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第7号
丹羽 充 Mitsuru Niwa「信念」概念の再考 : 米国の保守福音派キリスト教徒について
Rethinking the Concept "Belief" : A Case study of the Conservative Evangelicals in the United States
2009年08月 発行
[ 要旨 ]
本稿は、「ファンダメンタリスト」と呼ばれ強固な「信念」を持つとされる米国の「保守福音派キリスト教徒」を事例として、「信念（動詞形「信じる」）」という記述概念の再考を試みるものである。「信念」という概念は、それによって描かれ（得）る他者の特徴がどのようなことなのかということがあまり議論されることのない、問題含みの言葉である。そしてこの言葉は、特に宗教を対象とした人文学・社会諸科学において、他者を描くための記述概念として頻繁に用いられる極めて重要なものでもある。この概念を定式化するとともにその射程を明確化することは極めて重要な作業だといえるだろう。
より具体的には、保守福音派キリスト教徒に関するこれまでの研究において「信念」という概念がどのような意味で用いられてきたのか、何を記述してきたのかということを精査していく。その上で、それを事例と照らし合わせながらその妥当性について検討を行うとともに、言語哲学の理論的成果を援用しながらより適切な「信念」概念の定式化を目指す。こうした作業を通じて「信念」という概念の限界と今後の可能性を明らかにすることが、本稿の目的である。
[ Abstract ]
The aim of this essay is to rethink .belief (believe)," as a descriptive concept, through the case study of Conservative Evangelicals in the United States, often referred as Christian Fundamentalists and associated with extreme belief.
.Belief" is the word very often used, especially in studies of religion, as a descriptive concept, or the concept used to sketch and describe the other. However, the use of this concept tends to be mere customary even in academic literatures. In other words, the attributes of the other people which could be sketched out and described by this descriptive concept have occasionally remained unclear. It is obvious that .belief" is one of the most problematic concepts in the study of religion, therefore, it must be reformulated and its range of validity must be reconsidered and clarified.
This essay explores how the descriptive concept .belief" has been used in the literatures about the Conservative Evangelicals in the United States, more specifically, what, of their attributes, has been sketched out and described by this concept. The literatures mainly analyzed are those written by two anthropologists. They are The Book of the Jerry Falwell: Fundamentalist Language and Politics by Suzan Harding and Serving the Words: Literalism in America from the Pulpit to the Bench by Vincent Crapanzano. Because of their relatively careful and reflexive attitude in the use of descriptive concepts in general and particularly the concept .belief," their works are the most appropriate ones to begin with.
The results are, then, analyzed in comparison with the specific behaviors or practices of the Conservative Evangelicals in the United States, reported in the other literatures about them or observed in author’s fieldwork. Through this process, both the possibilities and limits of the concept could be abstracted. These possibilities and limits are contemplated, with the help of the theoretical contributions of the philosophy of language. And, finally, .belief," the problematic descriptive concept, is reformulated.