Unamuno, Zubiri, and Bueno. A discussion of their philosophies of religion from the perspectives immortality, reality, and matter

Abstract

Unamuno, Zubiri, and Bueno are three philosophers of religion who have set trends in Spanish philosophy of religion over the last hundred years. Unamuno places the core of religion in the yearning for carnal immortality. Zubiri places it in the foundation of reality upon which every human being lives. Bueno theorizes a development of religion in three stages, the first of which asserts that animals were the original gods. These three different views have generated schools of thought, and several empirical investigations could take them as their starting point. The three authors share a common language and a culture inspired by Christianity, although their personal positions are very different (heterodox, catholic, and atheist respectively). Furthermore, all three do not found their theories on ideal abstractions. Instead, they ground their theories on the man in flesh and blood (Unamuno), on reality (Zubiri), and on the numinous prehistoric animals (Bueno).