NTT Journal for Theology and the Study of Religion - Volume 34, Issue 3, 1980

A Plea for a Philosophy of Religion ‘from within’

The paper makes a case for a philosophy of religion ‘from within’. Five concepts of religion in which the opposition between an approach from within and an approach from without plays a role are distinguished, viz. religion as an independent level of (conceptual) organization, as a language game, as an intentional phenomenon, as inwardness and as a reflex of a divine reality. Any of these contexts can be taken to be relevant for a philosophy of religion ‘from within’ if two criteria are met, namely that the form of the opposition between ‘from within’ and ‘from without’ which it contains can be rationally accounted for and that the approach from within is at least as plausible as the opposed one. The paper discusses the five contexts and concludes that in principle all of them are relevant.