Reorienting phenomenological method for the critical study of religion
The phenomenological method put forth by Edmund Husserl in Logical Investigations (1900) made its way into several academic disciplines over the last century. What started as a philosophical method of answering metaphysical and ontological questions was soon adopted by Gerardus van der Leeuw in Religion in Essence and Manifestation (1938), who sought to answer theological questions. Phenomenological methods continue within the field of philosophy, for example those influenced by Martin Heidegger’s Being and Time (1927), but are, for the most part, abandoned by religious studies scholars due to the theological trajectory set by van der Leeuw, among others. If, however, the phenomenological method of religion was to model itself after the philosophical approaches, it may become a tool for critical scholars of religion today. I begin with a section highlighting the differences between philosophical phenomenology and phenomenology of religion in order to identify the theological elements which appear in the phenomenological method of religion. By comparing the work of Martin Heidegger and Gerardus van der Leeuw, this section shows how Heidegger’s approach is critical of van der Leeuw. Doing so illustrates the ways the philosophical phenomenological method can address the issues of theology found in the phenomenological method of religion. Then, I reference the phenomenological method as it appears in feminist and queer phenomenology in order to further explore the ways the phenomenological method may be critical of previous approaches to “religion.”
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