PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION

Mujalin Minmookda
Research Scholar
Department of Islamic Studies

Abstract

Religion, as part of what is often called human culture, is also deeply concerned with
questions of “making sense” and “meaning.” Because of this, the study of religion is likely to
require the same interpretive techniques that use in examining and understanding other
aspects of cultures. Philosophy can consider the methods employed in the study of religion,
evaluate the evidence and arrive at the truth or otherwise of belief statements. Religion and
Philosophy have more or less similar subject matters to deal with. Both of them raise the life
of man and society to a higher and nobler level. Their purpose is peace, harmony, adjustment
and salvation. Philosophy and religion thus deal often with the same ideas, such as the soul,
its origin and density, God and creation. At all events, the relation between religion and
philosophy is most intimate.

The philosophy of religion is the philosophical examination of the central themes and
concepts involved in religious traditions. It is not an organ of religious teaching. Religious
practices, rituals, worship, prayer, etc., need not be undertaken from the standpoint of
philosophy of religion. All these are the activities of religion like the religious teaching, but
in philosophy of religion have to observe the philosophical aspects of all these organs of
religion. Not only the theist, but the atheist and the agnostic can philosophize about religion.
The philosophy of religion is not necessarily a branch of theology, the theory of religious
belief, but a branch of philosophy.1

Introduction

Religion is a term referring to the total context of symbols, images and concepts that
structure human sense of the world. Books, music, paintings, political ideas, marriages,
funerals, school systems, social clubs all are part and parcel of human culture.2 Religion
provided a way of understanding and influencing powerful natural phenomena. Weather and
the seasons, creation, life, death and the afterlife, and the structure of the cosmos were all
subject to religious explanations that invoked controlling gods, or a realm outside the visible
inhabited by deities and mythical creatures. Religion provided a means to communicate with
these gods, through ritual and prayer, and these practices helped to cement social groups,
enforce hierarchies, and provide a deep sense of collective identity.3

Definition of Religion

There is no simple definition of religion that fully articulates all its dimensions.
Encompassing spiritual, personal, and social elements, this phenomenon is however,
ubiquitous, appearing in every culture from prehistory to the modern day. In The Oxford
Dictionary of World Religions, the English word religion is derived from the Latin word
religio, which refer to the fear of God or the gods, and (much later) to the ceremonies and
rites addressed to the gods.4

Émile Durkheim, the French sociologist and philosopher also known as the father of
sociology, defined religion as “a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred
things, that is to say, things set apart and forbidden, beliefs and practices which unite into one
single community called a church, all those who adhere to them”.5 E. B. Tylor’s definition
“religion is a belief in spiritual beings,”6 a definition which may be said to include the
religion of the most primitive of human beings, the polytheism of the ancient world, the faiths
of the Hindu and of the Catholic, the experience of the mystic and of the modern spiritualist.
Matthew Arnold, thinking in particular of the sublime ethics of the Hebrew prophets, defined
religion as “morality touched with emotion.” But as Prof. W. K. Clifford pointed out,
religious facts include immorality touched with emotion. Human sacrifice, sacred,
prostitution, castration, suttee, and persecution these are some of the more deplorable
expressions of the religious instinct.7

In spite of the many definitions of religion that have been offered, it can be concluded
that religion is for establishing a proper and peaceful relationship with oneself, with others
and with the entire universe and with the Divine. However, there is no consensus among
scholars in religious studies on a definition of the subject they study and teach. One of the
difficulties is that religion is so mixed up with other things that it is not a distinctive category
and it varies in different places and at different times. Hence some scholars prefer to talk
about beliefs rather than religion. However, each religion has its own particular
distinctiveness; and it is possible to see signs of it in other belief systems that purport to give
some meaning and purpose to life.

Philosophy of Religion

According to the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy, philosophy of religion is “the

philosophical examination of the central themes and concepts involved in religious
traditions.”8 It is an ancient discipline, being found in the earliest other known manuscripts
concerning philosophy, and relates to many other branches of philosophy, including
metaphysics, epistemology, and ethics. Metaphysics is the enterprise of constructing and
assessing accounts of what there is. Epistemology is the enterprise of constructing and
assessing accounts of what knowledge is and how it can be attained. Ethics is the enterprise
of constructing and assessing accounts of what makes actions right or wrong, what makes
persons good or evil, what possesses intrinsic worth, what sort of life is worth living, and
how these matters are related. Philosophy of religion combines these enterprises in offering
philosophically accessible accounts of religious traditions and assessing those traditions.
Nothing very complex is involved in offering philosophically accessible accounts of religious
traditions; the idea is simply to offer clear and literal expressions of key doctrines.9

Philosophical thought about religion. The term was first used in Germany in the late
th
18 century, for the philosophical investigation of the origin, essence, and content of religion,
and for the critique of its value and truth. Although the question of the relation between
philosophy and religion remain a lively one, more attention has been in recent decades to the
critical role of the subject. Modern philosophy of religion is much concerned with assessing
the reason for religious belief, especially arguments for God’s existence, investigating the
nature of religious language, and considering the philosophical problems raised by religion.
These problems include the coherence of the concept of God, the problem of evil, miracles,
prayer, immortality, and the nature of religious truth.10

