- Tytuł:
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Polski homo religiosus. Doświadczenie religijne w relacjach potocznych
Polish homo religiosus. Religious experience in colloquial reports - Autorzy:
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Zimnica-Kuzioła, Emilia
Baniak, Józef - Powiązania:
- https://bibliotekanauki.pl/books/31831871.pdf
- Data publikacji:
- 2013
- Wydawca:
- Uniwersytet Łódzki. Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Łódzkiego
- Opis:
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Przedmiotem rozważań w pracy jest doświadczenie religijne współczesnego homo religiosus, żyjącego tu i teraz, w Polsce na początku XXI w. F. Mirek pisze: „Badanie zjawisk społecznych musi uwzględnić stanowisko nie tylko zewnętrznego obserwatora, ale także samych podmiotów działających – jednostek ludzkich i grup społecznych”. Praca ta stanowi próbę ukazania człowieka religijnego żyjącego w środowisku wielkomiejskim, w małym miasteczku, na wsi; młodego, który jest na etapie psychospołecznego moratorium, krystalizacji własnego światopoglądu, dojrzałego, o ugruntowanym już poglądzie na rzeczywistość i starszego, z dużym doświadczeniem życiowym. Socjolog zwraca uwagę na wiele czynników decydujących o różnorodności postaw religijnych, może badać i opisywać praktyczny wymiar religii, aspekt ideologiczny, rytualny, intelektualny, konsekwencyjny. Natomiast dla mnie najważniejszym przedmiotem namysłu jest problem religijnego doświadczenia, dymensji, w której, jak wynika z badań, dominują emocje. Mówiąc inaczej, celem podjęcia przeze mnie badań empirycznych jest próba dotarcia do subiektywnej rzeczywistości człowieka religijnego i pokazanie psychospołecznych uwarunkowań jego religijności. Moim zamiarem jest wnikliwy i w miarę pełny opis religijnych doświadczeń chrześcijan reprezentujących różne środowiska i różne kategorie wiekowe.
I. The aim of my thesis is an attempt to present the Polish homo religiosus, a man who experiences “religious acts and states,” whose main characteristic is a conviction that the transcendent is real. My research sample comprises Christians of varied social and demographic features. They represent different environments, age categories and occupations. My analyses are of a “spotlight” nature, I am throwing light in a specific direction. I was looking for religious people in various milieus, people who were willing to divulge fragments of their “subjective reality,” share the intimate sphere of their own inner world. I wanted to see the characteristics of the groups I singled out all the more clearly, therefore in every one of them I was focusing on slightly different problems. Still, all the addressed issues fall within the wide sphere of religious experience. My studies of the religious experience of a contemporary human being find their frame in three scientific fields – that of philosophy, psychology and sociology. Since it was mainly Roman Christians who took part in the empirical study, I was indirectly referring to the nomos of Catholic theology. Theology is a study, which concentrates mainly on the object of faith (God, the Absolute, transcendent reality, etc). The object of religious experience does not belong to the realm of the tangible, it is transcendent in the face of human cognitive capabilities. Philosophy, the study of wisdom, seeks sense of the reality, poses fundamental ontological (study of the nature of being) and epistemological (study of cognition, truth) questions, asks what is good and what is evil (ethics). It gives rational, logical arguments, presents “proofs” for the existence of the Absolute, or, conversely, against this hypothesis; similar to theology, its field of interest is the nature of God (gods) and His (their) relation to the world. Philosophers – theists – legitimize religious faith, rationalize it, present rational implications of faith. Psychology of religion deals with the objective aspect of religiousness, examines its personal conditionings, sources of faith (genetic aspect) and its consequences (functional aspect). Psychological approach focuses on the believer and his or her subjective experiences, which get included in the intersubjective sphere. Another discipline applicable to the discourse on religion and religiousness is sociology. It perceives religion as a social, universal fact (E. Durkheim’s approach). Representatives of this study scrutinize a specific system of objectified religious forms (institutions, rituals, cult groups), register its impact on the life of a society and the effect cultural patterns have on dominant models of religiosity. They talk about psychosocial mechanisms of religious life, micro- and macro factors that determine the condition of a contemporary homo religiosus. The aforementioned disciplines, each in its own way, address the problem of religious experience, which is of particular interest to me. It is important to emphasize at this point that in religious experience a specific belief system, a religious frame of reference, is of utmost importance. An internalized doctrine determines the shape of religious experience, provides it with a content frame. In my thesis the religious experience category refers in fact to the Christian experience. This experience is certainly different in different religions (in its object, intensity, forms of expression, frequency, meaning), but the problem of intercultural differentiation of religious states was not the aim of my scrutiny. G. W. Allport reminds us that even within one religious tradition there are differences, caused, among others, by personal factors. Philosophers of the phenomenologist variety (among others, R. Otto, M. Scheler, W. Gruehn), while looking for the eidos of religious acts, draw attention to the existential, interpersonal, dynamic character of a religious relation, they point to the “sense of holiness”, an inherent disposition, an a priori capability to perceive the numinosum. The models of religious experience proposed by them are of an ideal, empirically unverifiable character. Each attempt at expressing their nature is doomed to failure, since the language of scientific, as well as philosophic discourse is incapable of expressing personal experiences, individualized reactions of the subject (emotional, intellectual, physiological), occurring in the religious relation. Phenomenologists are striving to find universal categories, which would make it possible to describe the nature of these spectacular feelings, thus isolating man, the subject of these acts, from real life. Philosophical hermeneutics of W. Dilthey, H.