A Study Of Wittgenstein’s Religious Philosophical Ideas

Wittgenstein promoted the linguistic turn of Western philosophy.As a representative of linguistic philosophy,He is widely valued by the academic community,which has made very rich achievements in studying his thoughts.However,the academic community pays very little attention to his religious thoughts and has few research achievements about it.The reasons for this are:firstly,the disenchantment of religion in modern society and subsequently the prevalence of secular life,which has led to a decrease in attention to religious ideas;secondly,Wittgenstein’s religious writings are few and scattered and easily trivialized;thirdly,most of the researchers of Wittgensteinian studies are so intoxicated with Wittgenstein’s philosophical thoughts on language that they linger on and have no time for the study of other ideas;or the researchers themselves do not have any religious inclination,nor have they glimpsed the fascination and importance of his religious thoughts,so they have no intention of plowing through them.Fortunately,religious scholars such as Philips,Cupitt,and Hick not only assimilated Wittgenstein’s ideas on the religion of language,but also all made breakthroughs by integrating the philosophy of language with theology to form new perspectives.This undoubtedly indicates that Wittgenstein’s religious philosophy contains great ideological resources and is worth further research and interpretation.Undoubtedly,Wittgenstein’s religious thought is integrated with his philosophical thought on language.In other words,religious thought is the application and expansion of his philosophical thought and method.Therefore,we must go back to the source of his question:what exactly is the relationship between language,the world and the mind?Early Wittgenstein described the relationship between the three in terms of an image theory,in which they are images of each other and together they form a picture of the world.Later Wittgenstein revised the earlier mechanical image theory greatly,and explained the relationship of the three interacting as one and forming a living world together from the contextual principle of meaning as usage,which is a kind of organic image theory.Of course,all these philosophical ideas influenced his views on religion.What kind of life is truly worth living is a lifelong puzzle for Wittgenstein.His contemplation and resolution of this issue involve a series of views on religious beliefs.One of the routes is to deeply explore and write about religion in conjunction with his own holy life.He took a unique path and provided a different way of thinking:language is not only the basis of the world,but also the basis of religious beliefs.Language plays an extremely important role in religious beliefs,shaping religious doctrines,scriptures,laws,and behaviors.The usage of language determines the meaning of religious activities;the language order constructs the way of religious life.Therefore,how to understand language means how to understand religion.From a methodological point of view,he used the method of philosophy of language to analyze the language of religion and clarify the linguistic problems of religion,which in turn evolved into the method of analyzing the language of religion.This is where the gist of Wittgenstein’s linguistic religiosity lies.A deeper look at why Wittgenstein long wrestled with questions of suicide and genius opens the door to his religious thought.He was of indelible Jewish ancestry,but in his early years Wittgenstein was ashamed of it,so he criticized Jews and Judaism and praised Christianity and Catholicism,but as he grew older he reconciled himself to his ancestry and to Judaism,and occasionally spoke with sympathy and understanding.He was born in a family with a strong religious atmosphere,and this influence penetrated so deeply into his bones that he unconsciously prayed for God’s protection in every difficult situation,regarded his work as the fulfillment of God’s instructions,and even aspired to be the "Messiah" and a genius-this was what he considered to be the value of living and the path to his self-redemption.Therefore,issues such as happiness,death,God,and redemption have become high-frequency words in his manuscripts,letters,and diaries.He longed for a clear response to these mysterious questions with metaphysical overtones.Amazingly,he was able to hit the nail on the head of the questions one by one,which cannot be confined to rational and earthly answers,but should be probed beyond the mundane world and into religious beliefs and inner experiences.Therefore,all of them can be presented with their multiple meanings using the philosophy of language to find a right path to salvation.Unlike many philosophers,Wittgenstein was admired not only for his profound ideas,but also for his life of unity of knowledge and action.Although he was not a religious man,he abided by the religious rules throughout his life and lived a holy life-donating huge amounts of wealth,renouncing his married life,enjoying traveling,and living in seclusion,which are precisely the important conditions for a person to go on the path to enlightenment.Therefore,it is not difficult to see that he had similar behaviors with monks who practiced Buddhism,and his religious and philosophical thoughts were similar to those of Zen Buddhism in the East,which shows that the thoughts of different peoples and civilizations are still accessible to each other.This is the basis for civilization exchange and mutual understanding as well as transformation and upgrading.Although there were flaws in Wittgenstein’s life and religious philosophy,one flaw could not obscure the splendor of the jade.He laid the foundation for religious linguistics,which was beneficial to the improvement and development of religious language analysis methods and religious philology.With the help of Wittgenstein’s linguistic theology theory and the Family resemblance view,it is conducive to exploring the similarities among religions around the world and promoting dialogue and harmonious coexistence among religions;And then it is conducive to exploring the way out for the Secularization of modern religion.