Religious Mystery and Rational Reflection

How should philosophy approach what by definition surpasses its competence? Can it do more than describe the religious experience without discussing its object? Can religion make genuine truth claims — especially when so much suffering and evil in the world seem to go against them?

These are some of the basic questions raised in the first part of this collection of essays by Louis Dupré. A philosophical analysis of faith must take account of the unique system of symbols in which it expresses its belief, rituals, and modes of worship. The justification of religious symbols has become a particular problem in an age that tends to separate the objective from the subjective, interpreting the former literally and denying objective reality to the latter. In essays on von Balthasar's theory of religious form and on the nature of ritual, Dupré attempts to restore the original meaning of religious symbols, while integrating them with the modern emphasis on human creativity.

Only after having secured the intrinsically symbolic nature of the religious act can philosophy discuss the religious experience without running the risk of ending in pure subjectivism. The third part of this work is devoted to the mystical experience as well as to the low-key religious experience characteristic of believers living an a secular culture. In the light of a negative theology (in which this entire work was written), the two appear to have surprisingly much in common.

The T. Lawrason Riggs Professor Emeritus of the Philosophy of Religion at Yale University.