Abstract
This paper presents an approach to Filipino Christianity (particularly Roman Catholicism) using the concepts of sákop (reduction) and kagándahang-loób (hospitability). It attempts a critical phenomenology of the Filipino experiences of reduction and hospitality. These two experiences imply a paradox. Since being baptized by the Spanish colonial conquest in 1521, its identity has been in flux. Historically, the Filipino Christian experience was brought about by the reducción system. However, this experience is condensed by claiming kagandánhang-loób as a virtue. Yet, kagandánhang-loób is not enough to articulate the Filipino Faith, evidenced by the experience of Filipino migrants or in questioning the faith’s presence in Philippine politics. This critical phenomenology of religion seeks to interrogate these quasi-transcendental structures of the Filipino Christian experience and locate such structures between the extremes of sákop and kagandáhang-loób.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Notes
- 1.
What must be noted with this division is that the Occident is such only in respect to the Orient. Their division is arbitrary (in being dependent upon the other), and though they represent geographical regions, the distinction is not in any way entirely definite. Although I use Edward Said’s distinction between East and West to begin my argument, the colonial approach to the Philippines was not entirely viewed from this perspective. The discovery of the islands, or part thereof that will eventually become the Philippines was part of Fernando de Magallanes’ voyage to discover an alternative route to the spice islands (Gaspar, 2021).
- 2.
I took Christ’s conquering (pagsákop ni Krísto) from a stanza in the Pasyón (1949, p. 128; emphasis is mine): “Pumasok kapagkaraka // itong Sumakop sa sala // inaliw niyang lahat na, // ang doroong kaluluwa // Patriarkas at Propeta.”
- 3.
Former President Rodrigo Duterte on December 30, 2021, formally signed the creation of the Department of Migrant Workers. This department succeeds and expands the scope of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration from the Department of Labor and Employment. Its creation was marked as urgent to address the growing concerns of Filipino migrant workers, and the signing of its creation is uncanny. The President is reported to have said: “The establishment of the Department of Migrant Workers happens on the celebration of Rizal Day, when we honor not only the exceptional love for the country of Dr Jose Rizal but also the patriotism, excellence, courage of our modern-day heroes, including our overseas [Filipinos]” (Galang & Cator, 2021).
References
Abinales, P. N., & Amoroso, D. J. (2005). State and society in the Philippines. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers.
Agoncillo, T. A. (1990). History of the Filipino people (8th ed.). R.P. Garcia Publishing Co.
Agoncillo, T. A. (1996). The revolt of the masses: The story of Bonifacio and the Katipunan. University of the Philippines Press.
Alejo, A. (1990). Tao po! Tuloy kayo!: Isang Landas ng Pag-Unawa sa Loob ng Tao. Ateneo de Manila University Press.
Ang, G. R. (1979). The Bayanihan spirit: Dead or alive? Philippine Quarterly of Culture and Society, 7(1/2), 91–93.
Aristotle. (2004). Nicomachean ethics (R. Crisp, ed. & Trans.). Cambridge University Press.
Bautista, C. (2017, March 27). Ang Pasyon at ang Pagbasa. Balita. Available at https://www.pressreader.com/philippines/balita/20170327/281706909512453
Benedict XVI. (2008, December 3). Saint Paul 15: The Apostle’s teaching on the relation between Adam and Christ. General Audience. Available at https://www.vatican.va/content/benedict-xvi/en/audiences/2008/documents/hf_ben-xvi_aud_20081203.html
Calano, M. (2020). Interiority, traslación, and the devotion to the Black Nazarene. Kritka Kultura, 35, 6–20.
Caraballo, M. (2022, February 15). OFW remittances hit record-breaking $34B in 2021– BSP. The Manila Times. Available at https://www.manilatimes.net/2022/02/15/news/ofw-remittances-hit-record-breaking-34b-in-2021-bsp/1833127
Cariño, J. V. (2018a). Re-thinking Filipino philosophy with Gilles Deleuze. Muni. UST.
Cariño, J. V. (2018b). Ang Larawan ng Migrante Bilang Filipino: Isang Panukalang Hermenyutika ng Pagka-Filipino. Muni. UST.
Castro, D. (2007). Another face of empire: Bartolomé de Las Casas, indigenous rights, and ecclesiastical imperialism. Duke University Press.
David, P. (2022a, February 25). The truth will set you free (John 8:32) a pastoral letter on the EDSA commemoration. Available at https://cbcpnews.net/cbcpnews/the-truth-will-set-you-free-john-832/
David, P. (2022b, March 27). Be Concerned about the welfare of others (cf. Philippians 2:4) pastoral letter on the 2022 Election. Available at https://cbcpnews.net/cbcpnews/wp-content/uploads/2022/03/BE-CONCERNED-ABOUT-THE-WELFARE-OF-OTHERS-CBCP-Pastoral-Letter-on-the-2022-Election.pdf
Enriquez, V. (1992). From colonial to liberation psychology: The Philippine experience. University of the Philippines Press.
Forster, J. (1956). The encomienda system in the Philippine islands: 1571–1597 [MA Thesis, Loyola University Chicago].
Fuchs, S. (2017). Observing facts and values: A brief theory and history. Canadian Review of Sociology, 54(4), 456–467.
Galang, B., & Cator, C. (2021, December 30). Duterte signs law creating Department of Migrant Workers. CNN Philippines. Available at https://www.cnnphilippines.com/news/2021/12/30/Duterte-OFW-department-law.html
Gaspar, K. (2021). Handumanan: Digging for the indigenous wellspring. Claretian Communications Foundation.
