Abstract
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.
Presenters
Ricardo Santos AlexandreAssociated Researcher, CRIA (Centre for Research in Anthropology), Portugal, Portugal
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
2025 Special Focus—Fragile Meanings: Vulnerability in the Study of Religions and Spirituality
KEYWORDS
HUMAN FINITUDE, FRAILTY, ONTOLOGY OF RELIGION, PRE-SUBJECTIVITY, RELIGION'S PRAGMATISM