-G. Gadamer and P. Ricoeur recognizes the “truth claims” of humanist sciences, philosophy and religion included, it constitutes an incentive for the studies of individual experience, of an individual’s inner world of feelings. In this vein one could speak of a validation of the vernacular common sense cognition. The scientist can reconstruct the world of his/her respondents without an authoritarian approach, prejudices, unjustified “feeling of superiority” and conviction that there is only one (scientific) truth. In the scientific exploration of the religious experience issue, an intentionally “naïve” approach, in the words of P. L. Berger, seems the most adequate one. Hermeneutics, emphasizing a linguistic and “historic” character of every cognition, inspires one to gather records of religious experience from people rooted in a given environment, tangled in the problems specific to their time, shaped by a given cultural and religious tradition. Upon entering the realms of spirituality, which are so difficult to describe in an empirical way, a sociologist has to focus his/her study on a religious person, who, the language barriers notwithstanding, is trying to show an intimate fragment of subjective reality to the others. He/she is aware that “the deep meaning structure” of a religious doctrine forms the cognitive scheme, which shapes the way reality is being understood. The scheme becomes an interpretation filter, a perspective from which the homo religiosus perceives the world. To operationalize the rather vague concept of religious experience for the purposes of an empirical study, one assumes a simple definition: these are experiences, reflections, feelings, sensations, states, which the subject him/herself associates with “extra-empirical,” “sacral,” “ultimate” reality. In a sociologist perspective – like in hermeneutics – what matters is the social aspect of the experience, which happens in a social space, in a specific time and place, and is related to the social, historical and cultural background of the individual. II. Representatives of various fields of science explain the phenomenon of human religiosity in numerous ways. In my thesis I confront their concepts with those of vernacular Christians. Believers (the ones more prone to reflection) are also trying to rationalize their faith, find logical arguments to motivate it, often quote cosmological (or, less frequently, ontological) proofs for the existence of God, known to philosophy. Sometimes they get convinced by empirically inexplicable phenomena, viewed as divine interventions of the Sacred (miracles). Some recount “personal meetings with the Transcendent,” write about conversions, intense mystical experiences, or refer to the authority of “significant others,” pointing to authentic faith of people they respect (usually parents, priests). Not having experienced a “religious epiphany” themselves, they are however convinced that a union with God can indeed be forged. Firm believers see signs of the Transcendent in their daily life, and many such phenomena strengthen their conviction that a religious attitude is the right one. Then, they are guided by a “total intuition,” a holistic worldview approach, which combines intellectual, emotional and volitive elements. Homo religiosus is trying to make life choices in relation to the numinosum, which is of a personal significance to him/her, a reality that is mysterious, but profoundly sensed. III. For the majority of contemporary people (not only the believers), the most important “significant other” of the 20 th century was Pope John Paul II. The Pope was a formal and emancipatory authority, one representing the highest authority of the Church, but most importantly, a charismatic personality whose attitude – a testimony of his very life – attested to the word he preached. His strength did not rely on physical force, skilful persuasion techniques or rhetorical agility, but full credibility, stemming from a compliance of logos with ethos. Polish luminaries of culture and art, who met him, recall an experience of complete authenticity and significance, which had a profound impact on their religious life. This experience is an emotionally engaging one, which changes the “subjective reality” of the person involved and shapes his/her thoughts and actions. Their written memories to a large extent show a strong conviction about duality of existence; in their opinion the Pope, as the highest Church authority, stands for Jesus, is his most important representative on Earth, and is somehow closest to the intangible sacred reality. Thus, it seems natural to seek a direct meeting with the Pope, who, in addition, is a fellow Pole, and one respected worldwide at that. Believers granted a look, a handshake, a smile, were leaving reinforced: ‘I was holding a blessing in my hand,’ said one of the female participants of such a meeting. Not only a direct, but also indirect meetings with the Pope (by means of reading his philosophical, theological or literary works) were significant experiences for the believers. IV. People who took part in the empirical study were members of a Łódź ethos