Intrareligious dialogue
Intrareligious experience is an important part of religious in-group’s life cycle, meaning production, and heritage preservation. Intrareligious dialogue program intends to discuss religious structuralism, religious expression, and social issues in relation to religious worldview.
Religions have histories, organisations, and activities such as worship and outreach. Scientific knowledge about religion varies between countries. In North America – perhaps due to historical and sociological characteristics – an attempt is made to consider religion from the outside and identify the range of its angles. Tried interdisciplinary approach quite often results in contouring rather than in-depth attempt at comprehensive understanding of religion, however, contributes to outlining the due extent of considerations that pertain to religious thinking and practice. Intrareligious dialogue program draws heavily on historical, historico-cultural, sociological, anthropological, philosophical, phenomenological, and psychological understanding of religion.
Structurally, comprehension of the ontological truth of life becomes the center of mastering knowledge of religion and philosophy. Faith serves to define individual’s spiritual attraction of the soul to the foundations of existence. Mystical stay in those foundations is interpreted as direct perception of transcendental essences and substantial connections. While epistemic truth does not commonly become the central question of mastery, epistemic truth and ontological truth arise out of unification of spiritual faith with the supposed existing original. Classical philosophical thinking assigns the phenomenon of experience and feeling of person’s unity with the world to the basis of cognitive inquiry.
Belief directs the process of synthesis of feelings, reason, and will into indirect knowledge and goal setting. Through faith individual perceives subjective images of external world and signs of truth. Simultaneously, paradoxically, no indirect or direct knowledge is produced, it is rather an opinion that appears. German philosopher, Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel concludes that direct knowledge does not exist. He reasons it as the connectivity of everything, the mediation of beginning by the result and the return of spirit to the self enriched by process of reflection. Therefore, belief is best understood as the developed form of the essence of faith.
Religious expression
Preoccupied with the problem of expression Intrareligious dialogue explores the theoretical ideas of reflection as reproduction and reflection as creativity, the hermeneutic endeavor that addresses the questions of connection between subject and object, structure of the cognitive process, truth, and the epistemological operational approach. Materialist theory of knowledge and the concept of reproduction become problematised by the alienation of the subject from the object, while the theory of reflection introduces an outlook of idealistic epistemology and co-dissolves the subject and the object. As the brain deciphers the content of the impulses it extracts information in a form of images of those contents with which the receptors were in contact. Religious-theoretical methods of cognition are noted to step beyond the sacred-mystical techniques in an attempt to grasp this fascinating occurrence. Such methods include the same exoteric methods that are used in common scientific cognition, as well as historical, logical, philosophical, linguistic, psychological, aesthetic, and moral. In this sense the familiarisation with the world and religious begins from faith in the absolute reality.
Religious psychologist Larisa Filippovna Shekhovtsova notes that an individual uses the psychic energy given to the individual by God and by means of such creates an inner world. An inner world that serves as individual’s own subjective distorted logos, inductive and deductive reasoning enabled world. In Shekhovtsova’s understanding individual is a microcosm that reflects a macrocosm.
Questions arise to the features of the religious subject-object relationship. Notably there can not be observation of subject without an object as much as observation of object without a subject. As the subject directs to an object, subject is an active moment of interaction. Ratio of the interaction changes as it inverts overtime, subject-object relation changes for the prior subject to become the object and for the former object to become the subject.
Similarly, human activity is capable of reciprocity as the subjective and objective invert throughout the human process of lifecreativity. Goal setting can absorb or devour the subject preoccupied with their influence of the object and the consequent loss of subjectivity would reduce that person to an object in part returning to wonder of the materialist theory’s alienation of the subject from the object. The subject inserts itself into the object. Furthermore, the Divine and Absolute would presuppose comprehension of an absolute scientist, the human illogicality of the subject-subject relation or a clone in a sense of a macrocosmic reflection of the macrocosmic.
From this standpoint, Intrareligious dialogue aims to enable human social action and delves into partaking in the exploration of social issues in relation to the religious worldview. Notable times of the subject’s cognition and action are discussed to be the Absolute, humanity, nations, ethnic communities, classes, small social groups, individuals, individual self, and the human mind. The dialectical identity of the subject and the object of religious knowledge encompasses the interdependence of participants through the means of a dialogue at the center of which is not the Absolute, but rather the sacred connection of a human with the Absolute and humanity’s entanglement with the longing for the supposed existing original with which the spiritual faith becomes unified.
