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The Limits of Symbolic Realism: Problems of Empathic Field Observation in a Sectarian Context

1973; Wiley; Volume: 12; Issue: 3 Linguagem: Inglês

10.2307/1384427

1468-5906

Thomas Robbins, Dick Anthony, Thomas E. Curtis,

Attention Economy in Education and Business

Robert Bellah's realism is an epistemological orientation which asserts the existential reality of religious symbols without necessarily accepting their factual reality. It thus implies a common distinction between empathy, as the intuitive comprehension of subjects' meanings, and sympathy, as the internalization of these meanings. However, an approach which is empathic without being totally sympathic encounters special difficulties when applied to field observation of extreme sects such as the Jesus Freaks, which define their own meanings as exclusively true and thus assume that to know the truth is necessarily to believe. A participant observer who is perceived as empathic but who resists conversion thus implicitly threatens the sectarian meaning system and may disorient and demoralize subjects. The subjects' resulting defensive behavior may then disorient the researcher and inhibit further empathic communion. Rigidly exclusive sects may thus constitute a limiting case of symbolic realism, which may presuppose tolerance and pluralism.