group, called Renewal in the Holy Spirit, a community with a distinct value and moral system. Their religious experience is one of a profound emotional intensity. They all write and speak of a biographical breakthrough that took place in their lives. Coming in contact with a Catholic charismatic movement has changed their outlook on life and judgments. Activating the attachment system (in their words: forging a personal attachment to God), strong emotional experience of the proximity of the numinosum, brought out their best features – love for the other, willingness to give help, sense of joy and meaning of life. Therefore, they serve in penal institutions, hospitals, prisons, day-centres. In their opinion, “conversion,” as they call their metanoi, brought a new sense to their daily lives. One could think that their deep faith can move mountains; they are convinced of an incessant presence of God in their lives. In the chapter devoted to the Renewal in the Holy Spirit members, I focus on showing consequential aspects of religious experience. The respondents redefine their past, but what is most important is their reality, redirected by a new credibility structure, focussed on the sacred and fellow human being, especially one in need. V. Free-form interviews about religious experience with inhabitants of a rural parish provide a wide material depicting very personal fragments of the respondents’ subjective reality, making it possible to show several threads exemplifying a religious model of the contemporary homo religious. In my survey sample, I identified a group of religious virtuosi, people with an absolute religious pitch. These people are very adamant and explicit about a dichotomy between the tangible and supernatural world. Interestingly, they are able to approach the second one in their dreams as well (onirical sensitivity). The virtuosi possess a miracular mentality, they ennoble the extra-rational sphere (like H. Bergson, they are of the opinion that not only the intellect, but also the intuition is a valuable source of cognition), they perceive miraculous events and resort to religious attributes also in their daily lives, they see the hand of God and signs of his activity everywhere. Their religious experience is dominated by emotions, through prayer they bond with the Perfect Objects of Attachment (a particular adoration is given to their patron saints), they conduct an inner dialogue with them, they confide their troubles and joys to them, they count on them for a special intercession with God. Some of them recall specific moments of “falling for” God, meetings that changed their lives. For them, faith is a perceived value, admitted and realized (practiced) not only during solemn occasions; they consistently accept the Christian doctrine and have no argument whatsoever with the word of the Church in all matters moral; they take part in the life of their parish communities, try to update their daily life according to the deeply internalized Catholic rules. I have identified three groups within the believing, practicing country inhabitants: supernaturalists, verticalists and horizontalists. Supernaturalists straddle the two worlds, so to speak; they give more thought to the eternal than daily life and deprecate the autonomous value of life on Earth. Faith of the verticalists, very personal and deeply internalized, is reflected in their very lives; they appreciate daily values, but emphasize that they are “beings towards life”. Horizontalists succumb to the “overpowering force of the society,” take part in Sunday mess, obligatory for the Catholics, but do not perceive faith as a relation with a religious object. My respondents from the “country group” are active, most religiously involved people. One could say (getting back to P. L. Berger and Th. Tuckman) that their subjective reality is constructed and legitimized within the frames of a religious universe, a religious system of meanings. However, these people constitute a small percentage of the inhabitants of the village, which, like all rural areas of Poland, is subject to cultural processes, changes of a social and religious nature. Lay ways of life and axiological pluralism proliferate here as well. Representative surveys show that rural inhabitants step away from Church orthodoxy in its doctrinal and moral aspect (though faith declaration and high mess-attendance rate remain stable). Model features of folk religiosity, presented by S. Czarnowski, undergo modifications, which is partly connected to the influence of the mass media, weakening of social control and appropriating a city lifestyle. VI. The next group comprised inhabitants of two cities in central Poland. Based on their accounts of religious experience, I identified – referring to Allport in a somewhat unorthodox way – three types of religiosity (inner, outer, religiosity without faith) and areligiosity, considering different attitudes the believers present towards the Catholic Church. Respondents from this group turned out to be heteroorthodox in their religious beliefs, selective in accepting religious dogmas, sometimes rejecting the word of the Magisterium in moral matters, as well as religiously syncretic (Luckman’s bricolage). These attitudes are implicitly pluralist, devoid of one universal structure of credibility. Modernity is governed by individualism (lack of group pressure, shaping one’s life freely at one’s will), it is also important to accept the proliferation of attitudes and different opinions (the rule of differentiation). One could speak of parting with traditional authorities – in this group strong anticlerical opinions were also visible. Subjects question transcendental character of the Church, they want to make their own decisions as to the scope of their religious involvement and solve their moral dilemmas individually, not according to the