[Buddha-l] secular religion

[Erik Hoogcarspel]

I did some research after Richards flat denial of my remark about secular religions.
 Gentile borrowed it from Eric Voegelin or maybe Raymond Aron. The first used the term 'political religions', the last 'secular religions' to describe political movements like nazism that brought about almost religious feelings in people. Voegelin admitted that one had to stretch the concept of religion so far that it would encompass many phenomena which usually are considered to have nothing to do with religion. What you need is a functional definition of religion, which defines religion as behaviour around objects of ultimate concern. The term 'secular religion' is an oxymoron indeed from the point of view of a substantial, phenomenological or essential definition, which takes not behaviour but meaning to be the central issue.

Erik


www.xs4all.nl/~jehms
weblog http://www.volkskrantblog.nl/pub/blogs/blog.php?uid=2950