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Heathen in His Blindness.Indb CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS XI INTRODUCTION 1 I. SOME PUZZLES AND PROBLEMS 10 1.1. On Some Strange Sentiments 11 1.2. About Mystery And Mystifications 18 II. “NOT BY ONE AVENUE ONLY …” 31 2.1. On The Cobbled Streets Of Pagan Rome… 31 2.1.1. Romans And Their ‘Religio’ 39 2.1.2. From Demonstratio Evangelica… 44 2.1.3. …to Praeparatio Evangelica 47 2.2 ...en Route To De Civitate Dei 54 2.2.1. “Will The True Pagan Stand Up, Please?” 56 2.2.2. From Augustine To Calvin And Beyond 60 III. THE WHORE OF BABYLON AND OTHER REVELATIONS 65 3.1. A Modern Photo Album 66 3.1.1. What Is ‘Modern’ About Sexual Liberation? 71 3.1.2. The Heathens And Their Irreligion 76 3.1.3. Snapshots Superimposed 78 3.2. All Roads Lead To Rome 79 3.2.1. Some Four Reference Points 80 3.2.2. On The Eve Of A Reasonable Age 83 3.3. “What Has Paris To Do With Jerusalem?” 89 3.3.1. On The Banks Of The Seine 91 3.3.2. About The Pagans And The Primitives 95 IV. MADE IN PARIS, LONDON, AND HEIDELBERG 103 4.1. Evangelical Quandaries 103 4.1.1. A Conceptual Quandary 104 4.1.2. A Social Quandary 107 4.2. The Oriental Renaissance 119 4.2.1. ‘Vile Hindus’? The Other Face Of The Coin 122 4.2.2. Buddha, The Saviour Of People 129 4.3. A Conceptual Interregnum 138 V. REQUIEM FOR A THEME 143 5.1. A Methodological Consideration 144 5.2. The Metaphysical Speculations 154 5.2.1. Angst, Nature And Man 155 5.2.2. Fear Theory And Fear From Theories 161 5.3. The Psychological Speculations 165 5.4. On Explaining Religion 171 viii CONTENTS... viii VI. SHALL THE TWAIN EVER MEET?” 174 6.1. A New Development And Some New Concerns 175 6.1.1. Development On Two Levels 175 6.1.2. Grouping The Concerns 178 6.2. A Pagan Prosecution Of Christianity 180 6.3. A Christian Persecution Of Paganism 185 6.3.1. Delineating Some Protestant Themes 186 6.3.2. Tracing The Themes Further 201 6.4. “J’Accuse” 204 VII. “GUILTY AS CHARGED, MY LORDS AND LADIES?” 206 7.1. The Prosecution’s Case 207 7.1.1. “Tell Me, Sonadanda, Who Is A Brahmin?” 207 7.1.2. “Tell Me Again, Brother Jacob, Who Is Religious?” 219 7.1.3. “Who Is Religious, Dear Reader, Who Secular?” 221 7.2. “The Prosecution Rests, M’lords ...” 227 7.2.1. Raising A Problem 228 7.2.2. A Problem Illumined 231 7.2.3. “What Say You, The Jury, Guilty Or Not Guilty?” 235 7.3. About One Half Of An Argument 238 VIII. A HUMAN TRAGEDY OR THE DIVINE RETRIBUTION? 243 8.1. Because The Story Must Go On 245 8.1.1. What Is The Dispute About? 247 8.1.2. …de Gustibus Non Disputandum Est 252 8.1.3. Interminable Disputations 255 8.1.4. Classificatory Problems 258 8.1.5. A Confusion Of Issues 263 8.1.6. On The Nature Of A Meta-problem 267 8.2. Switching The Tracks 270 8.2.1. “Religion Is… 271 8.2.2. …what Christianity, Islam, And Judaism Are” 274 8.2.3. Linguistic Constraints Elaborated 277 8.3. “Thou Shalt Resist Temptation …” 279 8.3.1. Misunderstandings And Temptations 279 8.3.2. From A Simple Answer To A Complex Query 282 IX. BLESSED ARE THOSE WHO SEEK…” 289 9.1. The Epistemology Of Intolerance 290 9.1.1. Historical Constraints Elaborated 292 9.1.2. Religion And Doctrine 295 9.2. “Our Father, Which Art In Heaven” 298 9.2.1. No Gods, But Lord God Alone 300 9.2.2. Seek, And Ye Shall Find 304 9.3. “Thy Kingdom Come” 307 9.3.1. “When The Son Of Man Cometh… 308 9.3.2. …will He Find Faith On Earth?” 310 9.3.3. “It Is Absurd, Therefore I Believe…” 313 9.3.4. Ye Shall Be As Children 316 CONTENTS ix 9.4. On Religious Experience 318 9.4.1. Atheistic Religiosity 320 9.4.2. Controversies Illumined 324 9.5. “Hallowed Be Thy Name” 326 9.5.1. “The Heathen In His Blindness… 326 9.5.2. …bows Down To Wood And Stone” 331 X. “IMAGINE, THERE IS NO RELIGION…” 339 10.1 On The Very Idea Of A Worldview 340 10.1.1. A First Line Of Defence 340 10.1.2. A Second Line Of Defence 345 10.1.3. Religion And Worldview 351 10.2. Worlds Without Views 353 10.2.1. A Metaphysical Impossibility 357 10.2.2. The Sociological Impossibility 371 10.3. Views Without The World 380 10.3.1. A Conceptual Fragment Of The Answer 381 10.3.2. The Depth Of The Deep Questions 385 10.3.3. Proselytisation And Secularisation 389 XI. PROLEGOMENA TO A COMPARATIVE SCIENCE OF CULTURES 395 11.1. Cultures As Configurations Of Learning 396 11.1.1. Learning Processes And Cultural Differences 396 11.1.2. Religion As The Root