Range of values and evaluations guides the problem-solving gratification of needs. In such understanding the need becomes the transformative ability to direct and regulate activity once associated with the corresponding object. Values occur in human activity and human consciousness while treated as an objective phenomenon due to its attributive primacy before the individual’s consciousness. While such attributive property can be as biological as the problem of aging, the societal reality can not be rendered inadequate to dictate such attributive primacy as the social agreements toward the welfare of the aging population and the value of life as an ideal of social order. Thus, leaving to question the individual consciousness’s truths in context of the broader organisational social phenomena.
People see beyond their senses, people see the world as they understand it and in their somewhat cognitive, emotional, and behavioural outcome people understand the world to the degree to which they know how to practically interact with it. Russian philosopher and expert in areas of epistemology and philosophical anthropology Sergey Denisov Fedorovich contemplates untruth to be associated with preference for non-existence. Modern untruth would encompass indifference, ignorance, apathy, and aestheticism. People would rather be bored and to remain in untruth while simultaneously in possession of the recollection of truth. In such understanding goodness and benevolence is the truth of human conscience. Confident in the truth of the forthcoming model, individual constructs constantly modeling the world. Individual models that do not enter the antagonistic, hostile contradiction with the collective models become accepted as social notions of reality.
Intrareligious dialogue further invites participants to explore some of social issues based on social, economic, cultural, and environmental case studies. As meaning encounters the integrity of the whole it is intuitively contemplated by the soul as it absorbs in the external object as if before its existence as a separation from the self. The ideal-figurative capture of things through an intuitively comprehended whole results in the declaration of the system of cognitive images that becomes meaningful and true. Subjective images and objective spirit procure direct knowledge that at the spiritual pole of the soul contains the image and the original, evaluation and value, meaning and sense that are directly compared. This comparison develops the intuition based on the comparison of the mediated and the immediate contributing to the figurative cognition.
Religious in-group’s life cycle
Since humans are biosocial, individuals live out a life cycle that pertains to the embodied and socialised experience during which development and overall livelihood occurs. Religion contains important sociological functions and serves as bases for individual and collective meaning production. Thus, introducing an inquiry into the meaning of the life cycle itself. Human beings are social and cultural creatures and respond to their experienced meaning of the world rather than to some estranged entity of the world. Individuals and collectives are collided with natural and social disasters that pose crisis and further conflicts to peoples’ lives as part of a life cycle. Since the time of birth every person must create a sense of order and in that process, people find or compose a system of meaning for their lives and the lives of those around them.
While religion can be seen as the preoccupation of adults since it introduces to thoughts of the meanings of life, mortality, and morality, navigation of life’s ambiguities can become part of people’s existence quite early. Involvement of children in religion has lifelong consequences. Religious parents, extended religious, spiritual, or atheistic families model their religion, spirituality, or atheism to their children and youth. Moreover, religious television programs, religious services, instruction classes, schools, academies aim at teaching, converting, and retaining its participants. Therefore, people of all ages are posed with questions of principles of reward and punishment, unconscious motivation, and social influence.
Among a range of positions, Intrareligious dialogue partakes in the position that the basic factors that operate to produce religious behaviour are the same as those found in any behaviour, but due to the particularities of religion factors work together in such a way as to generate forms of behaviour and states of experience that are unlike those found elsewhere. As further discussed through elaboration of ideas of sacralisation.
Ancient wisdom influences people for generations and for millennia. Cognitive processes are perplexed by emotions and become evident in studies of learning, attachment, and socialisation.
Emotional bonds found in child’s connection with the family or primary caregiver affect children’s religiousness. This becomes further interpreted though emotional-behavioural-cognitive system and serves to propose an attachment relationship that is to influence individual’s behaviour throughout their lifetime. In most religions God is noted to serve as the ideal attachment figure, potentially addressing the more developed biosocial needs through the essences of anthropomorphism.
