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Author: James Cresswell Publisher: Routledge ISBN: 1315415194 Category : Psychology Languages : en Pages : 128
Book Description
Culture and the Cognitive Science of Religion is the first book to bring together cultural psychology and the cognitive science of religion (CSR). Containing much-needed discussion of how good research should do more than simply follow methodological prescriptions, this thought-provoking and original book outlines the ways in which CSR can be used to study everyday religious belief without sacrificing psychological science. Cresswell’s pragmatist approach expands CSR in a radically new direction. The author shows how language and culture can be integrated within CSR in order to achieve an alternative ontogenetic and phylogenetic approach to cognition, and argues that a view of cognition that is not based on modularity, but on the dynamic connection between an organism and its milieu, can lead to a view of evolution that makes much more room for the constitutive role of culture in cognition. As a provocative attempt to persuade researchers to engage with religious communities more directly, the book should be essential reading for academics, researchers and postgraduate students, as well as psychologists interested in the cognitive science of religion, theological anthropology, religious studies and cultural anthropology.
Author: Claire White Publisher: Routledge ISBN: 1351010956 Category : Psychology Languages : en Pages : 329
Book Description
In recent decades, a new scientific approach to understand, explain, and predict many features of religion has emerged. The cognitive science of religion (CSR) has amassed research on the forces that shape the tendency for humans to be religious and on what forms belief takes. It suggests that religion, like language or music, naturally emerges in humans with tractable similarities. This new approach has profound implications for how we understand religion, including why it appears so easily, and why people are willing to fight—and die—for it. Yet it is not without its critics, and some fear that scholars are explaining the ineffable mystery of religion away, or showing that religion is natural proves or disproves the existence of God. An Introduction to the Cognitive Science of Religion offers students and general readers an accessible introduction to the approach, providing an overview of key findings and the debates that shape it. The volume includes a glossary of key terms, and each chapter includes suggestions for further thought and further reading as well as chapter summaries highlighting key points. This book is an indispensable resource for introductory courses on religion and a much-needed option for advanced courses.
Author: James Cresswell Publisher: Routledge ISBN: 1315415194 Category : Psychology Languages : en Pages : 128
Book Description
Culture and the Cognitive Science of Religion is the first book to bring together cultural psychology and the cognitive science of religion (CSR). Containing much-needed discussion of how good research should do more than simply follow methodological prescriptions, this thought-provoking and original book outlines the ways in which CSR can be used to study everyday religious belief without sacrificing psychological science. Cresswell’s pragmatist approach expands CSR in a radically new direction. The author shows how language and culture can be integrated within CSR in order to achieve an alternative ontogenetic and phylogenetic approach to cognition, and argues that a view of cognition that is not based on modularity, but on the dynamic connection between an organism and its milieu, can lead to a view of evolution that makes much more room for the constitutive role of culture in cognition. As a provocative attempt to persuade researchers to engage with religious communities more directly, the book should be essential reading for academics, researchers and postgraduate students, as well as psychologists interested in the cognitive science of religion, theological anthropology, religious studies and cultural anthropology.
Author: Ilkka Pyysiäinen Publisher: BRILL ISBN: 9004496211 Category : Psychology Languages : en Pages : 284
Book Description
Recent findings in cognitive science and evolutionary psychology provide important insights to the processes which make religious beliefs and behaviors such efficient attractors in and across various cultural settings. The specific salience of religious ideas is based on the fact that they are 'counter-intuitive': they contradict our intuitive expectations of how entities normally behave. Counter-intuitive ideas are only produced by a mind capable of crossing the boundaries that separate such ontological domains as persons, living things, and solid objects. The evolution of such a mind has only taken place in the human species. How certain kinds of counter-intuitive ideas are selected for a religious use is discussed from varying angles. Cognitive considerations are thus related to the traditions of comparative religion. This publication has also been published in paperback, please click here for details.
Author: Dimitris Xygalatas Publisher: Routledge ISBN: 1317546083 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 268
Book Description
Why is the set of human beliefs and behaviours that we call "religion" such a widespread feature of all known human societies, past and present, and why are there so many forms of religiosity found throughout history and culture? "Mental Culture" brings together an international range of scholars - from Anthropology, History, Psychology, Philosophy, and Religious Studies - to answer these questions. Connecting classical theories and approaches with the newly established field of the Cognitive Science of Religion, the aim of "Mental Culture" is to provide scholars and students of religion with an overview of contemporary scientific approaches to religion while tracing their intellectual development to some of the great thinkers of the past.
Author: D. Jason Slone Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing ISBN: 1350033707 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 311
Book Description
The Cognitive Science of Religion introduces students to key empirical studies conducted over the past 25 years in this new and rapidly expanding field. In these studies, cognitive scientists of religion have applied the theories, findings and research tools of the cognitive sciences to understanding religious thought, behaviour and social dynamics. Each chapter is written by a leading international scholar, and summarizes in non-technical language the original empirical study conducted by the scholar. No prior or statistical knowledge is presumed, and studies included range from the classic to the more recent and innovative cases. Students will learn about the theories that cognitive scientists have employed to explain recurrent features of religiosity across cultures and historical eras, how scholars have tested those theories, and what the results of those tests have revealed and suggest. Written to be accessible to undergraduates, this provides a much-needed survey of empirical studies in the cognitive science of religion.
