Constructing the Religious "Other"

Wolters, Gereon

Constructing the Religious "Other"

Files

Wolters_2-1vcdx6dub88ei8.pdf(1.15 MB)

Date

2020

Publication type

Contribution to a collection

Publication status

Published

Published in

Human Diversity in Context / Ferrini, Cinzia (ed.). - Triest : EUT Edizioni Università di Trieste, 2020. - pp. 101-120. - ISBN 9788855111126

Abstract

As Aristotle already pointed out, Homo sapiens is a social animal. ‘Social’ means that every individual belongs to a group of people or to various such groups. Examples are families, tribes, nations. How are such groups kept together? In my essay, I will show that religion is a primary means of building up the cohesion of social groups, and a first rate component of their exclusive identity, thus involving processes of ‘othering’. Constructing religious ‘otherness’ provides the negative complement of religious identity, and contributes greatly to its consolidation. This is mostly shown with examples from the holy texts of Judaism, Christianity and Islam. In the first section I present some general remarks on group identity. In the next three sections I offer a brief account of the creation or construction of the ‘other’ in the Sacred Scriptures of the three great monotheistic religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. I conclude by advancing some general considerations about the role of violence in constructing the religious ‘other’.

Subject (DDC)

100 Philosophy

Keywords

social identity, othering, religion, religious violence, holy scriptures

Cite This

ISO 690

WOLTERS, Gereon, 2020. Constructing the Religious "Other". In: FERRINI, Cinzia, ed.. Human Diversity in Context. Triest:EUT Edizioni Università di Trieste, pp. 101-120. ISBN 9788855111126

BibTex

@incollection{Wolters2020Const-49343,
  year={2020},
  title={Constructing the Religious "Other"},
  url={http://hdl.handle.net/10077/30266},
  isbn={9788855111126},
  publisher={EUT Edizioni Università di Trieste},
  address={Triest},
  booktitle={Human Diversity in Context},
  pages={101--120},
  editor={Ferrini, Cinzia},
  author={Wolters, Gereon}
}

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URL of original publication

http://hdl.handle.net/10077/30266

Test date of URL

2020-04-29

Bibliography of Konstanz

Yes