BBP · Bridging Belief and Practice

Bridging Belief and Practice

In contemporary study of religion there is a gap between research of religious beliefs, on the one hand, and research of religious practices, on the other. The former is investigated in philosophy of religion, while the latter is investigated in religious anthropology, ethnology and other empirical disciplines. As a result, the totality of religion turns out to be artificially split, and the investigations cease to study any link between religious beliefs and religious actions. This link is positioned in “no man’s land” between the two branches of investigation. Research gap between the study of beliefs and the study of practices is gradually being recognized by the philosophers. Prominent researchers recently articulated that in contemporary philosophy religious practices, and their embodied and extended aspects, are undertheorized, which has negative consequences for investigation of religion. However, no solution was proposed so far. The aim of the project was to bridge the aforementioned research gap by reconsidering the concept of belief, and emphasizing its embodied aspects. Even though beliefs and practices are heterogeneous issues, there is one thing which unites them and serves as their core – human body. We form beliefs on the basis of embodied perception and practice beliefs using our bodily capabilities to move, speak, dance etc. The project reached its goal by elucidation of undertheorized embodied properties of religious belief and then reconsidering the relation between beliefs and practices within embodied framework. The chosen method allowed to provide explanation of some discrepancies of religious beliefs and practices (‘belief as an artefact’), which gives insight into the nature of religious disagreement and can be potentially used to improve inter-religious dialogue. Finally, a new conceptual framework for the investigation of the link between beliefs and practices, that can be used both by empirical researchers and philosophers, was developed.

Data: CORDIS, © European Union