In an Age of Rivalry between Religion and Ethics(<Special Issue>Religion and Ethics)

Abstract

Today is an age of rivalry between religion and ethics. This rivalry, however, is not unique to the modern age. It has repeatedly been identified on the side of religion from the time of the ancient story of the sacrifice of Isaac, and on the side of ethics from the time of Aristotle's ethics. We have critiques from Kant and Watsuji concerning the latter. Watsuji, in particular, spoke about the religious foundations of ethics from his philosophy of nothingness. The interpretations of Kierkegaard, Levinas, and Nishida Kitaro regarding the former have received much attention. In particular, Nishida's view of God from the perspective of the self-identity of absolute contradiction offers suggestions for a fresh interpretation of this narrative. When we review these interpretations, as well as Tillich's thinking on these issues, we find that we must renew our interpretation of the concepts of "religion" and "ethics." As a result, religion is redefined as being concerned with a limitless reality that transcends subjectivity and objectivity, and ethics as reasoning that directs union with the other in a manner that cultivates integration of character. When we re-envision them in this way, we can find a means of overcoming the rivalry between the two.