Objective facts and subjective meanings in Jacques Waardenburg’s neo-phenomenology of religion

Abstract

The study reconstructs the categorical core of Jacques Waardenburg’s neo‑phenomenology of religion through an analysis of the relation between objective religious facts and subjective meanings. The article examines the concepts of religious fact, subjective meaning, intentionality, the supposed/posited object, faith, context, understanding, and the verification of interpretation, as well as their interrelations within the methodological architecture of Waardenburg’s project. The scientific novelty consists in a systematic reconstruction of these concepts as an integrated categorical scheme rather than as an assortment of isolated terms. The study shows that Waardenburg’s project should be understood not as a new essentialist theory of religion but as a shift from describing religious phenomena as external objects toward analyzing religious meanings as structures determined by intentionality and context. It is demonstrated that subjectivity in this approach is not equivalent to arbitrariness: religious meanings become objectified in speech acts, ritual practices, symbolic forms, institutional relations, and believers’ self‑descriptions. The methodological significance of Waardenburg’s neo‑phenomenology is defined by its combination of understanding the insider’s perspective with source‑based, contextual, and logical testing of the researcher’s interpretation.