Provides an introduction and overview to the Phenomenology of Religion through describing, analysing and evaluating the ideas of key thinkers in the phenomenology of religion. This book also examines the thinking of scholars within the Dutch, British and North American 'schools' of religious phenomenology.

In this thoroughly revised edition, James Cox provides an easily accessible introduction to the phenomenology of religion, which he contends continues as a foundational method for the academic study of religion in the twenty-first century. After dealing with the problematic issue of defining religion, he describes the historical background to phenomenology by tracing its roots to developments in philosophy and the social sciences in the early twentieth century. The phenomenological method is then outlined as a step-by-step process, which includes a survey of the important classifications of religious behaviour. The author concludes with a discussion of the place of the phenomenology of religion in the current academic climate and argues that it can be aligned with the growing scholarly interest in the cognitive science of religion.

“Scrupulously prepared and eminently readable,” this volume presents Heidegger’s most important lectures on religion from 1920–21 (Choice). In the early 1920s, Martin Heidegger delivered his famous lecture course, Introduction to the Phenomenology of Religion, at the University of Freiburg. He also prepared notes for a course on The Philosophical Foundations of Medieval Mysticism that was never delivered. Though he never prepared this material for publication, it represents a significant evolution in his philosophical perspective. Heidegger’s engagements with Aristotle, Neoplatonism, St. Paul, Augustine, and Martin Luther give readers a sense of what phenomenology would come to mean in the mature expression of his thought. Heidegger reveals an impressive display of theological knowledge, protecting Christian life experience from Greek philosophy and defending Paul against Nietzsche.

A new 2024 translation of Martin Heidegger's early work "Introduction to the Phenomenology of Religion'' (original German title "Einleitung in Die Phanomenologie der Religion"), originally published in 1921. This edition contains a new afterword by the Translator, a timeline of Heidegger's life and works, a philosophic index of core Heideggerian concepts and a guide for terminology across 19th and 20th century Existentialists. This translation is designed for readability and accessibility to Heidegger's enigmatic and dense philosophy. Complex and specific philosophic terms are translated as literally as possible and academic footnotes have been removed to ensure easy reading. In the winter semester of 1920/21 at the University of Freiburg, Heidegger delivered a lecture titled "Introduction to the Phenomenology of Religion." Although the original lecture manuscript is lost, five sets of notes from students (Oskar Becker, Helene Weiß, Franz-Josef Brecht, and others) have allowed for a partial reconstruction of the lecture. The notes reveal that Heidegger's lecture can be divided into two distinct parts, separated by a hiatus on November 30, 1920, due to unspecified objections. Oskar Becker's notes, in particular, indicate the interruption and the shift from a "Methodical Introduction" to a "Phenomenological Explication of Concrete Religious Phenomena." This work is largely Exegetical as he examines Biblical passages utilizing a range of texts, utilizing a range of translations and tracing the slight differences including Erasmus' Novum Testamentum Graece cum apparatu critico ex editionibus et libris used by Melanchthon. Heidegger uses his distinctive phenomenological methodology to deconstruct religious experience, analyzing its fundamental elements and its significance for human existence. He ventures beyond traditional theological inquiry, integrating phenomenological, psychological, and historical dimensions to explore the nature of religion. Heidegger's approach is not a cataloguing of religious beliefs or practices, but rather an in-depth examination of the nature of religious experience, its impact on human consciousness, and its existential significance. This work is emblematic of Heidegger's broader philosophical project, which seeks to understand the fundamental nature of Being, Dasein, and Existence through the examination of various human experiences, including religion. The influence of Kierkegaard is palpable in this work in his rejection of the Positivist English Empiricist line of thought.

