Table of Contents
Foreword v
Acknowledgements vii
Introduction 1
1 The Academic Study of Religion: A Theological or Theoretical Undertaking? 12
2 The Academic Study of Religions during the Cold War: A Western Perspective 22
3 Secular Theory and the Academic Study of Religion 35
4 Of Religious Syncretism, Comparative Religion and Spiritual Quests 45
5 To Use "Syncretism," or Not to Use "Syncretism": That is the Question 54
6 Comparison 66
7 Comparativism and Sociobiological Theory 80
8 Akin to the Gods or Simply One to Another? Comparison with Respect to Religions in Antiquity 94
9 Secrecy in Hellenistic Religious Communities 107
10 The Anti-Individualistic Ideology of Hellenistic Culture 127
11 Rationalism and Relativity in History of Religions Research 149
12 Evolution, Cognition, and History 163
13 Does Religion Really Evolve? (And What Is It Anyway?) 175
14 Religion and Cognition 182
15 The Promise of Cognitive Science for the Study of Early Christianity 202
16 Globalization, Syncretism, and Religion in Western Antiquity: Some Neurocognitive Considerations 221
17 What Do Rituals Do (and How Do They Do It)? Cognition and the Study of Ritual 240
18 The Deep History of Religious Ritual 254
19 Performativity, Narrative, and Cognition: "Demythologizing" the Roman Cult of Mithras 272
20 Cognitive Science, Ritual, and the Hellenistic Mystery Religions 298
21 Why Christianity Was Accepted by Romans but Not by Rome 308
22 Aspects of Religious Experience among the Hellenistic Mystery Religions 323
23 The Uses (and Abuse) of the Cognitive Sciences for the Study of Religion 336
24 The Future of the Past: The History of Religions and Cognitive Historiography 343
Author Index 358
Subject Index 362
