Religija ir tekstas: žvilgsnis į hermeneutinę orientalizmo problematiką

ENThe article deals with the problem of interpreting and evaluating Indian religion from the contemporary postcolonial perspective. The author explores the interconnection of postcolonial theory with the comparative study of religions by considering the roots of modern Western thought in the philosophical and social revolution known as the Enlightenment. As a result, a brief schematic overview of some cultural presuppositions of modern Western society is laid out in order to show how they directly impinge upon the academic study of religion. The term religion has a history that is bound up with the cultural and intellectual history of the West and therefore deserves attention in any discussion about the nature of "religious studies" as a discipline. The Protestant Reformation in Europe triggered an exceedingly "text-oriented" approach to knowledge and religion in the modern West. The literary bias within Christian and post-Christian conceptions of religion also contributed to a homogenization of other cultures thereby also affecting the wav they are represented publicly. The hermeneutical philosophy of Hans Georg Gadamer is explored with regard to the question of the limits of cross-cultural understanding and the textual bias of modern concepts of religion. In his article, the author brings up some specific and unique features of Buddhist hermeneutics and exegesis encountered in the interpretation of the Buddhist scriptures. The implications of realizing that ideology plays an integral part in the very act of understanding, interpreting or studying Hinduism and Buddhism are drawn.The recent responses to H. Said's work are explored with a particular reference to the developments within the field of Indology. The idea is defended that religious studies as a discipline might better conceive of itself as a form of cultural studies rather than an offshoot of theology. The author argues for the state of mutual imbrication of religion, culture and power as categories, because religion and culture are the field in which power relations operate.