Western Michigan University ScholarWorks at WMU Dissertations Graduate College 12-2006 Religion and Semiosphere: from Religious to the Secular and Beyond Rajka Rush Western Michigan University Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/dissertations Part of the Religion Commons, and the Sociology of Religion Commons Recommended Citation Rush, Rajka, "Religion and Semiosphere: from Religious to the Secular and Beyond" (2006). Dissertations. 984. https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/dissertations/984 This Dissertation-Open Access is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate College at ScholarWorks at WMU. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks at WMU. For more information, please contact [email protected]. RELIGION AND SEMIOSPHERE: FROM RELIGIOUS TO THE SECULAR AND BEYOND by Rajka Rush A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of The Graduate College in partial fulfillment o f the requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy Department of Comparative Religion Dr. Rudolph J. Siebert, Advisor Western Michigan University Kalamazoo, Michigan December 2006 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. RELIGION AND SEMIOSPHERE: FROM RELIGIOUS TO THE SECULAR AND BEYOND Rajka Rush, Ph.D. Western Michigan University, 2006 Religion is a system of structural ideas that involve the natural ability of the mind to engage itself into the process of unlimited semiosis which can be defined as an existential openness of one’s consciousness to the universe as a system. This primary religious consciousness becomes limited by language, symbolic, and cultural constraints. The religious semiotic space is a sub-cultural system open to culturally and cross- culturally encoded idioms and concepts. These cultural potentials are interpreted and settled by the religious exegesis expressed in the behavioral patterns of the symbolic actions that reflect a specific worldview of the closed community controlled by institutional authority. In spite of the religious exclusive position in the cultural space, almost every religious worldview offers elements of ethical and aesthetical universalism, which religious potentials are seeds for the secularization processes of the religious. This dissertation offers a Semiotic Theory of Religion, explaining concepts such as dynamic signs, signification process, and unlimited semiosis developed in the semiotics of Charles Sanders Peirce, Umberto Eco, Yuri Lotman, and the religious semantics of Jurgen Habermas. Habermas thinks that religion still has semantic potentials that should be rescued. The ethical aspect of religion concentrates on the ideals of universal solidarity, Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. compassion, and peace. These are the foundational values of the autonomous religious consciousness that should transform its individual ethos into the objective reality of socio-economic and political norms. Yuri Lotman’s semiotic theory of culture is functional in the examination of religious pluralism and examines the diachronic continuum, explaining a vicious struggle for the preservation of the semiotic space, which emerges as the dominant in competition with the other alternative religious movements. The salient focus of this dissertation concentrates on an unlimited semiosis. This concept seems most curious to a human mind, requiring of an interpreter to rediscover the cognitive and aesthetic immanence of the mind, where resides the religious source. The Semiotic Theory of Religion offers religion as one of the most dynamic cultural movements interconnected with all humankind’s cultural space—the Semiosphere. Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. UMI Number: 3246326 INFORMATION TO USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. Broken or indistinct print, colored or poor quality illustrations and photographs, print bleed-through, substandard margins, and improper alignment can adversely affect reproduction. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if unauthorized copyright material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. ® UMI UMI Microform 3246326 Copyright 2007 by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights reserved. This microform edition is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. ProQuest Information and Learning Company 300 North Zeeb Road P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml 48106-1346 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Copyright by Rajka Rush 2006 Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS “Every object whose end is unknown to us is provisorily monstrous.” Jorge Luis Borges, A Vindication o f the Cabala It is not an easy task to write a dissertation with the megalomaniac aspirations, and this is what has happen to me. First, I began my research with the semiotic theory of Umberto Eco, thinking that will be an easy task to apply his semiotic models to the comparative study of religion, but the field of research began to grow. I expanded the research with Charles Sanders Peirce’s semiotics, then I moved one step further on the communicative praxis of Jurgen Habermas, and finally, I found that Dr. Rudolph J. Siebert was right and that I couldn’t escape from discussing the problem of modernity along with the process of the secularization of the religious ideas. As research grew, I felt like I was drowning in the “monstrous” arms of endlessness.... This long journey would have never been fully accomplished without the great help of all my committee members from the Comparative Religion Department at Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan. Dr. Thomas E. Lawson and Dr. Brian C. Wilson have tremendously helped me to incorporate in my work modem methodology, analyzing case studies in a manner of cognitive and anthropological evaluation, which then nicely supported my research and theoretical constructs. Dr. Michael R. Ott from Grand Valley State University, Grand Rapids, Michigan has helped me to better understand the sociological dimension of religion in modernity. ii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. My special and great thank goes to my mentor and dear person, Dr. Rudolph J. Siebert. He worked with me through all steps of my doctoral program, encouraging me whenever I faced any difficult situation. Dr. Siebert worked with me diligently throughout the four years of writing, helping me to focus my research and make valuable points relevant for the comparative study of religion. I also give my great thanks to my husband, Kim Rush, who was always beside me, no matter how desperate I would feel in the arms of “monstrous” endlessness. His great support and encouragement can only be explained by one word, Love. Rajka Rush iii Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS................................................................................................ ii CHAPTER I. FOUNDING ELEMENTS OF THE SEMIOTIC THEORY OF RELIGION: DYNAMIC SIGNS, SEMIOSIS, UNLIMITED SEMIOSIS AND FIXED BELIEFS....................................................................... 1 la) Application of the General Semiotic Theory to the Study of Religion ............................................................................................. 1 lb) Open and Dynamic Signs .............................................................. 8 lc) Semiotic Dynamism in Early Christianity and Overinterpretation Beyond Belief .............................................. 15 Id) The Nature of Belief and Cognitive Limits of B elief ............... 26 le) Eco’s Differentiation of Religious Symbolism .......................... 34 If) Aesthetical Hermeneutics of Religious Experience .................... 39 lg) Cognitive and Aesthetic Aspects of the Dynamic Sign and Unlimited Semiosis ......................................................................... 45 II. SEMIOTIC THEORY OF RELIGION: COMMUNICATIVE PRAXIS AND LINGUIFICATION OF THE SACRED ................................... 48 2a) Evolution of Communicative Praxis and Ethical Semantics of J. Habermas ..................................................................................... 48 2b) Evolution of Communicative Praxis and Types of Rationalization in World Religions .............................................. 54 2c) Semantics of Ethics ........................................................................ 62 2d) Linguification of the Sacred ......................................................... 65 iv Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without permission. Table of Contents—Continued CHAPTER III. CONTEXTUALIZING RELIGIOUS SEMIOSIS: MODERNITY DISCOURSE AND THE SECULARIZATION PROCESSES OF THE RELIGIOUS IN THE WEST ................................................................................. 77 3 a) Philosophical Rationality in the Old Greek Philosophy ................ 77 3b) Political, Religious, and Natural Rationality of the Enlightenment .....................................................................................