Faith and Place: An Essay in Embodied Religious Epistemology

by Mark R. Wynn

Overview

Faith and Place takes knowledge of place as a basis for thinking about the relationship between religious belief and our embodied life.

Recent epistemology of religion has appealed to various secular analogues for religious belief - especially analogues drawn from sense perception and scientific theory construction. These approaches tend to overlook the close connection between religious belief and our moral, aesthetic and otherwise engaged relationship to the material world. By taking knowledge of place as a starting point for religious epistemology, Mark Wynn aims to throw into clearer focus the embodied, action-orienting, perception-structuring, and affect-infused character of religious understanding.

This innovative study understands the religious significance of a site in terms of i. its capacity to stand for some encompassing truth about human life; ii. its conservation of historical meanings, where these meanings make a practical claim upon those located at the place at later times; and iii. its directing of the believer's attention to a sacred meaning, through enacted appropriation of the site.

Wynn proposes that the notion of 'God' functions like the notion of a 'genius loci', where the relevant locus is the sum of material reality. He argues that knowledge of God consists in part in a storied and sensuous appreciation of the significance of particular places.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780199560387
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Publication date:	06/22/2009
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	280
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.50(h) x 1.10(d)

Table of Contents

1. The differentiated religious significance of space and some secular analogues for religious knowledge2. Friendship and relationship to place3. The supra-individuality of God and place4. The grounding of human agency and identity in God and place5. Knowledge of place6. Pilgrimage and the differentiated religious significance of space7. The religious significance of some built and natural environments8. Knowledge of place and the aesthetic dimension of religious understanding9. Concluding thoughts

Editorial Reviews

"An excellent book and an encouraging sign of alternative trajetories in philosophy of religion. ...Highly recommended." —Choice

From the Publisher