Příběhy religionistického vědění : podněty narativní a kritické teorie v religionistice

This text is a contribution to critical reflections on the ways how knowledge is produced in the academic study of religions and on the epistemological and social consequences of this knowledge production. My argument rests on the assumption that the narrative approach can positively contribute to critical theorizing about analytical narratives constructed by scholars of religions. I deal with the particular connection between critical theory and narrative analysis as applied to these analytical narratives. The critical potential of the narrative approach should not be searched for in its frequently presumed ability to discover a more truthful version of reality behind the narrative constructions, but in the inquiry about (1) the specific worldviews in which scholarly narratives are embedded and (2) the consequences narratives have for social life. On this basis and via discussing Jonathan Z. Smith's text on Peoples Temple I re-interpret the Horkheimerian idea of the inseparability of facts and norms as an inevitable consequence of articulating analytical narratives. I argue that these narratives serve as a model for social life and thus have consequences for social life because of their mediating role which can be grasped in three, closely interwoven dimensions: in mediating a conceptual base for interpreting the world, in mediating a guideline for articulating moral judgments about the world, in mediating a model for social action.