Adult’s and child’s minds work differently and require development, furthermore children are not equipped with an extensive amount of language and memory to enable their understanding and modification of meanings of words. Transition from a child to an adult is marked by distinct mental development and can be observed in religious thought and speech. Initially simple operations are uses to understand a religious teaching and as more complex operations are developed individual begins to think in more in-depth esoteric or religious doctrines. Relatively concrete interpretations are proceeded by more abstract. Thus, eventually an individual interacts in their interaction with abstraction, its accompanying uncertainty about life’s principles and their application. However, this requires to remind of biosocial complexity and necessity of supportive environment for people’s livelihoods that return to accentuate the limits of abstraction and consideration of appropriate spaces for abstractive thinking. The basic narrated and renarrated example is of the praying student before the exam and the extent of the student’s belief and reliance on their objective abilities in contrast to the subjective abstract sense of the will of God. Whereby the act of prayer could be a well contributing mental and psychological activity, however on the contrary leaving to question the rationality of such behaviour in relation to achievement of academic excellence and realisation of future career orientation.
Children are noted to see prayer as instrumental to production of a desired outcome. Difference between fantasy and reality appears confusing to children. This could be further problematised since sometimes parents tell children that fantasy in in fact a reality in a sense committing a sort of misinformative or disinformative verbal action to the children’s development. As child reaches a higher level of cognition religious and spiritual practices acquire deeper meaning. Religion becomes understood in conventional religious ideas; mystical; or as religion seen though symbols and cults that became imagined or learned about. Thought at such stage becomes hypothetical and somewhat abstract, however notably unsystematic and fragmented to serve as a developed religious thinking. Lack of understanding of religious material becomes apparent. Overall, neither practical or theoretical meanings of a religion are simple or obvious to a child and young person. School and higher education introduce cultural clashes. Questions arise about the information and experiences of their adolescence and the earlier encounters of their childhood. Moreover, mind does not produce meanings that are easily predicted by the cognitive-developmental or learning-socialisation approaches, therefore meanings are not as predictable as sometimes is thought about. Young people intuit intellectual arguments and defend their belief, incorporate new beliefs into their personal system by conversion or making changes to their meaning system, or blend in their position into some new and meaningful whole. Social and contextual factors testify for interdependent molding of religious and spiritual development. Evolutionary and cultural blending results in a complex meaning that is a function of interactive processes and undergoes continual appraisal entailing preservation or innovation. Thus, by their youth people enter the society with their own meaning system that participates in interaction with the world and its inhabitants.
Parents range in authoritarianism, authoritativeness, permissiveness, reject and neglect. Notably, authoritative approaches tend to facilitate socially responsible development. Religious and spiritual outlooks are not a product of indoctrination or obsolete independence, it is the interdependence that serves to conclude in individual’s and group’s stances. Curiously people showcase an ability to hold diverse views simultaneously. Mental flexibility has been observed in people’s interpretations of creation of the world. Religious and scientific stances propel themselves as not mutually exclusive.
The way to adulthood is paved through divergence into atheism, blind adherence to religion, partaking in doubts and evaluation. Society forces to account for gender differences, changing social influences, presence of peer groups, experimentation with sexuality, socio-political thought of higher education institutions, increases and decreases in social exposure. Young people, more than other age groups, become familiarised with their identity. Identity becomes constructed based on psychical complexity and skin colour, sense of group belonging, social class, experiences and perception of individual abilities and skills, spiritual and religious belief outlook, membership and tradition. Morality becomes matter of superior moral principle and moral relativism. Nonetheless, development does not stop at the end of childhood or youth, development continues throughout person’s lifespan.
People in their youth commonly tend to seek independence from parents while still depending upon them, establish a sense of security, comprehend their insecurities and feelings of guilt, and possibly overcome the lurking notions of death that become apparent in the surrounding world. Religiousness is further questioned by career decisions, marital commitments, military service or abstinence from such, use of illicit substances or distancing from their use, and many other social perplexities. Mental ability to conceptualisation on abstract level necessary for their thinking through difficult religious issues comes into active use during those years. Concurrently, youth rely on regulatory and normative practices to comprehend and guide their behaviour. Comparison, confrontation, assessment and reassessment await individual’s mind at every corner.
