Review: Primordial Tradition or Postmodern Hermeneutics? A Review Essay on"Transcendence and the Sacred" and "Knowledge and the Sacred, the Gifford Lectures, 1981"Author(s): Thomas DeanSource:
Philosophy East and West,
Vol. 34, No. 2 (Apr., 1984), pp. 211-226Published by:
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Feature BookReview
Thomas DeanPrimordialtraditionorpostmodernhermeneutics?AreviewessayonAlanM. Olson andLeroyS.Rouner, ed.,Transcendence ndthe Sacred(NotreDame,Indiana,andLondon:Universityof Notre DamePress,1981),andSeyyedHosseinNasr,Knowledgeand theSacred,TheGiffordLectures,1981(NewYork:Crossroad,1981).ThevolumeofessayseditedbyOlsonandRouner,selected from the annualseries of lecturessponsoredbythe BostonUniversityInstitute forPhilosophyandReligion,has twogoals.Itattempts,first,todefineandgive examplesofanapproachtophilosophyofreligionthatis cross-cultural.AsOlsonsaysin hisintroduction,theterm"cross-cultural"refers to "a self-consciousattempttodisavowanyand allprivilegedpositionsandperspectives,whethercultural,confessional,ideological,ormethodological"(p.2).Second,bydrawingon"thevariousmeaningsoftranscendenceand the sacred in multi-culturalcontexts,"itaddresses itselftoa concernsharedbyall thecontributors,"that if thesymbolictermstranscendenceand the sacrednolongerhave 'cashvalue',... then humanexistenceis much less than wehaveunderstoodit to betraditionally"(p.2).The volume isorganizedinthreeparts.Thefirst ismethodologicalandfeatures threeessays offering quitedifferentapproachesto cross-culturalphilo-sophyofreligionandits contributionto a renewed senseoftranscendenceandthe sacred.HustonSmithproposesto reconnectthemystical/PlatonictraditionofWesternphilosophy,viewed as itself areligion,tothe]dnastrandofIndian(primarilyVedantic)thought.PeterSlater,drawingonearly ChristianityandBuddhism,suggeststhat we redefine transcendenceas aprocessof transforma-tion rather than ametaphysicalentityor state ofbeing.EdithWyschograd,drawingon the Frenchphilosopher, JacquesDerrida,emphasizesthe contextualdetermination ofallmodels of transcendence andthesacredbythe civilizationalperspectivesthat"constitute"them.Thesecondpart presentsfourspecificviewsoftranscendence,mostlydrawnfromAsiantraditions.Twoessaysareapologeticin nature: J. G.Arapura arguesforthesuperiorityanduniversalapplicabilityofthe Brahmanic model of trans-cendence inthe Vedantictradition,while RobertThurman,inopposition, arguesfor thesuperiorityof aMahayana"Emptiness"model in "the arena of world-circlephilosophy."The other twoessaysarehistorical-descriptive:Robert Leeanalyzesthesociologicalfunctionof differentmodels oftranscendence in theKamakuraperiodofJapaneseBuddhism,while Pheme PerkinsexplainswhyGnostic modelsof transcendenceprovedunable to meet the criticismsofthin-kerslike Plotinus.
Thomas DeanisintheDepartmentofReligion,TempleUniversity,Philadelphia,Pennsylvania.REVIEWDITOR'SOTE:he secondof the two booksreviewedhereinwasalsoreviewedbyHustonSmithin theJanuary1984 issueof thejournal.Readerswillseethat thescope,thrust,and conclusionsof the reviews differsubstantively,andIhopethatthe readerstherefore,will,concurin the decisiontopublishboth ofthem in the interestsofpromotingscholarlydialogue.
PhilosophyEastandWest34,no. 2(April,1984).
©
bytheUniversityof HawaiiPress. Allrightsreserved.
212 Feature BookReviewThe finalpartconsistsoffouressaysondifferentmodes of transcendence("Will,Mind,andPraxis")andrefersmostlyto Western traditions.LeroyRouner confrontsthedualistmodeloftranscendencein CalvinwithWilliamJames'attemptto breakthroughdualismbyappealingdirectlytoreligiousexperience.J.N.Findlay,followingHustonSmith,arguesfor thesuperiorityof"theHindu-Buddhist-Pythagorean" cosmologyoveragainstboth the other-worldlyeschatologiesof the Judaic-Christian-Islamictraditions and theirthis-worldlycounterpartin Marxism.Hans-GeorgGadamerreportson "the reli-giousdimension"inHeidegger'swork,bothearly(wheretime isexperiencedas"thatwhich comes" asin St.Paul)and later(wherehe finds in Nietzsche andHolderlinresourcesfor a"thinkingonBeing"that is nolongeronto-theo-logical).FrederickLawrence looks to Johannes Metz for apoliticalmodeloftranscendenceas"interruption"andcritiqueof thesecularideologies,liberalandMarxist,which have dominatedourscientific,technological,andprogress-worshippingera.Asthisbriefoverviewperhapsalreadysuggests,several difficultiesemergewhen this volume ismeasuredbythe initial definition and statementofgoalsprovidedbyOlson.First,the individual contributorsforthe mostpartdo notseeminterested indoingcross-culturalphilosophyofreligionthewayOlsondefines it. Thereappearstobe littledialogue(asopposedtopolemicorapol-ogetic argument)eitherwithinoramongthe variousessays.The two historicalpiecesbyLeeand Perkinsdoreflectamethodologysensitivetocross-culturalissues,buttheyarenotessaysinphilosophyofreligion.Theessays bySlaterandWyschogradmoreclearlysuggesta methodappropriateto cross-culturalstudies,butonlySlater's reflectstheoutcomeof that"fusionofhorizons"(Gadamer)wemight expectfromgenuinelycross-culturalconversation.(InSlater'scase,thisisseenin hisveryfruitfulandoriginaluseof the term"non-dualism" toexpressthe natureof thetranscendingprocess.)Second,thoughinhisintroductionOlson isaware of the chief issuesraisedbytheseessaysandfrequentlyindicateswherehe standson mostofthem,he doesnotpresentthese issues inasystematicorevenin asummarizingway.The readerisleft tofigureoutwhetherthe volumeas awholeexemplifiesthephenomenonofcross-culturalphilosophyofreligionevenif the individualessaysdonot,and,ifso,what its overall contributionis to thespiritualproblematicitaddresses.Here two observationsmaybe made. Thereis asurprisingamountofagree-mentamongthe contributorson severalpoints:they agreethatthe contem-poraryworld has lost itssenseoftranscendenceandthesacred,andthattheblame rests on thescientific-technologicalcharacterof modernWestern civiliza-tion.Further,they agreethatanysolutionmustrecognizethatknowledgeofthesacred,unlikeknowledgeofthingssecular,isatoncecognitiveand transforma-tive.Finally,theyagreethatthemetaphysicalresourcesofWesternreligiousthought,astraditionallyunderstood,areinadequateforrecoveringthe trans-cendent,since thistraditionis itselfpartly responsibleforourcontemporary
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