Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-t8hqh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T14:02:59.908Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

African religions, mythic narratives, and conceptual enrichment in the philosophy of religion

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 March 2020

MIKEL BURLEY Open the ORCID record for MIKEL BURLEY [Opens in a new window]
MIKEL BURLEY*
Affiliation:
School of Philosophy, Religion and History of Science, University of Leeds, Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK
*
e-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Myths, or sacred narratives, have been underexplored in mainstream philosophy of religion, which has also had little to say about African indigenous religions. These lacunae impoverish the philosophy of religion by diminishing its coverage both of the range of human religious possibilities and of the diverse modes through which religious ideas and world-views are conveyed. With particular attention to Yorùbá religion, this article promotes and exemplifies a pluralistic narrative approach that draws upon mythology to facilitate philosophical reflection upon a wider array of religious traditions, for the dual purpose of doing conceptual justice to those traditions while also furthering the discipline's conceptual enrichment.

Type
Original Article
Information
Religious Studies , Volume 58 , Issue 1 , March 2022 , pp. 1 - 17
Check for updates
Copyright
Copyright © The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adepegba, Cornelius O. (2008) ‘Associated place-names and sacred icons of seven Yorùbá deities: historicity in Yorùbá religious traditions’, in Olupona, Jacob K. & Rey, Terry (eds) Òrìṣà Devotion as World Religion: The Globalization of Yorùbá Religious Culture (Madison WI: University of Wisconsin Press), 106–127.Google Scholar
Àjàyí, Ọmọ́fọlábọ̀ S. (1998) Yoruba Dance: The Semiotics of Movement and Body Attitude in a Nigerian Culture (Trenton NJ: Africa World Press).Google Scholar
Awolalu, J. O. (1975) ‘What is African traditional religion?’, Studies in Comparative Religion, 9, 52–63.Google Scholar
Awolalu, J. Ọmọṣade (1976) ‘Sin and its removal in African traditional religion’, Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 44, 275–287.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Awolalu, J. Omosade (1979) Yorùbá Beliefs and Sacrificial Rites (London: Longman).Google Scholar
Bascom, William (1957) ‘The myth–ritual theory’, Journal of American Folklore, 70, 103–114.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Beier, Ulli (1975) The Return of the Gods: The Sacred Art of Susanne Wenger (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).Google Scholar
Beier, Ulli (1980) Yoruba Myths (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).Google Scholar
Bloemendaal, P. F. (2006) Grammars of Faith: A Critical Evaluation of D. Z. Phillips's Philosophy of Religion (Leuven: Peeters).Google Scholar
Brenner, Louis (2000) ‘Muslim divination and the history of religion in sub-Saharan Africa’, in Pemberton, John (ed.) Insight and Artistry: A Cross-Cultural Study of Divination in Central and West Africa (Washington: Smithsonian Institute Press), 45–59.Google Scholar
Brown, David H. (director) (2007) Orisha Dance from Cuba [DVD] (Folkcuba.com).Google Scholar
Burley, Mikel (2017) ‘“The happy side of Babel”: radical plurality, narrative fiction and the philosophy of religion’, Method and Theory in the Study of Religion, 29, 101–132.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Burley, Mikel (2019) ‘Narrative philosophy of religion: apologetic and pluralistic orientations’, International Journal for Philosophy of Religion. DOI: 10.1007/s11153-019-09730-1.Google Scholar
Burley, Mikel (2020) A Radical Pluralist Philosophy of Religion: Cross-Cultural, Multireligious, Interdisciplinary (London: Bloomsbury).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Courlander, Harold (1973) Tales of Yoruba Gods and Heroes (Greenwich CT: Fawcett).Google Scholar
Drewal, Henry John (2016) ‘Ifá: visual and sensorial aspects’, in Olupona, Jacob K. & Abiodun, Rowland O. (eds) Ifá Divination, Knowledge, Power, and Performance (Bloomington IN: Indiana University Press), 325–339.Google Scholar
Durkheim, Émile (1983) [1955] Pragmatism and Sociology, Allcock, John B. (ed.), Whitehouse, J. C. (tr.) (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).Google Scholar
Eliade, Mircea (1963) Myth and Reality, Trask, Willard R. (tr.) (New York: Harper & Row).Google Scholar
Ellis, A. B. (1894) The Yoruba-Speaking Peoples of the Slave Coast of West Africa: Their Religion, Manners, Customs, Laws, Language, Etc. (London: Chapman & Hall).Google Scholar
Falola, Toyin, & Childs, Matt D. (eds) (2004) The Yoruba Diaspora in the Atlantic World (Bloomington IN: Indiana University Press).Google Scholar
Graham, William A. (1987) Beyond the Written Word: Oral Aspects of Scripture in the History of Religion (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).Google Scholar
Grillo, Laura, van Klinken, Adriaan, & Ndzovu, Hassan J. (2019) Religions in Contemporary Africa: An Introduction (Abingdon: Routledge).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hick, John (2004) An Interpretation of Religion: Human Responses to the Transcendent, 2nd edn (Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Idowu, E. Bọlaji (1962) Olódùmarè: God in Yoruba Belief (London: Longmans).Google Scholar
Idowu, E. Bolaji (1973) African Traditional Religion: A Definition (London: SCM Press).Google Scholar
Imasogie, Osadolor (1985) African Traditional Religion, 2nd edn (Ibadan: University Press).Google Scholar
Jung, C. G. (1969) The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious, Hull, R. F. C. (tr.), 2nd edn (Princeton NJ: Princeton University Press).Google Scholar
Karade, Baba Ifa (1994) The Handbook of Yoruba Religious Concepts (York Beach ME: Weiser Books).Google Scholar
Kayode, J. O. (1984) Understanding African Traditional Religion (Ile-Ife: University of Ife Press).Google Scholar
Lele, Ócha'ni (2012) Sacrificial Ceremonies of Santería: A Complete Guide to the Rituals and Practices (Rochester VT: Destiny Books).Google Scholar
Mbiti, John S. (1988) ‘Flowers in the garden: the role of women in African religion’, Cahiers des Religions Africaines, 22, 69–82.Google Scholar
Nagasawa, Yujin, & Burley, Mikel (eds) (2020) Religious Studies, Special issue: ‘Philosophy of religions: cross-cultural, multi-religious approaches’, 56, no. 1.Google Scholar
Oladipo, Olusegun (2004) ‘Religion in African culture: some conceptual issues’, in Wiredu, Kwasi (ed.) A Companion to African Philosophy (Malden MA: Blackwell), 355–363.Google Scholar
Olúpò̩nà, Jacob K. (2011) City of 201 Gods: Ilé-Ifè̩ in Time, Space, and the Imagination (Berkeley CA: University of California Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olúpò̩nà, Jacob K. (2014) African Religions: A Very Short Introduction (Oxford: Oxford University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Olúpò̩nà, Jacob K., & Rey, Terry (2008) ‘Introduction’, in Olupona, Jacob K. & Rey, Terry (eds) Òrìṣà Devotion as World Religion: The Globalization of Yorùbá Religious Culture (Madison WI: University of Wisconsin Press), 3–28.Google Scholar
Omari-Tunkara, Mikelle Smith (2005) Manipulating the Sacred: Yorùbá Art, Ritual, and Resistance in Brazilian Candomblé (Detroit MI: Wayne State University Press).Google Scholar
Oodua Voice Television (2017) Wonders of Sango festival 2017. 30 August, <https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUsBr2SFxKY> [accessed 2 August 2019].+[accessed+2+August+2019].>Google Scholar
Parrinder, Geoffrey (1954) African Traditional Religion (London: Hutchinson's University Library).Google Scholar
Parrinder, Geoffrey (2000) In the Belly of the Snake: West Africa Over Sixty Years Ago (Peterborough: Methodist Publishing House).Google Scholar
p'Bitek, Okot (1971) African Religions in Western Scholarship (Kampala: East African Literature Bureau).Google Scholar
Peel, J. D. Y. (2000) Religious Encounter and the Making of the Yoruba (Bloomington IN: Indiana University Press).Google Scholar
Peel, J. D. Y. (2016) Christianity, Islam, and Oriṣa Religion: Three Traditions in Comparison and Interaction (Oakland CA: University of California Press).Google Scholar
Phillips, D. Z. (2001) Religion and the Hermeneutics of Contemplation (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Phillips, D. Z. (2007) ‘Philosophy's radical pluralism in the house of intellect – a reply to Henk Vroom’, in Sanders, Andy F. (ed.) D. Z. Phillips’ Contemplative Philosophy of Religion: Questions and Responses (Aldershot: Ashgate), 197–211.Google Scholar
Raglan, Lord (1955) ‘Myth and ritual’, Journal of American Folklore, 68, 454–461.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sadiku, Matthew N. O. (1996) ‘The Yoruba’, in Okehie-Offoha, Marcellina Ulunma & Sadiku, Matthew N. O. (eds) Ethnic and Cultural Diversity in Nigeria (Trenton NJ: Africa World Press), 125–147.Google Scholar
Schilbrack, Kevin (2002) ‘Introduction: on the use of philosophy in the study of myths’, in Schilbrack, Kevin (ed.) Thinking through Myths: Philosophical Perspectives (London: Routledge), 1–17.Google Scholar
Schilbrack, Kevin (2014a) ‘The future of philosophy of religion’, Sophia, 53, 383–388.10.1007/s11841-014-0433-1CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schilbrack, Kevin (2014b) Philosophy and the Study of Religions: A Manifesto (Malden MA: Wiley-Blackwell).Google Scholar
Taiwo, Olufemi (2008) ‘Òrìṣà: a prolegomenon to a philosophy of Yorùbá religion’, in Olupona, Jacob K. & Rey, Terry (eds) Òrìṣà Devotion as World Religion: The Globalization of Yorùbá Religious Culture (Madison WI: University of Wisconsin Press), 84–105.Google Scholar
Tilley, Terrence W. (2000) ‘The philosophy of religion and the concept of religion: D. Z. Phillips on religion and superstition’, Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 68, 345–356.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wiredu, Kwasi (1997) ‘African philosophical tradition: a case study of the Akan’, in Pittman, John P. (ed.) African-American Perspectives and Philosophical Traditions (New York: Routledge), 35–62.Google Scholar
Wiredu, Kwasi (1998) ‘On decolonising African religions’, in Coetzee, P. H. & Roux, A. P. J. (eds) The African philosophy reader (London: Routledge), 186–204.Google Scholar
Wiredu, Kwasi (2004) ‘Introduction: African philosophy in our time’, in Wiredu, Kwasi (ed.) A Companion to African Philosophy (Malden MA: Blackwell), 1–27.Google Scholar
Wiredu, Kwasi (2010) ‘African religions from a philosophical point of view’, in Taliaferro, Charles, Draper, Paul & Quinn, Philip L. (eds) A Companion to Philosophy of Religion, 2nd edn (Malden MA: Wiley-Blackwell), 34–43.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wiredu, Kwasi (2013) ‘African religions’, in Meister, Chad & Copan, Paul (eds) The Routledge Companion to Philosophy of Religion, 2nd edn (Abingdon: Routledge), 29–38.Google Scholar
Wittgenstein, Ludwig (1966) Lectures and Conversations on Aesthetics, Psychology and Religious Belief, Barrett, Cyril (ed.) (Oxford: Blackwell).Google Scholar