ANTHROPO-DEMONIC FACTOR: A WORLDLY DEPLOYMENT OF FREYTAG'S CONTRIBUTION TO THE STUDY OF RELIGIONS

Abstract

The present article consists of a brief reflection on the practice of evil within religions that preach the good. It is a questioning about what drives people, including spiritual leaders, to practice vile acts, psychological and physical abuse against members of their families, communities, and others seeking religion, the solace, strength and hope to continue living. This written also intends to contribute as a sketch of a “theory of the will” applied to the phenomenology of the religious life. It is an inquiry into the pertinence of religion when it seems to lose its transformative capacity in our day or to become impotent before the lowest human instincts. This reflection seeks to correlate an originally theological approach with an ethical problem. However, it aims to do this exercise of thought without disconnecting at all the roots originating in the metaphysical field. Finally, he tries to look from a perspective of anthropological philosophy, therefore confessedly “mundane” and limited, to a problem which at first seems mainly to concern theologians and religious, but rather to involve a sphere of life that in a way encompasses all mankind, inspires reflection in everyone who recognizes himself connected with humanity, including in suffering.