Exploring Interpretations
Uncertainty and Vulnerability: A Proposal for Interpreting Spiritual Experience
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Juan Dejo Bendezú
Thanks to the analysis recently carried out by studies on religion from a neurotheological perspective, the present research proposes to understand spirituality as an integral response of human physiology and consciousness to a variety of stimuli caused by social and repetitive behaviors, which give rise to an increase in a feeling of well-being and a noticeable decrease in anxiety, associated with uncertainty. These stimuli in turn seek their periodic replication in cultural supports that religions would have developed as practical and theoretical constructs from various narratives developed since the first centuries of human civilization. Some spiritual narratives and practices, such as those of Christian tradition, would help to cope with uncertainty, without overcoming vulnerability, but welcoming it as part of the same spiritual experience. The research seeks to test this hypothesis through a theoretical framework from which it is proposed to develop an initially qualitative research instrument to be applied in communities of contemplative religious women. Some of the initial questions should address how effective religion and its techniques or narratives are in producing in the individual an experience that lessens the uncertainty or anxiety underlying the awareness of the precariousness of the fact of existence, while accepting the intrinsic vulnerability of the human experience in the face of pain, meaninglessness or, ultimately, death. Likewise, the link between the theoretical postulation of a transcendental dimension and its relationship with the application of religious techniques or practices are investigated, as well as its effectiveness in accepting the aforementioned existential vulnerability.
Featured Frailty and Finitude as Ontological Conditions for Religion: Anthropological and Phenomenological Observations
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Ricardo Santos Alexandre
Religion has long been argued to exhibit a pragmatic dimension, serving as a mechanism for coping with stress or as a narrative tool to explain phenomena with unknown causes. While both claims hold a great deal of truth, they start one step ahead, addressing only part of the issue. This endorses the classic anthropological problem: to put ‘culture’ in the hands of individuals as if it were a tool, a device, or means to an end. In the case of religion, this perspective may hold in contemporary Western societies, where, as Peter Berger suggested, people can choose whether or not to follow a religion—religion has indeed become at our disposal. However, this objectification of religion as a tool does not hold for most other societies and does not fully capture religion's place in the human condition. In many so-called ethnographic societies, religion is not something apart, handled by individuals, but is deeply embedded in the texture of the socio-cultural existence of individuals. This study draws a preliminary sketch of an ontological approach to religion, highlighting its phenomenological, pre-subjective dimension. It draws on anthropological and ethnographic insights in order to frame ‘vulnerability’ and ‘frailty’ not as attributes of individual lives, but as existential predicates working as conditions of possibility for the religious phenomenon. In doing so, it challenges the notion of religion as merely a functional or explanatory device, seeking instead to reveal its deeper, intrinsic role in human existence.
A Vision of Transgression: Visuality, Vulnerability, and Forgiving in Muqātil b. Sulaymān’s (d. 150/767) Qur’an Exegesis of Sūrat Yūsuf
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Yunus Valerian Hentschel
In this paper, I probe the role of visuality and vulnerability in Muqātil b. Sulaymān’s (d. 150/767) Qur’an exegesis (tafsīr), which is the earliest complete work of this genre still existent. Hereby, I examine his interpretations of Sūrat Yūsuf; the story of the prophet Joseph which contains spiritual, epistemological, and ethic-legal aspects of seeing. Seeing and being seen can manifest as austere experiences of exposure and sensitivity. Muqātil’s keen reflections on the moral gaze and the role of vision in transgressing ethical and religious boundaries, provide us with intriguing thoughts about the potential to transform visual vulnerability into spiritual-moral certainty and the ability to forgive. According to Muqātil, the prophet Yūsuf’s exposure to different forms of vulnerability, his strive towards realizing self-accountability, and his ultimate pious surrender allow him to develop truthful insight and spiritual-emotional resilience.
Transcendent Holiness and the Centrality of Human
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Arik Segev
In this paper, I present the concept of human centrality and its limitations, as well as the limitations of the opposing stance that rejects anthropocentrism and instead sanctifies the environment, mountains, rivers, tribes, nations, children, and so forth. I demonstrate that we tend to attribute unrealistic value to ourselves or other entities in the world due to our need for meaning and our desire for a sacred source from which all value in our world emanates. Without such a source, we are condemned to live absurd lives in a reality devoid of meaning. I argue that one way to find purpose and meaning in the things in our world, without sanctifying them, is to recognize that the source of value for things in our world, including ourselves, does not reside within our world. Our entire world is relative, and nothing within it can possess absolute value. Any identification of absolute value in our world, whether in humans or objects, will be unrealistic, excessive, and exaggerated – a bubble destined to burst. Finding realistic value in our world can result from belief in such a transcendent source and the search for it, acknowledging that it will never be fully revealed to us. One of the primary conditions for embarking on and persisting in this search is to constantly remember that neither the mountain nor the river is the center, but certainly, neither are we. We must remember that there is a center and that the center is transcendent.