Phenomenology was one of the twentieth century’s major philosophical movements, and it continues to be a vibrant and widely studied subject today with relevance beyond philosophy in areas such as medicine and cognitive sciences. The Routledge Handbook of Phenomenology and Phenomenological Philosophy is an outstanding guide to this important and fascinating topic. Its focus on phenomenology’s historical and systematic dimensions makes it a unique and valuable reference source. Moreover, its innovative approach includes entries that don’t simply reflect the state-of-the-art but in many cases advance it. Comprising seventy-five chapters by a team of international contributors, the Handbook offers unparalleled coverage and discussion of the subject, and is divided into five clear parts: • Phenomenology and the history of philosophy • Issues and concepts in phenomenology • Major figures in phenomenology • Intersections • Phenomenology in the world. Essential reading for students and researchers in philosophy studying phenomenology, The Routledge Handbook of Phenomenology and Phenomenological Philosophy is also suitable for those in related disciplines such as psychology, religion, literature, sociology and anthropology.

Religion has had notable and renewed prominence in contemporary public and political life. Religious questions have also been freshly examined in philosophy and theology, the natural sciences, the social sciences, psychology, phenomenology, politics and the arts. These fields reflect complex, multi-disciplinary understandings of religion, some hostile, some accommodating. For religious education this has all contributed to its own international renaissance. Religious education, in ensuring it is contemporary, shares with these fields the same criticality, the same distance between the study of religion and the religious life. Yet what are the grounds of this modern religious education? Through a systematic historical and contemporary cross-disciplinary analysis, answering this question is the ambitious task of the book. Chapters include: philosophy, theology and religious education the natural sciences and religious education the social sciences and religious education psychology, spirituality and religious education phenomenology and religious education the politics of religious education the aesthetics of religious education. The central problem of all modern religious education remains this: what are the grounds of religious education when religious education is no longer grounded in the religious life, in the life of the holy? Although this primarily appears to be an epistemological problem, it soon becomes a moral and existential one. The book will be of key interest to teachers, theorists and researchers working in religious education.

George Santayana (1862-1952) of Spanish descent, and generally claimed to be in the canon of American philosophers, was substantially influenced by his Roman Catholic origins in his philosophical disposition toward the value of tradition, religious symbols and dogma. His philosophical project sustained a respectful attitude toward the spiritual value of orthodox religion while the thrust of his philosophy was naturalistic and materialistic throughout. There is a perception by some scholars that Santayana's philosophy evolved from a humanistic perspective to a more spiritual one in his later years. It is the position of this thesis that his philosophy, at the "core" depicting a harmonious striving toward individual happiness, remained essentially consistent from his earliest publication of Interpretations of Poetry and Religion and The Life of Reason through his later works of Scepticism and Animal Faith, Realms of Being, Dominations and Powers and The Idea of Christ in the Gospels. Santayana's philosophical approach is both phenomenological and social constructionist in its methodology, significantly preempting the methodology of social constructionist theology and a post-modern interpretation of religion. His idiosyncratic phenomenological approach is compared with a "benchmark" methodology of Edmund Husserl, the generally accepted founder of the phenomenological method. There are also important similarities between Santayana's phenomenological approach and those of Charles Sanders Peirce and Alfred North Whitehead. The basis for the comparison of the phenomenological methodology of Santayana and Husserl is their mutually similar fundamental theory of intuited essence. Santayana's contribution to religious studies is not only philosophical but also theological where he has utilized Christian theological language in transposing and interpolating his philosophy of religion to the Christian drama of the salvational Christ. Santayana's essay "Ultimate Religion" reflects his perspective of a disillusioned but still spiritual vision incorporating the piety, discipline, and spirituality; of a life of reason. Within the framework of this "model" Santayana's philosophy of religion is developed and explored. Finally, the relevance of Santayana's philosophy of religion to contemporary religious studies and selected religious issues is addressed with a delineation and discussion of some important aspects of his philosophical vision.

Volume seven of a ten volume set which provides full and detailed coverage of all aspects of philosophy, including information on how philosophy is practiced in different countries, who the most influential philosophers were, and what the basic concepts are.