Religión, racionalidad y juegos del lenguaje. Trastienda teórica para una aproximación reflexiva a las nuevas religiones

Abstract

This article analyzes the relations between religion, rationality and the relativism of the Commont Language Philosophy. This is the case of Wittgenstein’s «Language Games» Theory, who considers religion a self sufficient game whose explanation must be found inside its own rules. First, we explore the idealistic propositions of some british functionalists, mainly Evans-Pritchard second phase’ ideas. Second, we analyze the philosophical and lingüistical propositions of Wittgenstein and Winch (related to religion), and finally we are interested in the positivist reaction of Horton, Jarvie and Gellner. The epistemological and methodological implications of these ideas, for example with respect to the importance of Verstehen (understanding) in the treatment of the social science data, may help us to think how to analyze the old and news religious systems, considered as sense producing universes. I also describe and discuss the three most important approaches to the anthropological study of religion (symbolist, contextualist and intelectualist), and analyze its relevance for the study of new religions, those that compete for the religious field monopoly.