Philosophy as Religion

Abstract

In this work we will be mainly occupied with the philosophy of religion in the Western tradition and only incidentally with Eastern thought. This is, first, for the sake of convenience, for the study of Eastern religions would take us too far afield; and second, because the philosophy of religion is a peculiar creation of Western thought and occurs, in a pure form at least, only within that tradition. There are, no doubt, some Eastern thinkers — Sankara and Ramanuja, for example — who are concerned to speculate about religious themes in a quasi-philosophical fashion; but it remains true that in Eastern thought generally philosophy is never really disengaged from religion in the explicit way in which it has been separated out within the Western tradition. Some may see this lack of differentiation as an advantage and as a mercy to be grateful for, while at the same time judging the distinction between philosophy and religion that began with the Greeks, and that has persisted in Western thought ever since, as some kind of unfortunate original sin or ‘fall’. However, unless philosophy or ‘pure reason’ is accorded some kind of autonomy or independence, then there cannot be a philosophy of religion.