Religion and Culture (possible outline II)
First Lecture:
I. The Problem
1. The rise of the problem out of actual con-
flicts, both in West and East. At the same time the mu-
tual dependence as basis.
[* p. 5]
2. Examples of conflicts: always because of interdependence.
a] Most embracing:
early and medieval and totalitarian Europe; Indian Buddhism;
Japanese persecution of Christianity, state Shintoism and occu-
pation). The secularisation of the state and the indirect influence.)
b] Most conspicuous:
great conflicts in Western history. The undercutting of re-
ligion generally even in the East. The secularisation of truth.
and the usurpation of the concept by natural science , {and its}
{analogies} as pattern.
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[p. 6]
c] Most effective:
tory of the horizontal dimension over the vertical. Means
swallowing an end. The
d] Most fundamental:
techniques of e-ducation and the loss of in-ducation. (indoctrination as substitute)
The
e] Most existential:
The replacement of communal eros by societal purpose. The
{community, family, sex.} all social relations (formerly the divine law)
f] Most revealing:
or quasi-religious suppression of artistic antonomy. The
larisation
guity of recent art: antireligious and truly religious.
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II. The Concepts
1. Are the conflicts essential and therefore un-
avoidable, or are they consequences of existential dis-
tortions, both of religion and culture, and therefore un-
necessary? – The answer requests a definition of the
two concepts.
a]
of man's spirit, receiving transformation and reacting
transformation: Language, science, art and technical, person-
forming, society-forming reaction. – In each act subject-matter,
cultural form and style. – The freedom of subject-matter, the
obediance to the form, the growth of the style. – Interference
destroys.
b]
spirit; transcending his finite being towards the in-
finite, his conditioned being towards the unconditional. But this
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movement is the answer to the opposite movement, the
being grasped by something unconditional, ultimate. And
both movements united:
the core of what
what ordinarily is called religion, certain symbols etc. The
larger and the narrower concept of religion. All conflicts
are based on the narrower concept of religion, because re-
ligion becomes through its expressions itself a part of
culture; and this particular culture can conflict
with the other parts of culture. But religion in the larger
sense cannot, because it is in all culture. –
2. The double task, therefore, is to show that
in every culture there is the religious dimension, an open or hidden
ral form {and} which is not ultimate but preliminary like every
culture. This guaranties the autonomy of the cultural form and the
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presence of the religious dimension.
3*. As examples I want to give:
a]
b] III Religion and Science
1. The meaning of science {and the scientific [...] task}
2. The {indiv} particular sciences.
a] natural sciences
b] doctrine of man and psychology
c] historical sciences
d] philosophy.
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IV. Religion and technical culture.
1. The liberating power of technical culture.
2. Its enslaving power.
3. Its dehumanizing power.