Search results for ""author jan-olav henriksen""

Friedrich Nietzsche claimed to be a psychologist. This claim is substantiated in his criticism of religion. In this book, Jan-Olav Henriksen provides new perspectives on Nietzsche's contribution to such criticism by applying elements from attachment theory and self-psychology. The result is that Nietzsche's insights into the problematic elements in religion point beyond what he was able to articulate based on the psychological resources available to him. Henriksen sheds new light on the psychological dimensions in Nietzsche's individualism, his understanding of God, morality, metaphysics and emotions, and demonstrates how Nietzsche's criticism of religion is rooted in both psychological splitting and a profound loss of the orientational resources religion provided in his childhood.

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In this book, Jan-Olav Henriksen presents an argument for understanding religion as an expression of different types of practices: those of orientation, transformation, and reflection. Instead of understanding religion first and foremost on the basis of doctrine and propositionally articulated belief, he argues that religions should be seen primarily as practices that mediate symbolic resources for orientation and transformation. The meaning of doctrine and reflection is constituted by its relation to such practices. Thus, doctrine does not constitute religion. This approach allows for a maximalist understanding of religion, i.e. seeing religions as a variety of phenomena relating to all dimensions of human experience. This is not possible to understand from a reductionist perspective. The volume offers a concrete, practice-orientated and pragmatistic understanding of the role of religion in different realms of human life.

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