The problem of the universal is difficult in every case. The universal and the particular can never be separated; they always go hand in hand.
Robert Neelly Bellah...for limited purposes only, let me define religion as a set of symbolic forms and acts which relate man to the ultimate conditions of his existence.
Robert Neelly BellahWe never get to the bottom of ourselves on our own. We discover who we are face to face and side by side with others in work, love and learning.
Robert Neelly BellahYet Buddhism is four hundred years older than Christianity, and if it's not a universal religion I don't know what a universal religion is. There's also a strong focus on selectionism and the notion that religion plays a functional role in the evolutionary process. But religion is dysfunctional all the time, as well as functional. It's not so simple.
Robert Neelly BellahThe academic world is one of the few places where prejudice is supposed to be totally banned, and we're politically correct on everything, but it's still a place where you can attack religion out of utter, complete, bottomless ignorance and not be considered to have done anything wrong.
Robert Neelly Bellah