Guenther, L. (2013). Solitary confinement: Social death and its afterlives. University of Minnesota Press.
Guenther, L. (2020). Critical phenomenology. In G. Weiss, G. Salamon, & A. Murphy (Eds.), 50 concepts for a critical phenomenology. Northwestern University Press.
Guevarra, A. (2010). Marketing dreams, manufacturing heroes: The transnational labor brokering of Filipino workers. Rutgers University Press.
Gutay, F., OFM. (n.d.). Bajo de la Campana: The “reduccion” policy. OFM Province of San Pedro Bautista. Available at https://www.ofmphil.com/bajo-de-la-campana
Heidegger, M. (1969). The essence of reasons. (T. Malick, Trans.). Northwestern University Press.
Hernandez, J. R. (2010). Reducción: Ang Pag-uwi sa Diskurso ng Pananakop at Pakikipagtunggali. Malay, 23(1), 67–80.
Ileto, R. (1979). Pasyon and revolution: Popular movements in the Philippines, 1840–1910. Ateneo de Manila University Press.
Kasaysayan ng Pasyong Mahal ni Hesukristong Panginoon Natin. (1949). Luna et al.
Konyndyk DeYoung, R. (2004). Aquinas’s virtues of acknowledged dependence: A new measure of greatness. Faith and Philosophy, 21(2), 241–227.
MacKinlay, S. (2010). Interpreting excess: Jean-Luc Marion, saturated phenomena, and hermeneutics. Fordham University Press.
Marcos: Rise and fall of a dictator. (2016, November 19). Philippine Daily Inquirer. Available at https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/845784/marcos-rise-and-fall-of-a-dictator
Marion, J.-L. (1998). Reduction and givenness: Investigations of husserl, heidegger, and phenomenology (T. A. Carlson, Trans.). Northwestern University Press.
Marion, J.-L. (2002). In excess: Studies of saturated phenomena (R. Horner & V. Berraud, Trans.). Fordham University Press.
Mercado, L. (1974). Elements of Filipino philosophy. Divine Word Publications.
Mumford, J. (2012). Vertical empire: The general resettlement of Indians in the Colonial Andes. Duke University Press.
Ocampo, A. R. (2011, September 13). Anting-anting. Philippine Daily Inquirer. Available at https://opinion.inquirer.net/11967/anting-anting
Ocampo, A. R. (2015, November 20). Marcos’ (anting-anting).” Philippine Daily Inquirer. Available at https://opinion.inquirer.net/90489/marcos-anting-anting
Ocampo, A. R. (2016, May 27). When people lived “bajo la campana.” Philippine Daily Inquirer. Available at https://opinion.inquirer.net/94927/when-people-lived-bajo-la-campana
Pada, R. (2014). The methodological problems of Filipino philosophy. Kritike, 8(1), 24–44.
Reyes, J. (2015). Loób and Kapwa: Thomas Aquinas and a Filipino Virtue Ethics [Ph.D. Dissertation, KU Leuven].
Said, E. W. (1978). Orientalism. Vintage Books.
Salazar, M. S. (2015). The role of language in the Philippines in a colonial and postcolonial context. In P. L. Reyes (Ed.), Towards a Filipino history: A Festschrift for Zeus Salazar. Bahay-Saliksikan ng Kasaysayan/Bagong Kasaysayan, Inc. (BAKAS).
Schiller, F. (1785). An die Freude. Available at https://www.friedrich-schiller-archiv.de/inhaltsangaben/an-die-freude-schiller-interpretation-inhaltsangabe/
Scott, W. (1994). Barangay: Sixteenth-century Philippine culture and society. Ateneo University Press.
Sloterdijk, P. (2013). In the world interior of capital: For a philosophical theory of globalization (W. Hoban, Trans.). Polity Press.
Suarez, H. J. (2017). The work of mothering: Globalization and the Filipino diaspora. University of Illinois Press.
The Roman Missal. (2010). International Commission on English in the Liturgy Corporation.
Thomas Aquinas. (2017). Summa theologiae. The Fathers of the English Dominican Province (Trans.). Available at https://www.newadvent.org/summa/
Villegas, S. (2016a). I will turn their mourning into joy (Jeremiah 31:13). CBCP Online. Available at http://cbcponline.net/i-will-turn-their-mourning-into-joy-jeremiah-3113/
Villegas, S. (2016b). Statement on the Supreme court decision to allow the burial of former president Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani. CBCP Online. Available at http://cbcponline.net/statement-on-the-supreme-court-decision-to-allow-the-burial-of-former-president-marcos-at-the-libingan-ng-mga-bayani/
Villegas, S. (2017). For I find no pleasure in the death of anyone who dies—oracle of the Lord God (Ezekiel 18:32). CBCP Online. Available at http://cbcponline.net/for-i-find-no-pleasure-in-the-death-of-anyone-who-dies-oracle-of-the-lord-god-ezekiel-1832/
Wise, E. (2019). Manila, City of islands: A social and historical inquiry into the built forms and urban experience of an archipelagic megacity. Ateneo de Manila University Press.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Rennesland, A.H. (2023). Catholicism in the Philippines Between Sákop and Kagandáhang-loób: A Critical Phenomenology of Religion. In: Hongladarom, S., Joaquin, J.J., Hoffman, F.J. (eds) Philosophies of Appropriated Religions. Springer, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-5191-8_12
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-5191-8_12
Published:
Publisher Name: Springer, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-99-5190-1
Online ISBN: 978-981-99-5191-8
eBook Packages: Religion and PhilosophyPhilosophy and Religion (R0)