Phenomenological Theories of Religion

Mircea Eliade

Built on the work of Otto, using the word "sacred" instead of "holy" as compared to "profane." The profane is the ordinary, day-to-day reality of how people live. The sacred is when the spiritual breaks into the ordinary world. It grows out of the human need for transcendence, something beyond the ordinary.

Immanuel Kant

Copernican revolution in philosophy. The noumenal (unknown) worldview, we could never know what is really out there; all we know is what we see - phenomenal (reality)worldview.

Myths served various purposes (Campbell)

Metaphysical purpose, expressing a sense of awe before the universe. Cosmological purpose, explaining the creation of the universe. Sociological purpose, explaining the structure and institutions of society. Pedagogical purpose, teaching members of a community as they go through life.

Turn to the subject (Kant)

Our mind organizes how we see the world.

Joseph Campbell

Published as The Power of Myth, spoke about the common elements in myths across various cultures.

Heirophany (Eliade)

Religion is based on a sharp distinction between the sacred (God, gods, mythical ancestors, etc.) and the profane; "breakthroughs of the sacred (or the 'supernatural') into the World".

David Hume

Scottish philosopher whose skeptical philosophy restricted human knowledge to that which can be perceived by the senses.

Critique of Judgment (Kant)

Spoke about art and beauty. In particular, human beings share a sense of the sublime, certain experiences which are not only beautiful but awe inspiring, often scary.

Critique of Practical Reason (Kant)

Spoke about ethics, and in particular a priori ethical duties

Critique of Pure Reason (Kant)

Spoke about how knowledge and how our brain organizes knowledge about the world

Rudolf Otto

The Idea of the Holy; speaks of this encounter of the individual with the holy- numinous. The numinous is "non-rational, non-sensory experience or feeling whose primary and immediate object is outside the self" - mysterium tremendum "tremendous mystery."

What is phenomenology?

The approach in religion studies does not seek to explain the origin of religion in any way, but rather to describe the religion from an internal point of view

Gerardus van der Leeuw

Theologian and historian, treated religion as a response to a divine stimulus, found examples in Christianity. Human beings have both a logical and a mystical mode of thinking, and to use only logic to understand religion is to ignore an important part of the human experience.