The proliferation of sects has made in Brazil and Latin America a space for a renewal of religious foundations. Despite the secularity of modern democracy, much of society retains a marked religious symbolism. With the advancement of neo-Pentecostalism, the speeches of populist parties and groups managed to raise awareness in important sectors of society. These fundamentalist movements bring religion closes to politics and economics. Not infrequently, this staggering fundamentalism takes on a belligerent character. On de one hand, the text conducts (...) a speculative-philosophical analysis around the pathological effects of this discourse and, on the other it tries to highlight the proposal for a healthy coexistence. It is not a question of conceptualizing, but of highlighting how the effects of a step-by-step fundamentalism generate social anomalies. Therefore, in addition to the diagnosis, the study points out the alternative of a philosophy of life. In this sense, the notion of representative democracy offers healthy skyline to reconnect coexistence in a pluralistic world. (shrink)

The question addressed in this article is to what extent a destructed concept of religion can be said to characterize the philosophical method of Martin Heidegger. In order to approach this question, we first characterize his method as “Vollzug der Fraglichkeit”: philosophy in its deepest sense does not mean to give answers to questions but to ask questions. According to Heidegger, the execution of questioning consists in the “transforming repetition” of the leading question of philosophy in order to ask the (...) basic question of philosophy. In the second part of the article, we reflect on the “religious” character of Heidegger’s method of questioning. The reflection makes use of different etymological derivations of the word ‘Religion’: relegere, re-eligere, religare, relinquere. In the third part of the article, we discuss what Heidegger’s “religious” method of philosophy means for present questions concerning religion. To that end, we finish with a confrontation between Heidegger and Derrida with respect to the “religious” method of philosophy. (shrink)

In this essay I explore the encounter between religion and music via ideas taken from Olivier Messiaen. I first present his categorization of music and the concepts of sound-colour and dazzlement as the 'directional meaning' of music. I then show how Messiaen relates this to the phenomena of natural resonance and afterimages, and based on this, I present-via Goethe and Rudolf Steiner-the notion of an etheric, evanescent or incorporeal matter. This understanding and experience of matter is then brought to bear (...) on music. In this context the notion of a 'religious experience' can be understood as both referring to content and sentiment related to a religious belief, and, in a more general sense of 'religare' (to bind), as a deeper bond with the material-temporal flow of nature. This gives way to a Johannine vision of Messiaen's musical thinking where the creative-sounding Logos or 'word' is both spirit and matter, and where music may represent a potential awakening to this reality. (shrink)

The double etymology of religio found in Antiquity has generated much discussion. Between the proposition of Cicero and that of Lactantius, we find the ambivalent position of Augustine. The modern analysis of these passages, which is influenced by criteria of linguistics, was centered around the true origin of the word and its true meaning. However, Augustine is neither here nor there. This article uses a rhetorical analysis of these etymologies and considers them as proof in the argumentation. This approach allows (...) identifying the reasons that urge Augustine to choose one or the other according to the addressee. When he addressed the non-Christians, Augustine chose the etymology of Cicero (relegere) and, when he dealt with the controversies with the Manicheans, he chose the etymology based on religare. (shrink)

The epistemological and ontological claims of social/ist ecofeminist thought (a combination of social and socialist ecofeminism) are moving away from the dichotomy between idealism and materialism (both forms of colonial thinking about humans and the rest of the natural world). The social/ist ecofeminists have constructed a postfoundational “eco-ontology” of nature-cultures (Haraway) in which the ideal and the material are co-agents in the continuing process of creation. Given that contemporary public discourse in the United States on the topic of “environmental issues” (...) is still heavily shaped by Christian theology and metaphors, changing or challenging this discourse must also mean speaking theologically. Based upon an understanding of social/ist ecofeminist “eco-ontology,” a new understanding of God (ideal) and Creation (material) can be constructed which suggests that God is a human horizon that helps reconnect (religion/religare) Christian humans with the rest of the natural world and with the manyhuman “others” of different religious traditions. In this construction, Carolyn Merchant’s understanding of humans as “partners” with nature and Catherine Keller’s postcolonial critique of the Christian doctrine of creation out of nothing are the most helpful. (shrink)

