The Decolonizing Quest in Light of History: The Philippine Reality

Abstract

History is always a looking back, a narrative we tell about ourselves, a living, changing story. Religion, of course, is about a re-linking, just as the derivation of the word suggests, even while we remember that the indigenous languages of the Philippines have no similar word. And what wisdom there is in that! Because religion itself is not simply a separate sphere (Taylor 2003): it is culture, pure and simple. Lex orandi, lex credendi (Prosper of Aquitane): the “cult” in “culture” is a word that originally means “worship,” after all, and surely we will know what is valued conceptually through what is set as sacred and approached in prayer and praise.