Faith Assimilated to Perception
The Embodied Perspective
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 21394829 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Elena Kalmykova (0000-0003-0112-397X, Uppsala University, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2021 |
| Volume | 60 |
| Issue | 4 |
| Pages | 989-1007 |
| Publication date | 2021-12-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Sophia (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0038-1527 • E-ISSN: 1873-930X |
| Publisher | Springer Science and Business Media LLC (PUBLISHER) |
| DOI | 10.1007/s11841-020-00764-x |
| OpenAlex | W3090308820 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 2 |
| References cited | 19 |
In this paper, I consider how the embodied approach can be applied to religious faith, and possibly other kinds of faith. I start with the reformed epistemologists’ idea that religious faith is similar to sense perception, and I argue that we can elaborate this idea by taking into account our capability perceptually to grasp what is not accessible by senses—the ‘presence in absence’ (Noë 2012) or, as I call it, perceptual faith. As perception necessarily involves not only a mental but also an embodied relation to its object; an embodied relation can be seen as a constitutive component of faith as well. According to phenomenological accounts of perception (Merleau-Ponty, Noë, Siewert), embodiment and enactment allow humans to transcend perspectival limitations and to perceive an object as it is beyond its appearances: constant despite changes of angle, light, and other conditions and whole even when only parts of it are visible. I argue that, in the same vein, embodied relations and particular normativity involved in perception-based faith allow humans to transcend the precariousness of our experience and to sustain a perception-like relation to religious objects, achieved in a ‘better look’ moments of religious experience. I conclude that an embodied account can provide new insights into the nature of religious faith and resolve some puzzles, such as how faith can be a virtue
Aesthetics · Embodied cognition · Epistemology · Faith · Object (grammar) · Perception · Perspective (graphical) · Philosophy of religion · Relation (database) · Sociology · Augustinian Studies and Theology · Computer Science · Philosophy · Psychedelics and Drug Studies · Psychology · Religious Tourism and Spaces · Social Psychology
| Citations per year | 2 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2025 - 2026 (2) |
| Highly cited | No |