teachings of an “institution standing guard to faith and mores”. Undoubtedly relativism and uncertainty of all judgement, typical to the postmodern culture, are reflected in the condition of contemporary Christians as well. Observers of contemporary religious life in Poland notice a dynamic struggle of values and attitudes of the postfigurative culture (according to M. Mead’s approach) with new cultural patterns and customs. They anticipate westernization of Polish Catholicism, a selectivity of faith, larger privatisation of religion, growing sacralisation of the profane sphere (cult of consumption, body, etc) VII. The biggest survey group comprised junior sociology students, who filled out question forms and gave extensive answers to many questions, mostly about religious experience. Students who declare their faith in God gave many arguments, which had convinced them their beliefs are right. Apart from most commonly quoted examples (complexity of the world, existence of inexplicable phenomena, authority of significant others) they were also pointing to spiritual elements in culture and universal moral order (universality of conscience). Interestingly, almost all students professing themselves as believers were writing that they had felt the presence of God, recounting common, but emotionally engaging religious experiences. Empirical study has also shown the existence of negative reactions, caused by the “contact with the supernatural sphere”. Several people pointed to the states of tremendu, described in philosophic literature (R. Otto), feelings of fear, total dependence and one’s inferiority in the face of the numinosum. Young people are fond of experimenting, also in religious matters. Before they reach an integrated worldview identity, they question authority, lack consistency, present a “shaky value system,” an ambivalent orientation. Psychologists deem it a natural stage on the way to maturity, a “storm, to reconstruct at a later point,” however the influence of the postmodern philosophy is not to be disregarded. It is apparent that they are critical of the institution of the Church. This criticism stems from many factors, but the interviews suggest that the main problem is disagreement with the Catholic sexual ethics. One has to note a low rate of religious practices among the students (30% participate in Sunday mess, but only 9% each Sunday). More than every fourth student declared religious indifference or atheism (27% in total). Still, it is highly legitimate to conclude that the respondents feel a strong need of the Transcendent. Believers pointed mostly to the therapeutic, progressive and sense-providing function of religion in their lives. Using the empirical material I gathered, I created a religious typology of sociology students, based on two parameters: religious experience and realizatory aspect of faith (cult practices). Among the believers, as well as the undecided (searching) were people practicing and non-practicing, those who admitted they feel the presence of an Ideal Object of Attachment, but have no personal relation to the Sacred. VIII. Further to my empirical studies, one could formulate some general conclusions. Deepened religiosity (intense, central in W. Prężyna, inner in G. Allport, humanist in E. Fromm, mature in M. Jarosz, etc) can become a catalyst for altruistic actions; compels to self-work, improving oneself; enhances one’s family, work and neighbour relations. Intense emotional engagement gives one positive reinforcement, provides a sense of strength, enthusiasm and joy of life, allows one to bear problems in a stoic manner, gives sense to one’s existence. People taking part in my survey, especially those whom I called religious virtuosi, were speaking of their involvement in broadening the religious relation by means of prayer and other cult practices. Many factors can lead to faith deepening – one’s own activity: reading Bible, books and religious newspapers, participation in religion lectures, pilgrimages, movements and rallies, example of other true believers, etc). Faith of the virtuosi persists and deepens due to a large role of social credibility structures, which enforce and confirm religious convictions and practices. Religious virtuosi – supernaturalists and verticalists – and members of the ethos group conduct a continuous inner dialogue with the Ideal Object of Attachment, address numerous pleas to him, but also speak of an autotelic need to worship him, to selflessly adore (contemplate) him. Spontaneous prayers include, therefore, pleas for a blessing, but also thanksgiving and worshipping. Relations with the object of “extradirectional” religious practices are usually egocentric, instrumental. “Traditional,” non-internalized (outer, peripheral, immature, atrophic) faith has no significant influence on the individual’s life. However, it gives one a sense of community, belonging to a group of a similar worldview, which is cultivating religious mores. In such situations it is an admitted, though not necessarily religiously perceived value. Fulfilling religious practices adds to a sense of inner peace, mental balance of the believers (which is of particular importance in the face of an ever more stressful way of life). The most important function of religion is the therapeutic one. In the case of horizontalists, extradirectional people, an important factor that disheartens them from developing their faith and realizing religion practices – based on the interviews – is a negative example of unethical behaviour of the Church members, mostly priests and common Catholics. Analysing social life in its entirety, one could assume that these are not the only, and maybe not even the most important reasons of religious passivity. One should also note the difficulties posed by ethical requirements of the faith, allure of the lay way of life, crisis of