When I started out on my dissertation in Comparative Religion, I was
drawn to Phenomenology because of its openness to emergent results. I
was interviewing people about their individual practices of intercessory
prayer and treatment for others, and I had no idea what I would find.
As I read the Phenomenological literature, however, I quickly discovered
that it had essentialist presuppositions. If I used it, I would be
looking for the essence of the phenomenon of prayer-for-others. It
didn't seem that there would be such, though, as I was interviewing a
Baptist, a Buddhist, a Christian Scientist, a shaman...
So when Tim Lavalli, the methodological maven of our group, pointed out
Grounded Theory, I was attracted to it just because it seemed to be
Phenomenology without the presupposition of essence.
I wonder if others have been drawn to it for the same reason?
Birrell Walsh
MicroTimes
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