Religion in Mind: Cognitive Perspectives on Religious Belief, Ritual, and Experience

by Jensine Andresen

Overview

Religion in Mind summarizes and extends the past decade's advances in the cognitive study of religion. Its aim is to use empirical research from psychology and anthropology to understand different components of religious belief, ritual and experience. The book draws together teachers of religion, psychologists of religion and cognitive scientists and encourages greater interdisciplinary linkages among scholars from different fields. It will be of interest to researchers in anthropology, psychology, sociology, history, philosophy, and cognitive science and also to the general reader interested in religion and science.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521801522
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	06/28/2001
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	308
Product dimensions:	6.30(w) x 9.33(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Jensine Andresen is Assistant Professor of Theology at Boston University where she teaches in the Graduate Program in Science, Philosophy and Religion.

Table of Contents

1. Introduction: towards a cognitive science of religion Jensine Andresen; Part I. Belief Acquisition and the Spread of Religious Representations: 2. On what we may believe about beliefs Benson Saler; 3. Cognition, emotion, and religious experience Ilkka Pyysiäinen; 4. Why gods? A cognitive theory Stewart Guthrie; Part II. Questioning the 'Representation' of Religious Ritual Action: 5. Ritual, memory, and emotion: comparing two cognitive hypotheses Robert N. McCauley; 6. Psychological perspectives on agency E. Thomas Lawson; 7. Do children experience God like adults? Justin L. Barrett; Part III. Embodied Models of Religion: 8. Cognitive study of religion and Husserlian phenomenology: making better tools for the analysis of cultural systems Matti Kamppinen; 9. Why a proper science of mind implies the transcendence of nature Francisco J. Varela; 10. Religion and the frontal lobes Patrick McNamara; 11. Conclusion: religion in the flesh: forging new methodologies for the study of religion Jensine Andresen.