The Rotten Syncretism that Opens the Spirit
Fridlund, Patrik LU
(2014)
In Swedish Missiological Themes
102(2).
p.151-169
- Abstract
- People have always been inclined not to stick with one god alone, not to trust one single religion. One possible conclusion is that history is full of syncretism. Syncretism seems to be disturbing. It disturbs the exclusive relationship between God and his people, and it disturbs the idea of logical purity if things are mixed up in an uncontrolled manner. Two main attitudes towards syncretism are identified. One is to play down and reduce the problem of syncretism. The other is to take up arms against syncretism. The suggestion in this paper is to walk along a third path: be concrete and contextualise and hence sometimes accept, sometimes condemn. The main risk here is that the path is open for anything. I maintain that it is possible to... (More)
- People have always been inclined not to stick with one god alone, not to trust one single religion. One possible conclusion is that history is full of syncretism. Syncretism seems to be disturbing. It disturbs the exclusive relationship between God and his people, and it disturbs the idea of logical purity if things are mixed up in an uncontrolled manner. Two main attitudes towards syncretism are identified. One is to play down and reduce the problem of syncretism. The other is to take up arms against syncretism. The suggestion in this paper is to walk along a third path: be concrete and contextualise and hence sometimes accept, sometimes condemn. The main risk here is that the path is open for anything. I maintain that it is possible to cultivate the human faculty to judge, and that ethics plays a vital role. (Less)
Please use this url to cite or link to this publication:
https://lup.lub.lu.se/record/4690489
- author
- Fridlund, Patrik
LU
- publishing date
- 2014
- type
- Contribution to journal
- publication status
- published
- subject
- keywords
- syncretism, lived religion, evaluation and judgment, ethics as criterion
- in
- Swedish Missiological Themes
- volume
- 102
- issue
- 2
- pages
- 151 - 169
- publisher
- Swedish Institute of Mission Research
- ISSN
- 0346-217X
- language
- English
- LU publication?
- no
- additional info
- The information about affiliations in this record was updated in December 2015. The record was previously connected to the following departments: Philosophy of Religion (015017073)
- id
- d063ddf0-ac55-49b5-945d-d3434672038b (old id 4690489)
- date added to LUP
- 2016-04-01 13:03:43
- date last changed
- 2018-11-21 20:11:52
@article{d063ddf0-ac55-49b5-945d-d3434672038b,
abstract = {{People have always been inclined not to stick with one god alone, not to trust one single religion. One possible conclusion is that history is full of syncretism. Syncretism seems to be disturbing. It disturbs the exclusive relationship between God and his people, and it disturbs the idea of logical purity if things are mixed up in an uncontrolled manner. Two main attitudes towards syncretism are identified. One is to play down and reduce the problem of syncretism. The other is to take up arms against syncretism. The suggestion in this paper is to walk along a third path: be concrete and contextualise and hence sometimes accept, sometimes condemn. The main risk here is that the path is open for anything. I maintain that it is possible to cultivate the human faculty to judge, and that ethics plays a vital role.}},
author = {{Fridlund, Patrik}},
issn = {{0346-217X}},
keywords = {{syncretism; lived religion; evaluation and judgment; ethics as criterion}},
language = {{eng}},
number = {{2}},
pages = {{151--169}},
publisher = {{Swedish Institute of Mission Research}},
series = {{Swedish Missiological Themes}},
title = {{The Rotten Syncretism that Opens the Spirit}},
volume = {{102}},
year = {{2014}},
}