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Do We Need Religion?: On the Experience of Self-transcendence
Hans Joas
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Description for Do We Need Religion?: On the Experience of Self-transcendence
Hardback. .
The old assumption that modernization leads to secularization is outdated. Yet the certainty that religion is an anthropological universal that can only be suppressed by governments is also dead. Thus it is now a favorable moment for a new perspective on religion. This book takes human experiences of self-transcendence as its point of departure. Religious faith is seen as an attempt to articulate and interpret such experiences. Faith then is neither useful nor a symptom of weakness or misery, but an opening up of ways of experience. This book develops this basic idea, contrasts it with the thinking of some ... Read more
The old assumption that modernization leads to secularization is outdated. Yet the certainty that religion is an anthropological universal that can only be suppressed by governments is also dead. Thus it is now a favorable moment for a new perspective on religion. This book takes human experiences of self-transcendence as its point of departure. Religious faith is seen as an attempt to articulate and interpret such experiences. Faith then is neither useful nor a symptom of weakness or misery, but an opening up of ways of experience. This book develops this basic idea, contrasts it with the thinking of some ... Read more
Product Details
Publisher
Taylor & Francis Ltd
Format
Hardback
Publication date
2007
Condition
New
Number of Pages
164
Place of Publication
London, United Kingdom
ISBN
9781594514388
SKU
V9781594514388
Shipping Time
Usually ships in 4 to 8 working days
Ref
99-1
About Hans Joas
Hans Joas is Professor of Sociology at the University of Chicago, where he belongs to the influential Committee on Social Thought. He is also director of the Max Weber Center for Advanced Cultural and Social Studies in Erfurt, Germany. Among his recent English books are The Genesis of Values (University of Chicago Press 2000) and Social Theory (with W. Knoebl, ... Read more
Reviews for Do We Need Religion?: On the Experience of Self-transcendence
At a time when public discussion of religion seems polarized between religious fundamentalists and hard secularists, who in their own way are equally fundamentalist, it is refreshing to have a book that reminds us that religion is not a kind of primitive and false scientific theory, but a kind of experience, the experience of self-transcendence. Joas's reflections on religious ... Read more