RACIONALNI AUTORITET I UPOTREBA MOĆI – PONOVNO RAZMATRANJE FROMMOVE TIPOLOGIJE RELIGIJA
RATIONAL AUTHORITY AND THE USE OF POWER – RECONSIDERING FROMM’S TYPOLOGY OF RELIGIONS

Summary/Abstract: In this text, I bring out the critical assessment of an oversimplified differentiation of religions with “authoritarian” and “humanistic” categories offered by Fromm in his work “Psychoanalysis and religion”, which is rooted in an equally oversimplified division of types of authorities into “rational” and “irrational”, which implies that the use of power is antiethical to an authority that is defined and perceived as being rational (the way Fromm understands “rational” and “irrational” as attributes of authority). With brief recursions to Kaufmann’s criticism of this classification, an explanation of its shortcomings is offered, along with a practical example of problems of its application to Sunni Islamic theology. A recomposition of Fromm’s original categorization is proposed by adding a third category, “authoritative religion”, which is based on a new understanding of authority that is, aside from other qualities, characterized by the benevolent use of power.

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