environmental and institutional religious socialization, and the influence of the mass media, promoting liberal, relativist or individualist attitudes. A sociologist is also aware of social and cultural changes contemporary societies are undergoing on the way towards a pluralist model. Traditional forms of religiosity are being questioned also in Poland, freedom of choice conduces subjectivist attitudes of religiosity and areligiosity. Another vital ascertainment is related to the specificity of the religious experience of a Polish homo religiosus. In a real world it is seldom that we experience extraordinary, mystical states (although it seems they concern common believers as well, to some extent), more often a religious experience is expressed in the subject’s directing him/herself at God, to paraphrase Heidegger one could say “being towards the eternal life”. A deeply religious person has a sense of connection with the numinosum and performs religious attributions on a daily basis, using a religious frame of reference, drawing from a religious system of meanings, senses and values. Religious experience is of a processual nature, it is a permanent (incessant, constant) state of progression and regression, it is conditioned by factors related to the subject’s nature (personality, emotions, worldview), and socio-cultural ones. Existential situation of the subject is not to be disregarded either, i.e. life events, cultural patterns, place of the individual in a social structure, belonging to a specific religious group – all these can change the way the Sacred is being contacted. Broadening the semantic field of the “religious experience” expression, one could say that it refers not only to the exceptional mystical religious acts, but also common experiences, which the subject relates to the Transcendent. In Christianity it is of a personal character, understood as a relation to a humanlike (though incidentally personified) Absolute. Object of a religious relation is a non-ostensive one, however, it becomes an “object that is being experienced”. Experience in a broad sense of the word is formed by emotional, as well as intellectual, volition and motivation elements, but in perceiving the numinosum’s proximity it is the affective sphere that is of fundamental importance. Emotions are prerogatives of an authentic religious involvement, they govern the dynamic process of approaching and getting away from the object of religious relation, to a large extent they control practical consequences of faith. Religiosity devoid of the emotional component becomes an empty, existentially irrelevant form, having no significant impact upon daily life. In my studies I focus on one variable of religiosity – religious experience (a Christian one), other dimensions thereof were put to the background of the experience, which is, in Janusz Mariański’s words, “a fundament of all other religious acts and actions;” they make it possible to characterize religious involvement of the believers. I did not expound upon the meaning of religious knowledge, which is an important variable of religiosity. A test of theoretical competence, conducted among students and “religious virtuosi” allowed me, however, to reach some conclusions: acquaintance with Christian doctrine, Bible and religious terminology is directly linked with the “virtuosi’s” profound religiosity. On the other hand, I noted a low rate of religious knowledge among the young, those professing themselves as religious and those indifferent, ambivalent or non-believing alike. Religiosity has a dynamic character, its nature and meaning change in an ontogenetic development of an individual and in the course of his or her daily life. It is different during the period of adolescence (unsteady and uncertain) maturity (less susceptible to change), and old age (when a natural turn towards existential question occurs). A contemporary homo religiosus is subject to historic, cultural and social influences, but in certain ways remains the same as before: looking for God, finding, leaving and getting back again, as – in the words of M. Eliade – there is an “unchangeable nucleus of religion,” a universal structure of the human mind, which makes everyone, at least potentially, a religious creature. Let us proceed to a metacritical reflection. According to the directives of interpretative and reconstructive studies, I focused on a world constituted by social actors, religious people, and attempted to understand their cognitive and axiological perspective. I wanted to describe their world of meaning, their spontaneous and pragmatic orientation in everyday life. My approach is an exploratory one, because it concerns aspects of life that are less known. The subject of religious experience is very rarely broached in scientific discourse, and in social life it is a taboo one. In my study one could speak of a triangulation of data (it is derived from a variety of sources; elicited and chanced upon, consolidated and nonconsolidated), methodological triangulation (I made use of various data gathering strategies, like participant observation, free-form interviews, given-out and auditorium surveys), theoretical triangulation (while interpreting the data, I have taken into account many theoretical perspectives: philosophical, psychological, sociological). H.-G. Gadamer, the most eminent representative of philosophical hermeneutics, reminds us that each perspective is to a certain degree imperfect, it does not reveal the entire truth. The Polish homo religiosus book is but an attempt at approaching the phenomenon of religious (Christian) experience – a phenomenon which is intrinsically difficult to explore. I hope it will inspire further studies and I leave it to my readers to evaluate its heuristic merit. - Dostawca treści:
- Biblioteka Nauki
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