Nature and Scope of Philosophy of Religion

1. Philosophy of religion generally committed on reason and rationalism. Aristotle

originally suggested that man is a rational animal and it is rationality that makes him different
from animals.
2. Philosophy of religion is more than affair of head than the heart. Heart is the place for
faith, emotion and felling. But head is for knowledge, understanding and reason.
 3. Philosophy of religion must be based on religious experiences. The faith, felling and
the emotional attachment of religion cannot describe its experience, because the mystical part
of religion is ineffable and inexpressible. Religious experiences can be stated and verified
through symbols, figures and visions. However, the religious experiences of different
religions are included in the study of philosophy of religion.
4. The philosophy of religion is always based on philosophical foundations viz. way of
life and the form of life which refer to prospects, position, knowledge, and creation of one’s
life.
5. Philosophy of religion involves the epistemological and ontological problems of the
world. It observes the nature of religious knowledge and examines the nature of ultimate
reality.
6. It seeks to analyze concepts such as God, liberation, worship, prayer, creation, eternal
life, customs, beliefs. The different theories of God in relation to its problems of existence
and its relation to the world become its scope and ground of observation.
7. In the philosophy of religion the values of man become the object of philosophical
inquiry. The proper study of mankind is man. And the study of man can never be complete
unless it includes the study of religion.
8. Spirituality is the core of philosophy of religion. The awakening of spiritual hunger is
the very beginning of religion. But that does not include the supernatural things, nor the
observation of certain external ceremonials coupled with physical austerities. The spiritual
realization is the aim of philosophy of religion.

Relation between Philosophy and Religion

Philosophy can consider the methods employed in the study of religion, evaluate the
evidence and arrive at the truth or otherwise of belief statements. In the past, philosophy
asked ultimate questions about the purpose in the world, the existence of God, evil, morality,
immortality, and so on. These questions went beyond science and were called metaphysics.
Philosophy and religion are the two modes under which the lunar psyche apprehends the
universe. Philosophy and religion may differ to some extend but in fact they are
complementary to each other. Ultimately both philosophy and religion raise the life of man
and society to a higher and nobler level. A man needs a better philosophy and a better
religion. Philosophy and religion have only one purpose i. e of seeking unity through
diversity. In philosophy the purpose is peace, harmony, adjustment, salvation. Philosophy and
religion thus deal often with the same ideas, such as the soul, its origin and density, God and
creation. At all events, the relation between religion and philosophy is most intimate.11

Philosophy of Religion and Theology

Theology and philosophy are also traditional disciplines central to the study of
religion. Theology is the formal, systematic attempt to give a rational explication of a
religion’s teachings. Theology emerges from within a religion, and is an intellectual
exposition and defense of its doctrines.12 The proper office of theology is not to criticize the
religious experience, out of which it grew, but rather to deal faithfully with that experience,
and report what is implied in it. What is called Speculative Theology, which seeks to raise
religious doctrine to a philosophical form by exercising a free criticism upon them, is better
ranked with religious philosophy.

The significance of theology in relation to religion will be better appreciated if the

process is indicated briefly by which it comes to birth and develops. Theology always
presupposes the existence of a living religion, and religions which have advanced to a certain
stage naturally produce theological doctrines. Theology is anticipated and prepared for by
tendencies which exist in the early forms of religion. The center of religion is the cults, and
the primitive way of explaining the traditional acts done in the cults is to recite myths or
legends about them.13

Conclusion

The core of philosophy of religion, as of philosophy generally, is metaphysics and

epistemology, systematic attempts to give defensible answers to the questions what is there?
And how can we know what there is? At the core of any religious tradition is its own answer
to these questions, construed as and embedded in an answer to the basic problem to which the
tradition addresses itself as the rationale for its existence. In the philosophy of religion the
values of man become the object of philosophical inquiry. The proper study of mankind is
man. And the study of man can never be complete unless it includes the study of religion.
References

1
School of Distance Education, University of Calicut, Philosophy of Religion (Kerala: Reserved, 2011), pp.5-6.
2
Donald E. Miller and Barry Jay Seltser, Writing and Research in Religious Studies (New Jersey: Prentice
Hall, 1992), pp. 4-5.
3
Shulamit Ambalu et al., The Religions Book Big Ideas Simply Explained (New York: Dorling Kindersley
Limited, 2013), p. 12.
4
John Bowker, the Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997). P. XV
5
Émile Durkheim, The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life, trans. Joseph Ward Swain (New York: The
Free Press, 1995), p. 62.
6
E. B. Tylor, Primitive Culture, vol. I (London: John Murray, 1891), p. 424.
7
E. Royston Pike, Encyclopedia of Religion and Religions (London: George Allen & Unwin LTD, 1951), p.
319.
8
“Philosophy of Religion,” https://plato.stanford.edu/entries/philosophy-religion. (accessed March 06, 2017).
9
Keith E. Yandell, Philosophy of Religion (London: Routledge, 1999), pp. 17-18.
10
John Bowker, the Oxford Dictionary of World Religions, 750.
11
School of Distance Education, University of Calicut, Philosophy of Religion, 5-7.
12
Niels C. Nielsen et al., Religions of the World, 2nd ed. (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1988), 16.
13
School of Distance Education, University of Calicut, Philosophy of Religion, 8.