“Mankind from its origins has always been religious”. Belgian priest Julien Ries, 92 years old and long term professor at the Catholic University of Lovanio, is the founder of a new discipline, the Fundamental Anthropology of Religion.
A supporter of exchange and communication between religions, Ries is about to be appointed Cardinal on the 18th of February.
He has devoted his life to studying the sacred and holy in different cultures.
He has also written countless books and his complete works are published in Italian by Jaca Book.
“You are going to be made Cardinal after a lifetime dedicated to research. You have been among the first to claim that the religious dimension is innate to mankind. Is a religious conscience truly part of human nature?”
“I agree with Yves Coppens, the palaeontologist who found Lucy and who has been saying for years how ‘Man is from the beginning a Religious Man’”.
Andrea Tornielli: “What is the evidence for this claim?”
Andrea Tornielli: “What is the evidence for this claim?”
Ries: “Let us look closely at this Religious Man as we know him through historic events and facts. If we analyze the frescos made by him which have been so far discovered in hundreds of caves, the thousands of engravings he did in stone, if we examine his behaviour towards the dead, if we try and understand the meaning of his gestures, the hands raised towards the sky – as the ancient Egyptians called it ‘ Ka’- we must recognize that the primitive man had a conscious relationship with an arcane reality beyond this world”.
“What is the purpose of holy books in the various religions?”
“What is the purpose of holy books in the various religions?”
“Man’s Holy books make up an incredible heritage of information which historians and specialists try to analyze in order to understand the discourse which the symbolic and Religious Man has used to translate his experience. The whole of this discourse makes up a coherent harmony which stretches from the Palaeolithic to the modern day. This gives us grounds to believe there is unity in the human spiritual experience”.
“Nowadays some religious symbols seem to divide rather than unite people. Can different religions coexist in our society?”
“Christians need to understand and be open to benefit from the contributions made by other cultures. The Fathers of the Church had already understood this need. Hence the great value held by the Hellenistic time for the early Christian culture and the enormous importance of the Renaissance. Your question indirectly refers to the objections and theories of Claude Levis Strauss who tried to determine how the human spirit works, refusing however to look into mythology in search for a meaning which might reveal mankind’s true aspirations. According to Strauss myths tell nothing about the origin of Man and his destiny. His research results in a fully materialistic view of culture. This is true pessimism.”
“What innovations did Christianity bring to the religious history of humanity?”
“In his discourse often made up by a series of parables, Jesus revives in part cosmic symbolism and uses it to announce the Gospel of the Lord. He also adds to it some allegories from everyday life. It is a theofany in the truest sense of the word. And his existence itself is the greatest religious revolution in history. Christ, after sending the Holy Ghost to the Apostles, continues to be present in history with his body which is the Church”.
“Which do you think is your most important scientific discovery?”
“To have detected the possibility of building a new branch of knowledge, the Fundamental Anthropology of Religion. My publisher Jaca Book prompted me to try and build this new discipline by writing the ‘Trattato di Antropologia del Sacro’ (Treatise on the Anthropology of The Sacred) in collaboration with a hundred scholars, in which it is demonstrated how the concept of homo religiosus (Religious Man) is effective and fundamental for the research concerning religions and cultures. This work emphasizes the concept of Religious Man and his experience of the sacred on the basis of three constant factors present within said experience: the symbol, the myth and the rite. Fundamental Anthropology studies all this and offers new insights on mankind even in difficult times like ours”.
“How does it feel to be made a Cardinal at 92 years old?”