Model Of Order 400 11.1.3. Science And The Root Model Of Order 406 11.2. Conceptualising Cultural Differences 411 11.2.1. Another Configuration Of Learning 412 11.2.2. A Different Kind Of Knowledge 415 11.3. How A Difference Makes The Difference 424 11.3.1. Raising A Naive Question 425 11.3.2. An Encounter Of Cultures 429 11.3.3. Traditio, Knowledge, And The Religious Culture 433 11.4. The Dynamic Of Religion 437 11.4.1. Proselytisation And Secularisation 438 11.4.2. Idolatry And The Sin Of The Secular 440 11.5. About The Other Half Of An Argument 446 XII. AT THE END OF A JOURNEY 447 12.1. The Different Rest Houses 447 12.2. About The Argument 452 12.3. Epistemic Questions 454 REFERENCES 460 NAME INDEX 496 SUBJECT INDEX 499 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Before any other acknowledgement is made, it would have been nice to provide the arguments in this essay with an impeccable pedigree. Surely, many ideas have been anticipated before; thoughts have been better expressed by others elsewhere – these are the inevitable doubts of an author about to present a book under his name to a cultured public. I should like to hereby acknowledge any and all intellectual debts I may have incurred: if they are not explicitly recognized as such, it is not due to a moral failing. I hope that the informed reader will place footnotes as and when they are needed – heaven knows there are not enough of them; in so doing, express her/his goodwill – God knows I am in need of it. My immediate environment has had a great influence on this book. Through its many versions, including its previous incarnation as a doc- toral dissertation, several friends went through it – either fully or partial- ly – taking the trouble to discuss their responses with me. The extent to which their criticism has helped is expressed by the fact that each version was new or different by a third. The final version is no excep- tion either. Prof. Dr. Diderik Batens, Prof. Dr. Jean-Paul van Bendegem, Prof. Dr. Karel Boullart, Prof. Dr. Arie de Ruijter, Prof. Dr. Dominique Willems – to each my thanks for the criticisms and suggestions. Similar help was given by Roland Cottoir, Guido Mareels, Carlos de Vriese and Pieter Welvaert, all of whom went through the entire essay. Bob Carlier, Prof. Dr. Ronald Commers, Georg Hooreweg, Joke Meijering and Marc Poriau have commented on parts of the essay. The book has evolved mainly in discussions with Karel Arnaut, Tom Claes, Willem Derde, Filip Erkens, Yvan Houteman, Kris Muylaert, and Toon Tessier. Harry van den Bouwhuijsen, a special friend from Holland, has been the kind of reader and critic that writers always dream of. Thorough and meticulous, he has constantly showered me with problems and questions, arguments and counter-arguments. If the essay has won on clarity, improved on substance (especially in the ultimate two chapters), a great deal of it has to do with his intelligent, creative, and sharp re- marks. A special kind of help was rendered by Willem Derde. He has helped me in indexing this essay, re-indexing and re-re-indexing as the chap- ters got rewritten, until they started flowing out of his ear. And yet, he xii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS has persisted. Added to this, in the last months, he has also been the first reader of several versions of a few chapters. As though this is not enough, he has helped me out with typing the manuscript; by running consistency checks in an enviably professional manner…all these with an unfailing cheer and friendliness. Such magnanimity, in these days of cynicism and calculation, is as refreshing as it is touching. Prof. Dr. Rik Pinxten has been my constant support and encour- agement. He has been a good friend, more than just that, a critic and a counsellor too. He was more disappointed than any that this essay has been so late in coming, but I hope he will continue to agree that it has only become the better for that. To them all, my greatest thanks are due and are hereby rendered. There is, finally, Prof. Dr. Etienne Vermeersch, who was also my doctoral supervisor. An extraordinary human being, whose kindness and generosity can only be acknowledged in this way: if it was not for his willingness and help, neither this essay nor the project of which it is a part would ever have matured.
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