter where one finds oneself in terms of the so-called 'analytic-continental' divide, philosophy of religion must be concerned with more than just beliefs if it is to adequately deal with the subject matter of 'religion.' The purpose of these studies is not to reject what has gone before but to expand the focus of philosophy of religion. This approach lays the groundwork for investigations into how beliefs are situated in our theological, moral, and social frameworks. For any philosophy of religion student or scholar interested in how thinking and living well are intimately related, this is a go-to resource. It takes seriously the importance of historical religious traditions and communities, opening the space for cross-cultural and interdisciplinary debates.

Bringing together thinkers from philosophy of religion, religious studies, music, art, and film, while drawing on a wealth of phenomenological resources and methods, a team of renowned scholars provide new vantages on the question of how art is an expression of the human desire for God. In three interrelated parts, chapters employ phenomenological tools to propose new ways for speaking of the desire for God. Scholars first draw upon music, sculpture, film, and painting to develop ways of expressing diverse philosophical and religious aspects characteristic of aesthetic experience. The discussion then opens up to examine the mystical and wounded aspects of embodied interface with God. The final part investigates embodied aesthetic praxis in philosophy of religion and religious studies. With several contributions engaging with the embodied, aesthetic experience of underrepresented voices, Art, Desire, and God offers constructive phenomenological bridges across divides of disciplines, aesthetic experiences, and embodied actions.

In this open access book, Andrea Rota makes the case for philosophical, theoretical, and empirical approaches to the study of religion, drawing on ongoing debates and challenging individualist perspectives. Rota begins with a survey of the work of Michael Bratman, John Searle, Raimo Tuomela, and Margaret Gilbert exploring the relevance of their insights for the study of religion. He sets out a theoretical framework to operationalize their philosophical ideas in an empirical research setting. Applying this framework in Part Two, Rota analyses the collective agency of Jehovah's Witnesses, focusing on the roles that print and electronic media play in structuring communicative processes that conduce to collective intentions and commitments. He presents extensive fieldwork carried out in Switzerland and Germany, examining both qualitative and quantitative data. By demonstrating the fruitfulness of philosophical perspectives on collective intentionality and social ontology, Rota's study makes a timely contribution to our understanding of the beliefs, emotions, and aesthetic experiences of religious groups. The eBook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation.