discussions binds the as-qualification primarily with the recognizee (B),
the role of the recognizer (A) remains in the shadow. Remarkably,
religious texts often say that the primary change and transformation
nevertheless occurs in A. Such sharpening of the roles of the recognizer
and the recognizee is one of the basic historicalfindings of this study.
The overall result in all three religious paradigms is, however, that both
A and B undergo a cognitive transformation in the act of recognition.
The modern paradigm tends to shift this transformation towards the
recognizee, understanding it as a status change in B.
Some philosophical insights can be better understood as a result.
For instance, ourfindings bear a certain affinity with Ricoeur’s
hypothesis that the older active voice of‘recognizing’has become
replaced by a passive voice. I do not think, however, that the difference
between active and passive voice captures the historical shift in all
respects, as older texts often employ the passive voice as well. Rather,
the statement‘I recognize you’in older texts tends to resemble sen-
tences like‘I promise you’, in which the recognizer commits himself.
More recently, however, this statement resembles the paradigm
‘I appoint you’, in which the performative status change focuses on the
recognizee. This historical shift has probably contributed to Ricoeur’s
hypothesis, but the semantic issue is a broader one. Obviously, both
‘I’and‘you’are affected in many instances of recognition.
4.2.4. The Role of AppropriationReligious recognition strongly and consistently employs the idea of
personal attachment or appropriation, as was evident in the Latin
verbagnosco, which often adds a personal involvement to cognition.
The verb commendo, the prominent downward counterpart of
upward recognition since medieval times, relates recognition to the
Ciceronian theme of self-preservation and the feudal theme of social
bonding. Nevertheless, the present study is, as far as I know, thefirst
one to show this link between recognition and the classical philo-
sophical topic of appropriation.
We can clearly distinguish among three historical paradigms of
religious recognition with regard to personal attachment. The ancient
paradigm of conversion employs this primarily as experience-related
and sometimes legal as well. In religious conversion, the recognizer
adopts a higher truth or authority with the help of his personal experi-
ence. This experience is typically interpreted as a non-philosophical,
208 Recognition and Religion