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Religion as a Human Capacity by Timothy Light,Brian C. Wilson Pdf
Prepared in honor of E. Thomas Lawson, the essays in Religion as a Human Capacity offer a broad range of cognitivist theoretical explorations of religion, as well as cutting-edge applications of cognitive and other contemporary theories to religious data.
The Emergence of Religion in Human Evolution by Margaret Boone Rappaport,Christopher J. Corbally Pdf
Religious capacity is a highly elaborate, neurocognitive human trait that has a solid evolutionary foundation. This book uses a multidisciplinary approach to describe millions of years of biological innovations that eventually give rise to the modern trait and its varied expression in humanity’s many religions. The authors present a scientific model and a central thesis that the brain organs, networks, and capacities that allowed humans to survive physically also gave our species the ability to create theologies, find sustenance in religious practice, and use religion to support the social group. Yet, the trait of religious capacity remains non-obligatory, like reading and mathematics. The individual can choose not to use it. The approach relies on research findings in nine disciplines, including the work of countless neuroscientists, paleoneurologists, archaeologists, cognitive scientists, and psychologists. This is a cutting-edge examination of the evolutionary origins of humanity’s interaction with the supernatural. It will be of keen interest to academics working in Religious Studies, Neuroscience, Cognitive Science, Anthropology, Evolutionary Biology, and Psychology.
A wide-ranging argument by a renowned anthropologist that the capacity to believe is what makes us human Why are so many humans religious? Why do we daydream, imagine, and hope? Philosophers, theologians, social scientists, and historians have offered explanations for centuries, but their accounts often ignore or even avoid human evolution. Evolutionary scientists answer with proposals for why ritual, religion, and faith make sense as adaptations to past challenges or as by-products of our hyper-complex cognitive capacities. But what if the focus on religion is too narrow? Renowned anthropologist Agustín Fuentes argues that the capacity to be religious is actually a small part of a larger and deeper human capacity to believe. Why believe in religion, economies, love? A fascinating intervention into some of the most common misconceptions about human nature, this book employs evolutionary, neurobiological, and anthropological evidence to argue that belief—the ability to commit passionately and wholeheartedly to an idea—is central to the human way of being in the world.
Religion in Human Evolution by Robert N. Bellah Pdf
A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice An ABC Australia Best Book on Religion and Ethics of the Year Distinguished Book Award, Sociology of Religion Section of the American Sociological Association Religion in Human Evolution is a work of extraordinary ambition—a wide-ranging, nuanced probing of our biological past to discover the kinds of lives that human beings have most often imagined were worth living. It offers what is frequently seen as a forbidden theory of the origin of religion that goes deep into evolution, especially but not exclusively cultural evolution. “Of Bellah’s brilliance there can be no doubt. The sheer amount this man knows about religion is otherworldly...Bellah stands in the tradition of such stalwarts of the sociological imagination as Emile Durkheim and Max Weber. Only one word is appropriate to characterize this book’s subject as well as its substance, and that is ‘magisterial.’” —Alan Wolfe, New York Times Book Review “Religion in Human Evolution is a magnum opus founded on careful research and immersed in the ‘reflective judgment’ of one of our best thinkers and writers.” —Richard L. Wood, Commonweal
Religion and the Human Future by David E. Klemm,William Schweiker Pdf
This powerful manifesto outlines a vision called theological humanism based on the idea that that the integrity of life provides a way to articulate the meaning of religion for the human future. Explores a profound quest to understand the meaning and responsibility of our shared and yet divided humanity amidst the uncertainty of modern society Articulates the idea that human beings are mixed creatures striving for integrity not only trying to conform to God's will Sets forth a dynamic and robust vision of human life beyond the divisions that haunt the humanities, social sciences, theology, and religious studies
Religion and the Human Prospect by Alexander Saxton Pdf
Since September 11, 2001, Religion Has Been At The Center Of Debates About The Global Future. Religion And The Human Prospect Relates These Issues Systematically To A Path-Breaking Interpretation Of The History Of Religion, Its Part In Human Development, And Its Potential Role In Preventing Or Enabling Global Catastrophe.Religion Has Made Possible Critical Transitions In The Emergence And Development Of Human Society. At The Moment When Our Humanoid Ancestors Became Aware Of The Inevitability Of Death, Religion Interposed The Belief In Spiritual Beings Who Gave It New Significance. When Individual Self-Interest And Collective Survival Conflicted, Religion Defended Collective Survival By Codifying Its Requirements As Morality. When Inequalities Of Wealth And Power Developed, Religion Extended Moral Codes To Include Obligations Of Dominance And Submission. Religion Enabled A Species Facing Constant Hunger And Scarcity To Adapt And Spread. Today, However, Facing Ecological Disaster, Exhaustion Of Essential Natural Resources, And The Proliferation Of Nuclear, Chemical And Biological Weapons, Religion No Longer Provides A Collective Defense Mechanism For The Human Species. Instead, The Solutions It Has Provided Have Now Become Central To The Problem Of Human Survival.This Magisterial And Compelling Work Weaves Together Evolutionary Theory, Anthropology, Reflection On Theological Treatments Of The Problem Of Evil, And Ideas From Literature And Philosophy Into An Account Of The Human Prospect That Is Truly Epic In Its Ambition And Explanatory Power.
