“The Happy Side of Babel”: radical plurality, narrative fiction and the philosophy of religion$nElektronische Ressource
Philosophers and other scholars of religion are increasingly recognizing that if philosophy of religion is to remain relevant to the study of religion, its scope must be expanded well beyond the confines of a highly intellectualized and abstract “theism.” Means of engendering this expansion include...
Main Author: | |
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Format: | Electronic Article |
Language: | English |
Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
Journals Online & Print: | |
Fernleihe: | Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste |
Published: |
Brill
2017
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In: |
Method & theory in the study of religion
Year: 2017, Volume: 29, Issue: 2, Pages: 101-132 |
Standardized Subjects / Keyword chains: | B
Soyinka, Wole 1934-, Death and the king's horseman
/ Religious philosophy
/ Pluralism
/ Novel
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IxTheo Classification: | AB Philosophy of religion; criticism of religion; atheism AG Religious life; material religion |
Further subjects: | B
contemplative philosophy
narrative fiction
D.Z. Phillips
philosophy of religion
radical pluralism
Wole Soyinka
Ludwig Wittgenstein
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Online Access: |
Presumably Free Access Volltext (Verlag) |
Summary: | Philosophers and other scholars of religion are increasingly recognizing that if philosophy of religion is to remain relevant to the study of religion, its scope must be expanded well beyond the confines of a highly intellectualized and abstract “theism.” Means of engendering this expansion include methodological diversification—drawing upon thickly described accounts of religious life such as those afforded by ethnographies and certain narrative artworks. Focusing on the latter, this article engages with the question of whether works of narrative fiction—literary or cinematic—can do philosophy of religion in ways that illuminate what D.Z. Phillips characterizes as the “radical plurality” of contemporary religion. Closely examining the examples of Dostoevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov and especially Soyinka’s Death and the King’s Horseman, my discussion is contextualized within broader debates over whether philosophy’s purpose is to advocate certain religious and moral perspectives or to elucidate those perspectives in more disinterested terms. |
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ISSN: | 1570-0682 |
Contains: | In: Method & theory in the study of religion
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Persistent identifiers: | DOI: 10.1163/15700682-12341384 |