Este artigo propõe uma leitura da relação entre a cidade, a morte e algumas das religiões que presidiram ou consolidaram a formação das cidades. Tendo por objetivo investigar paradigmas que nortearam a criação e habitabilidade de cidades em diferentes lugares e períodos históricos, pressupõe que uma reflexão sobre esses paradigmas, ainda que breve, fornecerá algum subsídio para uma leitura da cidade contemporânea e da crise que atravessa. Nesse intuito, propõe o cotejamento de textos históricos e míticos, atribuindo igual valor ao (...) que se tem registrado sobre a gênese das cidades, à luz dos estudos culturais. Destacam-se a presença da morte e a maneira como propiciou o desejo de união dos grupos. Nesse contexto, diferentes religiões incidiram como laço e lastro do espaço público, condição necessária para a manutenção da ética. Exerceram seu papel de religar vivos e mortos, a realidade natural e a sobrenatural, mesmo quando manipuladas em busca de poder. Isso se dá, de diferentes maneiras, até o século XIX, quando cedem lugar a outras instituições e novos pressupostos. No século XXI, assistimos a uma crise das cidades, o que, se bem valiado, pode propiciar a construção de outros paradigmas, em consonância com as aspirações contemporâneas. Palavras-chave: Cidade; Morte; Religião. ABSTRACT This article presents a reading of the relation between the city, death and some of the religions that presided over or consolidated the development of cities. Aiming at investigating the paradigms that oriented the creation and viability of cities in various places and historical periods, it assumes that a reflection on those paradigms, however brief, can provide subsidies for a reading of the contemporary city and the crisis it is facing. In that sense, it focuses on historical and mythical texts, attributing equal value to what is recorded concerning the genesis of cities, in the light of cultural studies. Emphasis is given to the presence of death and the way it propitiated an urge for union in groups. In that context, different religions were the bonds and the reservoir of public space, a necessary condition to preserve ethics. They played the role of re-connecting the living and the dead, natural and supernatural reality, even when they were manipulated in the search for power. This happened, in different ways, until the 19th century, when new institutions and presuppositions emerged. In the 21st century, we witness a crisis in the cities, which, if properly assessed, may lead to the construction of other paradigms, in harmony with contemporary expectations. Key words: City; Death; Religion. (shrink)

Politics is on the one hand an attempt to implement certain good, a desire for achieving agreed objectives, on the other hand – as Max Weber says – a simultaneous a#empt to avoid a particular evil. If in defining the notion of politics there are references to good and evil, purpose and desire, it has to include the non-political spheres – culture, axiology, religion. Mark Lilla argues that for decades we have been aware of the great and final separation that (...) has taken place in Western Europe between political and religious life. This awareness implies a conviction, which is obligatory today in most countries and societies, that to separate politics from religion is a great achievement. For many thinkers and politicians this is an undisputed success from which the West learns to benefit while preparing other regions of the world for such separation. Therefore it seems that modern politics should be free from religious inspiration and temptation. On the other hand, many sociologists and political scientists show the vitality of religious attitudes, proving that in its deepest essence religion is an expression of human behaviour. Each person and each community always has an element of irreducibility which is an internal defence against reducing man to “here and now”, restricting his world to what is useful and usable. We experience that in man there is a natural opening to what is transcendent. Thus, if man is ever to achieve individual and social reconciliation with himself, he will always look for rational and moral meanings. This situation creates a platform for the emergence of a completely new a#itude in society and politics – to seek and pursue spirituality in a world without religion. Increasingly, the understanding of religion reveals itself in a wide etymological sense, sociological and ethnological: religare – “to connect”, “to bind”, “to build community ties”. Religion so understood would be a great solution to the dilemma of separation – the adoption of religion (bonds) without the doctrine, while ensuring social cohesion, strengthening the feeling of being together, maintaining a spiritual connection. Many thinkers are convinced that we cannot base social life only on fear, discipline and economy; we need a deeper and stronger foundations for Community Cohesion. But is such a project possible at all? Is politics becoming a place for the formation of relationships, education and conservation of values, a narrative space which tells citizens what is good and right and what is wrong and alien? Can it replace religion in its deepest essence – in its intimate sense of an exploration and discovery of transcendence? Will it not become a caricature of religion, and a caricature of politics, and ultimately a trap for freedom? (shrink)

El articulo argumenta sobre la necesidad de contar convisiones interdisciplinarias e integradoras para representar una organización social tan compleja como es la universidad, a partir de su situación actual de fragmentación. Para el autor, la Unam el referente más notorio de esta necesidad. Propone además religar los distintos saberes a fin de crear una inteligencia descentralizada que viabilice el diseño y construcción de una nueva universidad, a partir de un texto abordado desde la perplejidad, la duda y el reto de (...) la aventura, aspirando a inspirar con él una sinergia alrededor de lo que pudiera parecer una utopía. (shrink)