The Truth of Religion and the Status of Researcher of Religion From the Viewpoint of Classical Phenomenology

The encounter of modernity with religion has caused the growth and development of the field of religious studies, opening new vistas for the understanding and study of religion in the light of new requirements of life and modern science. Experience-based science claimed to be capable of knowing religion, while basically religious issue went beyond experience. Likewise, scholar/experimental scientist, who was limited to means of empirical reason, had to explain the trans-empirical religious issue by relying on limited means of empirical/experimental understanding. Thus, different scientific approaches to religion have offered varied and at times contradictory understandings of religion and its related issues. Among these issues, one may mention the problem of the truth of religion and the status of researcher of religion. Phenomenology, as a philosophical school of thought, which opens a new prospect for discussing the relationship between modern science and religion, provides different answers to the problems of this field that have attracted the attention of phenomenologists of religion. Phenomenology has two main orientation: classical phenomenology; and hermeneutical phenomenology. Attempts have been made in the present paper to discuss the foundations and principles of phenomenology and its types and also to explain the response of classical phenomenology of religion, based on the viewpoints of Edmond Husserl, to the two abovementioned issues in the field of religion.