Individualistic and collectivistic cultures direct the norms of identity development. The process of separation is interpretated differently depending on the cultural context proposed by the family, social surrounding, broader society, and the nation. As individuals gain self-definition they answer of their identity, reasons informing their existence and purpose, scopes and limits of their outlooks, and their values. Important imprint of secular higher education defines people to increasingly split between people’s interpretation of religious texts as fables and legends or more generally human creation. This decrees in belief with education becomes in complete contradiction to the belief in scientific virtuality and lacks the parameters of philosophical consideration. Psychological study that informs this understanding does not specify the scope of its participants beyond their level of education that varied between high school completion to postgraduate education participants. Furthermore, the definition of the phrase “word of God” received no parameters for interpretation and in this sense leaves unclear the role of the Absolute through examination of ontology and its presence or absence in the literary works informing of the “word of God”. Moreover, accentuation of the human creation and human creativity leave to question of what or who constitutes the human entity in this understanding beyond the concrete authorship and collective recording and what would be interpreted as the reasoning and an idea behind this creation. Simultaneously, psychologists are noted to preoccupy themselves with the unconscious of the person’s mind and question of the secret doubts undisclosed by the people.
Childhood and young adulthood years affect individual’s sense of identity. Since birth people create a sense of order out of the chaotic world, decide on moral dilemmas, and find and compose system of meaning. Whether religious or not, faith develops, and beliefs take shape. Encountered situations are deciphered based on the background of established verbal and visual information or demand of more information to be procured. Individual develops a set of preoccupational logic, emotional attachments, and fears. Those thought patterns can also be interpreted in context of heuristics where a use of shortcuts based on previous experiences and information becomes obvious.
As ideology is formed, values and beliefs come together and eventually an individual reaches their subjective transformative essence. Religious life stages overlap, religious judgement pertains common to the time of crisis to serve as a supportive force during decision making and verbal and behavioural response. Higher principles assist in balancing the tension brought by the competing values and problem-solving. The socially sacred is upheld at this stage. For religious and spiritual people, not merely science, but religion and spirituality permeate work and life decisions, medical emergencies, and overall very existence as a human being.
Seniorhood may experience change in individual’s belief and practices. With age people change from future-oriented outlook to past-oriented considerations. People may reminiscence over their own past and constantly rewind their life for themselves and their grandchildren or participate in collective social resolve of the deterministic future through family and society. In-part raising the idea of a historical human. This is the time of opportunity for spiritual ascent. An integrated person rather than a set of dissociated, separate parts with internally consistent, well-regulated meaning system would be involved in dealing with the questions of the old age. Humans do more than merely express themselves in some ambiguous ways, rather people path through near-term goals, long-term purposes, realisation of ideas, upholding of their values, expectations of their socio-economic participation and other important considerations. Irrational fears, inferiority and superiority complexes, existential and humanistic dilemmas are to rest in the philosophical harmonisation throughout the time allocated to individual’s lifetime.
Meaning production
According to Aristotle, philosophy begins with wonder and the discovery of mystery of things. Ultimate foundation of existence preoccupies the minds and souls in their attempt to explain the world as a whole and its contents. Simultaneously epistemology explores the relationship to objective reality. Truth and falsity become accompanied by consideration of correctness and incorrectness, efficiency and ineffectiveness, evaluativeness and non-evaluation.
People search within and outside established religious organisational structures in an attempt for spiritual orientation and meaning of life. Should the traditional parish or synagogue not find fulfilment with them, people search for alternatives to finding values and principles to inform their life. In some instances, symbols such as Asian are incomprehensible and become of appeal due to their seeming non-banality as opposed to the origin introduced, felt outdated gods. New generation tends to find words and symbols readily available in the outline of the inherited concepts. Those understandings usually serve as advanced tools of labour and contain furthermore advanced and generalised program of practical actions achieved by their means. Subject-truth tends to contain its share of operational-technical know how. For example, technique of meditation facilitates as a part of religious knowledge and requires some extent of in-between experience that serves as an approach to consistent and effective practice by means of a tool in a form of a meditation. Such means knowing of a special technic for connecting a person with sacred objects. Overall, this could apply to many ritual practices and such examples as breathing exercises.
