Culture And The Cognitive Science Of Religion

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Culture and the Cognitive Science of Religion

Author : James Cresswell
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 128 pages
File Size : 40,6 Mb
Release : 2017-10-30
Category : Psychology
ISBN : 9781315415192

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Culture and the Cognitive Science of Religion by James Cresswell Pdf

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.

An Introduction to the Cognitive Science of Religion

Author : Claire White
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 329 pages
File Size : 49,9 Mb
Release : 2021-03-14
Category : Psychology
ISBN : 9781351010955

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An Introduction to the Cognitive Science of Religion by Claire White Pdf

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.

How Religion Works

Author : Ilkka Pyysiäinen
Publisher : BRILL
Page : 284 pages
File Size : 46,7 Mb
Release : 2021-10-11
Category : Psychology
ISBN : 9789004496217

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How Religion Works by Ilkka Pyysiäinen Pdf

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.

Mental Culture

Author : Dimitris Xygalatas,William McCorkle
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 268 pages
File Size : 55,6 Mb
Release : 2016-04-01
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781317546085

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Mental Culture by Dimitris Xygalatas,William McCorkle Pdf

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.

The Cognitive Science of Religion

Author : James A. Van Slyke
Publisher : Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.
Page : 189 pages
File Size : 43,7 Mb
Release : 2011
Category : Psychology
ISBN : 9781409421245

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The Cognitive Science of Religion by James A. Van Slyke Pdf

The cognitive science of religion is a relatively new academic field in the study of the origins and causes of religious belief and behaviour. The focal point of empirical research is the role of basic human cognitive functions in the formation and transmission of religious beliefs. However, many theologians and religious scholars are concerned that this perspective will reduce and replace explanations based in religious traditions, beliefs, and values. This book attempts to bridge the reductionist divide between science and religion through examination and critique of different aspects of the cognitive science of religion and offers a conciliatory approach that investigates the multiple causal factors involved in the emergence of religion.

Mental Culture

Author : Dimitris Xygalatas,William McCorkle
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 279 pages
File Size : 46,5 Mb
Release : 2016-04-01
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781317546092

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Mental Culture by Dimitris Xygalatas,William McCorkle Pdf

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.

Origins of Religion, Cognition and Culture

Author : Armin W. Geertz
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 444 pages
File Size : 48,5 Mb
Release : 2014-09-11
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781317544562

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Origins of Religion, Cognition and Culture by Armin W. Geertz Pdf

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.

The Cognitive Science of Religion

Author : D. Jason Slone,William W. McCorkle Jr.
Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
Page : 311 pages
File Size : 42,5 Mb
Release : 2019-01-10
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781350033702

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The Cognitive Science of Religion by D. Jason Slone,William W. McCorkle Jr. Pdf

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.

Religious Narrative, Cognition and Culture

Author : Armin W. Geertz,Jeppe Sinding Jensen
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 420 pages
File Size : 49,7 Mb
Release : 2014-10-20
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781317545484

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Religious Narrative, Cognition and Culture by Armin W. Geertz,Jeppe Sinding Jensen Pdf

'Religious Narrative, Cognition and Culture' brings together some of the world's leading scholars in the fields of cognitive science and comparative religion. The essays range across diverse fields: the neurological processes and possible genetic foundations of how language emerged; the possible phylogenetic routes in the development of language and culture; the complex interrelations between the ontogenesis and the sociogenesis of cognitive processes; the value of a combination of neurology, narratology and a reworked speech-act approach that focuses on narrative; how the psychology of ritual helps make narrative beliefs possible; religious narratives; emotional communication; the role of gossip as religious narrative; area studies of religious narrative and cognition in the Bible; Indian Epic literature; Australian Aboriginal mythology and ritual; modern religious forms such as New Age, Asatro, astrological narrative and virtual rituals in cyberspace.

Cognitive Science and Ancient Israelite Religion

Author : Brett E. Maiden
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 311 pages
File Size : 55,5 Mb
Release : 2020-10-08
Category : Bibles
ISBN : 9781108487788

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Cognitive Science and Ancient Israelite Religion by Brett E. Maiden Pdf

Recent tools and findings from the cognitive sciences illuminate religious thought and behaviour in ancient Israel and the Bible. Primarily intended for scholars of the Bible and religion, it is also relevant to cognitive scientists, researchers, and graduate students interested in the intersection of cognition and culture.

Rethinking Religion

Author : E. Thomas Lawson,Robert N. McCauley
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 212 pages
File Size : 43,6 Mb
Release : 1993-01-14
Category : Philosophy
ISBN : 0521438063

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Rethinking Religion by E. Thomas Lawson,Robert N. McCauley Pdf

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.

Religion in Mind

Author : Jensine Andresen
Publisher : Cambridge University Press
Page : 310 pages
File Size : 47,7 Mb
Release : 2001-06-28
Category : Psychology
ISBN : 9780521801522

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Religion in Mind by Jensine Andresen Pdf

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.

Evolution, Religion, and Cognitive Science

Author : Fraser Watts,Léon P. Turner
Publisher : OUP Oxford
Page : 288 pages
File Size : 41,8 Mb
Release : 2014-03-20
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9780191512445

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Evolution, Religion, and Cognitive Science by Fraser Watts,Léon P. Turner Pdf

The cognitive science of religion is an inherently heterogeneous subject, incorporating theory and data from anthropology, psychology, sociology, evolutionary biology, and philosophy of mind amongst other subjects. One increasingly influential area of research in this field is concerned specifically with exploring the relationship between the evolution of the human mind, the evolution of culture in general, and the origins and subsequent development of religion. This research has exerted a strong influence on many areas of religious studies over the last twenty years, but, for some, the so-called 'evolutionary cognitive science of religion' remains a deeply problematic enterprise. This book's primary aim is to engage critically and constructively with this complex and diverse body of research from a wide range of perspectives. To these ends, the book brings together authors from a variety of relevant disciplines, in the thorough exploration of many of the key debates in the field. These include, for example: can certain aspects of religion be considered adaptive, or are they evolutionary by-products? Is the evolutionary cognitive science of religion compatible with theism? Is the evolutionary cognitive approach compatible with other, more traditional approaches to the study of religion? To what extent is religion shaped by cultural evolutionary processes? Is the evolutionary account of the mind that underpins the evolutionary cognitive approach the best or only available account? Written in accessible language, with an introductory chapter by Ilkka Pyssiäinen, a leading scholar in the field, this book is a valuable resource for specialists, undergraduate and graduate students, and newcomers to the evolutionary cognitive science of religion.

Mind and Religion

Author : Harvey Whitehouse,Robert N. McCauley
Publisher : Rowman Altamira
Page : 282 pages
File Size : 52,6 Mb
Release : 2005
Category : Psychology
ISBN : 0759106193

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Mind and Religion by Harvey Whitehouse,Robert N. McCauley Pdf

This collection examines new psychological evidence for the modal theory and attempts to synthesize this theory with other theories of cognition and religion.

Origins of Religion, Cognition and Culture

Author : Armin W. Geertz
Publisher : Routledge
Page : 488 pages
File Size : 49,9 Mb
Release : 2014-09-11
Category : Religion
ISBN : 9781317544555

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Origins of Religion, Cognition and Culture by Armin W. Geertz Pdf

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.