intellectica 2008/3, n° 50

Religion and Cognition

Eric GANS

Religion and Knowledge

Abstract: Our understanding of the contribution of religious revelation to fundamental anthropological self-consciousness is clarified by Derrida’s remark that every linguistic communication involves an “act of faith” independent of any particular belief. But this faith is understandable only within the framework of a hypothesis that explains the origin of the human capacity to exchange representations. Although Christian anthropology most closely approaches scientific parsimony, it is dependent on a particular historical revelation. To find the universal basis of the “secularized” faith referred to by Derrida, it is thus necessary to rediscover the element of the Mosaic revelation left aside by Christianity, namely, the possibility manifested in the burning bush of a sacrificial scene without a victim.

Keywords: sacrificial religion; religion without sacrifice; christianity; judaism.

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