Dictionary of Philosophy of Religion

(Dana P.) #1

MEANING


148

reacting against his neo-Hegelian idealism,
went on to found modern analytic phi-
losophy. McTaggart’s chief works include
Studies in the Hegelian Dialectic (1896),
“The Unreality of Time” (1908), and The
Nature of Existence (2 vols., 1921–1927).
See also TIME.


MEANING. Questions about the mean-
ing of a place, action, or event often
involve questions about the cause or
consequences of the thing in question
or its significance and value. Questions of
meaning may therefore be quite broad
in philosophy of religion, and include
the broadest of all questions: What is the
meaning of life? A Buddhist answer to
this question will differ from a Christian
answer. Questions about the meaning of
texts raise theoretical questions about the
significance of the original intention of
the author(s), the surrounding, historical
conditions, and the current conditions
in which the text is encountered. The
practice (art) of interpreting texts is called
hermeneutics (from the Greek hermenia
for “interpretation” or “explanation”).
Theories of meaning that stress the
intended meaning by the author or
speaker are called internal theories, while
theories that stress established public
usage are called external theories. See also
HERMENEUTICS.


MEDIATION. In philosophy of religion,
mediation is of concern in the context of


religious experience, prayer, Christology,
and redemption. In religious experience,
philosophers debate whether the experi-
ence of God (or the sacred) can be direct
or whether it must be mediated by sen-
sory or some other cognitive state. In
prayer, some believe that one can pray to
a saint or angel to intercede on one’s
behalf. In Christology, Jesus is tradition-
ally understood to be the mediator
between God the Father and the world.
In matters of redemption, historically there
have been controversies over whether the
church needs to function as a mediator
between the soul and God and over
whether Mary is a proper mediator in a
soul’s journey to redemption.

MEDITATION. A contemplative state of
mind that has a different but sometimes
closely related role in different religions.
So, in theistic religions, there is a common
practice of persons contemplating scrip-
ture or icons or a holy teaching in the
course of the practitioner opening her
mind to the presence of God. In Buddhism,
meditation often takes a different course
in which the goal of meditation may be to
see through the diaphanous, spurious
nature of ego-driven desire and to see the
unreality of the ostensible substantial self.

MENCIUS (a.k.a. Meng Tzu) (371–289
BCE). Mencius is the Latinized form of
Mengzi (Master Meng). Mencius was, after
Confucius himself, the most important
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