Author : Daniel A. Helminiak Publisher : State University of New York Press Page : 356 pages File Size : 50,8 Mb Release : 1998-04-23 Category : Religion ISBN : 9781438406411
Religion and the Human Sciences by Daniel A. Helminiak Pdf
Proposes a new paradigm for interdisciplinary studies by applying the thought of Bernard Lonergan to define spirituality as the missing link between religion and theology.
Religion and Human Enhancement by Tracy J. Trothen,Calvin Mercer Pdf
This collection vigorously addresses the religious implications of extreme human enhancement technology. Topics covered include cutting edge themes, such as moral enhancement, common ground to both transhumanism and religion, the meaning of death, desire and transcendence, and virtue ethics. Radical enhancement programs, advocated by transhumanists, could arguably have a more profound impact than any other development in human history. Reflecting a range of opinion about the desirability of extreme enhancement, leading scholars in the field join with emerging scholars to foster enhanced conversation on these topics.
While Robert Putnam's Bowling Alone (2000) highlighted the notion of volunteerism, little attention has been paid to religion's role in generating social capital--an ironic omission since religion constitutes the most common form of voluntary association in America today. Featuring essays by prominent social scientists, this is the first book-length, systematic examination of the relationship between religion and social capital and what effects religious social capital has on democratic life in the United States.
A Historical and Theoretical Guide to Studying Religion by Wesley Kort Pdf
This book, a guide to studying religion, has two parts. The first or historical part traces the rise of the academic study of religion from the early nineteenth century to the present day. Primary attention is given to the relation of studying religion to Romanticism and to its contrary relations to principal characteristics of Western modernity, especially its rational and materialist emphases. The second part of the book addresses matters that present uncertainties, problems, and even tensions within the field, such as, what is or should be meant by referring to some persons or groups as religious, why religion is so often a cause of tensions and even conflicts both within and between religious groups and between them and the increasingly nonreligious or secular quality of modern Western culture, and the problem that arises for the field by reason of scholars who, on one side, are themselves religious and who, on the other side, are nonreligious or secular. The book places this final difficulty, the difference and often the tension between religious and nonreligious approaches to the study of religion, in the role of a unifying theme of the book and offers a way by which this problem can be addressed and to a considerable degree reduced.
Religion and the Health of the Public by G. Gunderson,J. Cochrane Pdf
The book proposes a critical theory of the role and place of religion in public health and argues for a programmatic reorientation of these two fields of practice and inquiry to more effectively align religious health assets - widely present in many contexts - and public health services and facilities.
Handbook of the Psychology of Religion and Spirituality, Second Edition by Raymond F. Paloutzian,Crystal L. Park Pdf
Widely regarded as the definitive reference, this volume comprehensively examines the psychological processes associated with religion and spirituality. Leading scholars from multiple psychological subdisciplines present developmental, cognitive, social psychological, cultural, and clinical perspectives on this core aspect of human experience. The forms and functions of religious practices and rituals, conversion experiences, and spiritual struggles are explored. Other key topics include religion as a meaning system, religious influences on prosocial and antisocial behavior, and connections to health, coping, and psychotherapy. New to This Edition *Two chapters on cross-cultural issues. *Chapters on spiritual goals, emotional values, and mindfulness. *Reflects significant theoretical and empirical developments in the field. *Many new authors and extensively revised chapters. *Robust index amplifies the volume's usefulness as a reference tool. A Choice Outstanding Academic Title
Religion, Language, and the Human Mind by Paul Anthony Chilton,Monika Weronika Kopytowska Pdf
Religion is a multi-faceted and complex human phenomenon, combining many different mental and social characteristics. Among these, language plays a crucial though often neglected role. This volume brings together groundbreaking work from linguistics, cognitive science and neuroscience, as well as from religious studies, in order to illuminate the origins and centrality of religion in human life.
An impassioned plea that we turn to ourselves, not religion, if we want to answer Socrates' age-old question: what is the best kind of life to live? Norman deals with big questions such the environment, Darwinism and 'creation science, ' euthanasia and abortion, and then argues the it is ultimately through the human capacity for art, literature and the imagination that humanism is a powerful alternative to religious belief.