Understanding of Religion (Phenomenology of Religion)

            The basis of religion consists in ‘relation,’ the relationship of the Divine with the person, of the subject with the object. But it is a relationship that always begins from the higher to the lower. It is the greater one taking the initiative on the little one. Hence, it is God searching for man and man’s loving response to him.

           

Relation: Self-manifestation of Divine Being and Person

            Relation is always between two people and never alone. Relationship takes place only when both are ready to open up and lay down their differences. Relationship always begins with the initiative of some one. Hence Religion is nothing but relationship. It is born out of this relationship, where God searching for man and hence, self-manifestation of Being to the person and man’s loving response to Him. To go deeper we realise that it is God who takes the first place in this relation. It is He who loved us first. How?

a)      Through His Creative Act, Creation

b)      Through Redemption in the Incarnation

c)      Through sanctification, or, through outpouring of the Holy Spirit, Pentecost.

            St. John in his first letter puts it rightly “This is what love is: it is not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son to be the means by which our sins are forgiven.”(I John 4: 10).  In another word it is God, who is searching all the time for the humankind. It is the Greater One searching the little one as it is written in the book of Genesis: “The Lord God called out to the man, “where are you?” (Gen 3: 9). To elaborate further in the book of Psalm the Psalmist says, “Lord you have examined me, and you know me, you know everything I do....... you know all my actions.....even before I speak, you already know what I will say...........” (Psalm 139: 1-24)

Experiential Dimensions

            On the other hand how does God manifest Himself? God makes manifest himself in and through experiential dimension. This experiential dimension is the phenomena of rites, rituals, practices, traditions, symbols, art, worship etc., where God discloses himself. To cite the example of Holy Eucharist in the Catholic faith, where God manifests Himself in the form of bread and wine. Hence, the Divine Being is in fact present in all the experiences. Further elaboration on the God’s manifestation in the experiential dimension is the recent development of the notion of ‘Panentheism,’ which considers that everything is not God, but everything is in God. As the ancient sages expressed “Ekam sat Viprah Bahuda Vadanti” (Reality is one but sages call it differently).

Self-consciousness of man/meaningful participation

           

            Now it is the bounden duty/responsibility of the person or the individual to respond to the self-manifestation of God. The response very much depends upon the attitude towards the experiential dimension. The individual got to be aware of himself and other experiential dimensions around him. He needs to have religious attitude towards the phenomena of religious dimensions. Question may arise is it possible for man to have religious attitude in a given situation? If not, what makes him so? It is because of the person’s over indulgence with the profane world as Mircea Eliade puts it. Man is busy with the apples that he had savoured in the first sin, the apples of anger, jealousy, self pity, pride, hatred etc. How does then man come out of this profane world. Man is freed of these through a meaningful participation in the experiential dimensions. It is also in the self-consciousness and awareness of the disclosure of the Divine Being that man got to transmit this profanity to sacredness.

            To transmit this profanity to sacredness is participating in the self-manifestation of Divine Being. And it generates into experience, this experience is not the experience but it becomes better and better as he experiences Him more and more. In doing this there is a certain amount of satisfaction in him which is the unexpressed desire of the meaningfulness of life.

            Natural tendency of man is to look for God or the transcendence. But according to me it is just the opposite. It is God who is searching for man. God is present in the given situations and man got to experience Him in his day to day life. And so there is journey from the immanence to transcendence. In experiencing Him man finds meaning in his life, in his day to day activities. According to me “Religion is the relation between the Self-Manifestation of Being to the person in an experiential dimension as laid down by the community and society in an attitude of self-awareness of the Being’s Self-disclosure.”