Author: Dimitris Xygalatas Publisher: Routledge ISBN: 1317546091 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 279
Book Description
Why is the set of human beliefs and behaviours that we call "religion" such a widespread feature of all known human societies, past and present, and why are there so many forms of religiosity found throughout history and culture? "Mental Culture" brings together an international range of scholars - from Anthropology, History, Psychology, Philosophy, and Religious Studies - to answer these questions. Connecting classical theories and approaches with the newly established field of the Cognitive Science of Religion, the aim of "Mental Culture" is to provide scholars and students of religion with an overview of contemporary scientific approaches to religion while tracing their intellectual development to some of the great thinkers of the past.
Author: E. Thomas Lawson Publisher: Cambridge University Press ISBN: 9780521438063 Category : Philosophy Languages : en Pages : 212
Book Description
This book is an ambitious attempt to develop a cognitive approach to religion. Focusing particularly on ritual action, it borrows analytical methods from linguistics and other cognitive sciences. The authors, a philosopher of science and a scholar of comparative religion, provide a lucid critical review of established approaches to religion, and make a strong plea for the combination of interpretation and explanation. Often represented as competitive approaches, they are rather, complementary, equally vital to the study of symbolic systems.
Author: Armin W. Geertz Publisher: Routledge ISBN: 1317544552 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 488
Book Description
Attempts to understand the origins of humanity have raised fundamental questions about the complex relationship between cognition and culture. Central to the debates on origins is the role of religion, religious ritual and religious experience. What came first: individual religious (ecstatic) experiences, collective observances of transition situations, fear of death, ritual competence, magical coercion; mirror neurons or temporal lobe religiosity? Cognitive scientists are now providing us with important insights on phylogenetic and ontogenetic processes. Together with insights from the humanities and social sciences on the origins, development and maintenance of complex semiotic, social and cultural systems, a general picture of what is particularly human about humans could emerge. Reflections on the preconditions for symbolic and linguistic competence and practice are now within our grasp. Origins of Religion, Cognition and Culture puts culture centre stage in the cognitive science of religion.
Author: William W. Mccorkle Publisher: Acumen Pub Limited ISBN: 9781845539788 Category : Religion Languages : en Pages : 288
Book Description
"It is a rare treat to have the leading scholars of one generation comment on their towering predecessors. Mental Culture is a stunning book that should be required reading in both religious studies and cognitive science. Kudos to the editors for their vision, masterful organization, and firmly situating the cognitive science of religion within the distinguished history of the academic study of religion." - Richard Sosis, University of Connecticut "The diverse phenomena of religion constitute one of the most crucial sets of evidence that we possess on the human mind. As such, it requires a thorough cross-disciplinary examination. This excellent collection of papers goes a long way toward achieving this end." - Merlin Donald, Queen's University, Kingston Why is the set of human beliefs and behaviours that we call 'religion' such a widespread feature of all known human societies, past and present, and why are there so many forms of religiosity found throughout history and culture? Mental Culture brings together an international range of scholars from Anthropology, History, Psychology, Philosophy, and Religious Studies to answer these questions. Connecting classical theories and approaches with the newly established field of the Cognitive Science of Religion, the aim of Mental Culture is to provide scholars and students of religion with an overview of contemporary scientific approaches to religion while tracing their intellectual development to some of the great thinkers of the past.
Author: Jensine Andresen Publisher: Cambridge University Press ISBN: 0521801524 Category : Psychology Languages : en Pages : 310
Book Description
Religion in Mind is a 2001 text which summarizes and extends the advances in the cognitive study of religion throughout the 1990s. It uses empirical research from psychology and anthropology to illuminate various components of religious belief, ritual, and experience. The book examines cognitive dimensions of religion within a naturalistic view of culture, while respecting the phenomenology of religion and drawing together teachers of religion, psychologists of religion, and cognitive scientists. Expert contributors focus on phenomena such as belief-fixation and transmission; attributions of agency; anthropomorphizing; counterintuitive religious representations; the well-formedness of religious rituals; links between religious representations and emotions; and the development of god concepts. The work encourages greater interdisciplinary linkages between scholars from different fields and will be of interest to researchers in anthropology, psychology, sociology, history, philosophy, and cognitive science. It also will interest more general readers in religion and science.
Author: James Cresswell
Author: Claire White
Author: James Cresswell
Author: Ilkka Pyysiäinen
Author: Dimitris Xygalatas
Author: D. Jason Slone
Author: Dimitris Xygalatas
Author: E. Thomas Lawson
Author: Armin W. Geertz
Author: William W. Mccorkle
Author: Jensine Andresen