religious

Linked Glossary of Terms
(references to De Wijsbegeerte der Wetsidee, unless indicated. See concordance for correlation with pages in the New Critique. The concordance is in pdf format.)

crypto-religious	I, 31
religio	I, 69
religion	I, 69NC I, 57 (innate impulse of human selfhood to direct itself toward the true or pretended absolute Origin of all temporal diversity of meaning, which it finds focused concentrically in itself), 58
religious	I, v; x; 5, 24, 29, 32-34, 45, 48, 51, 53-54, 58, 64, 66 (fullness), 68, 69 (totality), 71 (fullness), 121 (totality), 124, 125 (foundation), 126 (calling), 128 (cosmic law), 129 (root unity), 131 (judgment), 133 (view of totality), 134 (ground)II, 482-83, 491, 493, 494, 495 NC I, 20 (religious act), 58 (mode of being of the ego is itself of a religious character and nothing in itself; ex-sistent charactger of the religious cnetre of our existence) NC II, 560, 562 (religious enstatic; religious community)
religious apriori	I, vi, 32, 39, 45-46, 52 (religious-cosmological apriori), 53, 57 (religious-cosmically determined apriori), 70, 83
religious starting point	I, 83

There are four different dimensions to the horizon of our human experience. The religious horizon relates to our supratemporal selfhood.The religious horizon is the most encompassing, and includes the lower levels of the temporal, modal and plastic dimensions.

This religious horizon is the transcendent horizon of the selfhood, and encompasses the cosmic temporal horizon in which we experience the insoluble coherence and the modal and typical refraction of meaning. the temporal horizon encompasses and detemrines the modal horizon both in its theoretical (analytical and synthetical) distinction and in its pre-theoretical systasis.
The temporal horizon encompasses and determines also the plastic horizon of the structures of individuality, which in its turn implies the modal horizon.(NC II, 560)

The other dimensions relate to our temporal existence. Our selfhood was created as the supratemporal religious root of temporal reality. Religion is the central sphere of our created nature (NC I, 55).

Dooyeweerd relates the word ‘religion’ etymologically to ‘religare’ [“to link back”]. Baader gives a similar etymology. He refers to religion as the ‘religatio’ of the creature in God (Speculative Dogmatics, Werke 8, 23). It is commonly supposed that C.G. Jung followed the etymology of ‘religare,’ but in fact he disputes this. He derives the word ‘religion’ from ‘relegare,’ or ‘religare,’ meaning careful observation and taking account of the numinous. See letter from C.G. Jung to Pastor Tanner of Feb. 12, 1959, Letters, Gerhard Adler (Princeton, 1973), Vol. II, p. 484. Cited in Edward F. Edinger: The New God-Image (Wilmette, Ill.: Chiron, 1996), p. 35.

Dooyeweerd says that veritable religion is absolute self-surrender (NC I, 58; not in WdW). Love is self-surrender (NC II, 149).

Dooyeweerd’s philosophy shows the religious basis of all theoretical thought, including philosophy. On the very first page of the New Critique he says, “The great turning point in my thought was marked by the discovery of the religious root of thought itself…” (NC I, v). Our thought (including theoretical thought such as philosophy) therefore has a religious root. Dooyeweerd says that we direct our consciousness towards or away from God. This is the religious antithesis. We make a religious choice of position, and this occurs in our transcendent religious self-consciousness:

In the transcendent religious subjective a priori of the cosmic self-consciousness the whole of human cognition is directed either to the absolute Truth, or to the spirit of falsehood. (NC II, 562).

He says that all immanence philosophy is based on the self-destructive hypostatizing of the theoretical synthesis of meaning; this is the “proton pseudos,” or first lie. (NC II, 561).

Baader also relates religion and science. He speaks of the ‘religiosity of science, and the scientific character of religiosity’ (Fermenta, p. 207). The title of one of Baader’s works shows his concern to unite these two domains: Über den Zwiespalt des religiösen Glaubens und Wissens als die geistige Wurzel des Verfalls der religiösen und politischen Societät in unserer wie in jeder Zeit (Concerning the Conflict of Religious Faith and Knowledge). Baader says that religion (the so-called ‘spiritual’ domain), and science (the ‘natural’ domain), have a common religious root. Baader also wants to overcome the opposition between religion and philosophy (Elementarbegriffe 534), and the opposition between religious faith and knowledge (Zeit 49). He says that it is a radical error to suppose that religion is unreasonable, and that reason is irreligious (Gesellschaftsphilosophie, 71).

Baader says that religion must penetrate to the most inner regions of thought (Begründung 57), and that faith and knowledge are not to be separated in history, in politics, in industry or in religion (Begründung, 52). These are all ideas seen later in Dooyeweerd and in neo-Calvinism generally.

Dooyeweerd and Baader also agree that, although all philosophy is religious, philosophy is not directed by theology. Theology is only one science among many (Werke 5, 254; cited by Sauer 13 and 128; NC I, 4).

Revised May 6/06