Religion som verdenshåndtering

Resumé

The article discusses two questions: whether (and in what
sense) Christianity can be ‘naturalized’; and whether ancient Stoicism
may contribute to a modern reformulation of ‘Christianity naturalized’.
To answer these questions, the article focuses on articulating an understanding
of ‘religion’ in relation to ‘science’. Building on the account
given of the philosophical discipline of ‘ethics’ by Hilary Putnam in
Ethics without Ontology, the article attempts to construct a structurally
similar understanding of ‘religion’ (and its philosophical counterpart,
‘theology’) that will give it a legitimate position ‘in an age of science’
(cf. Putnam, Philosophy in an Age of Science). ‘Religion’ is here seen as
one particular way of ‘coping with the world’. The article concludes
by sketching some ways in which ancient Stoicism (as a specimen of a
‘natural philosophy and theology’) may help in reformulating an adequate,
contemporary understanding of Christianity.