People supply their spiritual or religious experience with diverse descriptions to the extent that the same religious words can have different and in some cases opposite meanings to people. However, let’s not be confused, religions are cultural and personal. The very Latin word ‘religion’ introduces the ideas of re+ligare that is interpreted as ‘to bind or connect’. Roman thinker and orator Marcus Tullius Cicero considered ‘religio’ to originate out of the Latin ‘relegere’ or to return, to recollect, to think again, to fear, and to put aside for special use or to in a figurative sense treat something with reverence. However, an early Christian author Lucius Caecilius Firmianus signo Lactantius introduced ‘religio’ to be co-sound with Latin verb ‘religare’ resulting in the binding and connection. Hereby referring to the establishment of unity through which God bound the humans with its Absolute self. The God and human relation finds extension in the interpersonal and intergroup interactions. Thus, livelihoods are interacting with concepts, ideas, and meanings representative of the people under a particular religion. Some people see their religion as civil religion and consider its service to be limited to the performance of birth, wedding, and death ceremonies and part of public holidays, commemorations and in some cases and installation of government officials. A lot of people are in search of life’s deeper meaning by means of religion outside the religious institutions, in such spaces as movements and groups. Non-institutionalised and non-confessional religiosity is one of the realities of religion and is quite widespread in the world.
Mastering available understandings and the internalisation of the corresponding socio-historical algorithms and action patterns becomes complicated and contributed upon by the logos or the rational verbal report. Prayer becomes a clear example of such practice. The cognising subject relies on invented mental links and invents mental links to consistently connect the provision of the doctrine of theory with the essence of the hidden contemplated object. Once again, the brain deciphers the content of the impulses as it extracts information in a form of images of the content. Arises a question of how does an atheist mentally image a God in whom he does not believe? Or could it be possible to fathom the worldview of an atheist while remaining a believer in God? The human soul is seen to resist the emptiness of unbelief, and as religious faith disappears superstition is considered to take its place making the problem of faith central to epistemology of religion. Religious rationality is noted to be significantly different from technical or scientific reason. Method of communication between subject and object, the language and assessment of the truth of knowledge present a particular examination of the world, interaction with the world, and its own worldview.
Many areas of study begin with some empirical assertion, while open to assumptions archeologist searches for the empirical reality to make sense of history, however sciences are not foreign to the image of virtual quantities beginning from the conception of virtuality, immateriality and unobservability. Further debates erupt and smoulder in the discussions of scientific responsibility to the humanity or a social perplexity, as has been seen in 2023’s cinematographic simultaneity of Oppenheimer and Barbie. Transcendent morality to science reminds individuals to abstain from exultation of their knowledge to the verity of the Absolute, but rather direct at more sustainable and moral outlooks. Degree of clarity and depth of human speculation are dependent upon the purity of the human heart.
As has been detailed, verity and truth are different, but closely related moments of correspondence of human knowledge to objective reality. Agreed and conditioned truths are embedded in the legal consciousness and state to represent the interests of society. Human existence is everyday presented with instances of lies becoming truth and ugliness becoming beauty and asks of people to decipher the image they are encountering. Religion similarly presents resolves to the dilemmas of goodness and beauty, moral truth coming to aid people in their daily lives and scientific endeavours. Non-classical philosophy is noted to no longer have a property of objectivity attributed to truth and the peculiar classics of the thoughts expressed in the Intrareligious dialogue program should be hereby understood. Many statements such as running, which can be considered as muscle contraction or movement toward a goal would be true, but only in their combination with a wide range of perspectives would the depth of the essence and the truth be revealed and ennobled. Nonetheless, the increased linking of verity and value pose no conflict with more contemporary thought. German philosopher Rudolf Hermann Lotze believed that value arises in situation of its significance to the subject. The post-non-classical thought encompasses the truths and introduces a worldview in accordance with the truths that serve as rules or conditions arbitrarily chosen by the subject. Meaning that value is objective and generally valid form of volition and behaviour of a human is something the human partakes in through interaction. Social interaction presents a further interesting situation for interaction since human subject directed at a soul endowed object in a form of another human influences that individual. Individual becomes an object of establishment of connection by the subject until the situation inverts for response to occur. In that sense non-inanimate social participants capable of complex language patterns – humans – become intertwined in a social connection and exchange of their subject-object reminiscence. Principles of individual’s inner life are not value neutral. Such principles possess personal and value-based character. Hereby verity and truth become intertwined with each other in variety of ways. In similar way objective knowledge and subjective beliefs vary. Human existence is intertwined in verity of truth and false truth, true lies and untruthful truths; white lies and deadly truths.
Austiran-British philosopher, academic and social commentator Karl Popper summarises the discussed as existence of external physical world, subjective world of thinking, and the world of objective ideas that are found somewhere inside people. Unknown is mixed with the known and infiltrates the known to ask the individual for harmonisation. The utopia and ideals creation becomes preoccupation of the human mind in the human search for that guiding longing for harmony.
Heritage preservation
French sociologist Emile Durkheim discusses natural historical basis of human social essence. He contrasts collective existence with the individualistic and egoistic existence. The sanctification of basic social values enables the steady development of society. Religious ideas are servants of the collective realities and our responsibilities lay in our realities. Thus, those ideas gain their authority and religion serves as an ideological mechanism that ensures the solidarity of people and integrity of society.
In this understanding, religion would begin where and when a systematic approach is taken to sacralise the most valuable ideals. Culturalisation is an expression of the essence of social as opposed to natural and this expression is aimed to emphasise the sacredness of social existence.
Religious and atheist people sacralise humanistic values. Esoterism with its transmitted teaching serves as the opposite of exotericism that is open to the uninitiated, generally understandable and publicly available. Exotericism is the basic essence of the democratised form of cognitive access and available outside of exclusivity and cost barriers. Nonetheless, esoterism and exotericism can not be seen as mutually exclusive, but rather compliment each other in part of human existence as the outer and inner dimension to the human livelihood.
Scripture is a word of teaching that is transmitted orally until written down and serves as an essence of religion in the manifestation of a wide variety of leaders. Moreover, Scripture often becomes mixed with additional teachings or records. For example, the teachings of Muhammad are often supplemented with elements from his life although they are not the direct accepted understanding of Scripture. In a unique way, understanding has a deep connection with the nationality, origin and traditional peoplehood. For example, traditional Chinese culture recognises as sacred a collection of classical texts numbering from five to thirteen. In ancient Greece Iliad and Odyssey become significant while, in essence, constitute myths that are usually distinguished from religious teachings, they still permeate the consciousness of people. Literal readings are contested by the requests to recognise metaphors and myths in religious dogmas and consensus tends to be sought.
Sacred Tradition constitutes some religious tradition that serves as a clear construction of traditional religious thought, while religion pertains to belonging to an ethnic group, and ethnicity is an integral part of broader culture. In their interweaving, they lead people to a certain mentality, to truths and verity that embrace the life of an individual and people.
Traditions are inseparable from history, however, should be distinguished from historical accounts and theological statements and in some cases read as historicity at best. Communities arise out of stories and add new stories. Traditions serve as source of reasoning.
Nonetheless, it should not be ignored that church and the state are also preoccupied with protection and transmission of the significant collective attitudes and participate in sacralisation though complex and delicate systematisation. The strict rules of law and the soft techniques of art inform societies. The norms and rules of interpersonal and intergroup relationships and the Absolute are sacralised.
Intrareligious dialogue addresses heritage preservation as safeguarding of ideology, operational psychological techniques, embodiment in shrines, sacramental and hostile symbols, upholding of organisation, and acknowledging the importance of particular practical actions, rituals, and ceremonies. Program treats those aspects of religious heritage much similar to the consideration for ideas of intangible and tangible heritage.
Traditional systems take a lot of time and absorb past and newly emerged traditions. Sacralisation is assured through object-subject relationship upheld by religious authorities. Reproduction of social groups and classes, as well as generations is preserved on the bases of sacralisation and sacred traditions enabling for social wellbeing of particular groups and societies as a whole. Understandably utopical harmony is a long due product of our longing, enabled preservation and renewal bring the further development of thought and action, cognitive and behavioural stance for the harmonious human future for all social participants.