Five Issues in the Debate
A Response to Critics
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.1558/jcsr.21517Keywords:
studying religion, method and theory, philosophical and theological implications, cognitive science of religionAbstract
In this response, I identify and address five recurring issues raised in the commentaries to my recently published book, An Introduction to the Cognitive Science of Religion: Connecting Evolution, Brain, Cognition, and Culture. These issues are: (1) Conceptualizing and studying religion, (2) the dialogue between method and theory, (3) the theological implications of the CSR, (4) history and culture, and finally, I end with (5) the future of religion and the CSR. I conclude that while further developments are inevitable in a subdiscipline as young as the CSR, we have made tremendous progress already in revitalizing the study of religion towards a more scientifically grounded perspective.
References
Barrett, J. L. (2011). Cognitive science, religion, and theology: From human minds to divine minds. West Conshohocken, PA: Templeton Press.
Barrett, J. L., & Trigg, R. (Eds.). (2014). The roots of religion: Exploring the cognitive science of religion. Chesterfield: Ashgate Publishing.
Boyer, P. (2021). Deriving features of religions in the wild: How communication and threat-detection may predict spirits, gods, witches, and shamans. Human Nature, 32(3), 557–581. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12110-021-09410-y
Boyer, P., & Liénard, P. (2006). Precaution systems and ritualized behavior. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 29(6), 635–641. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X06009575
Cohen, E. (2007). The mind possessed: The cognition of spirit possession in an Afro-Brazilian religious tradition. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
De Cruz, H., & De Smedt, J. (2015). A natural history of natural theology: The cognitive science of theology and philosophy of religion. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
De Cruz, H., Nichols, R., & Beebe, J. R. (Eds.). (2017). Advances in religion, cognitive science, and experimental philosophy. London: Bloomsbury.
Guthrie, S. (1980). A cognitive theory of religion. Current Anthropology, 21(2), 181–203. https://www.jstor.org/stable/2741711
———. (1995). Faces in the clouds: A new theory of religion. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Henrich, J., Heine, S. J., & Norenzayan, A. (2010). Beyond WEIRD: Towards a broad-based behavioral science. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 33(2–3), 111–135. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X10000725
Lawson, E. T. (1984). Religions of Africa: Traditions in transformation. New York: HarperCollins.
Lawson, E. T., & McCauley, R. N. (1990). Rethinking religion: Connecting cognition and culture. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Malley, B. (2004). How the Bible works: An anthropological study of evangelical biblicism. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press.
Martin, L. H., & Wiebe, D. (2012). Religious studies as a scientific discipline: The persistence of a delusion. Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 80(3), 587–597. https://doi.org/10.1093/jaarel/lfs030
McCauley, R. N. (2015, February 5). God is just a natural disaster away. Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/why-religion-is-natural-and-science-is-not/201502/god-is-just-natural-disaster-away
McKay, R., & Whitehouse, H. (2015). Religion and morality. Psychological bulletin, 141(2), 447–473. https://dx.doi.org/10.1037%2Fa0038455
Newson, M., Buhrmester, M., Xygalatas, D., & Whitehouse, H. (2018/2021). Go WILD, not WEIRD. Journal for the Cognitive Science of Religion, 5(1–2), 80–106. https://doi.org/10.1558/jcsr.38413
Pew Research Center (2021, January 27). More Americans than people in other advanced economies say COVID-19 has strengthened religious faith. https://www.pewforum.org/2021/01/27/more-americans-than-people-in-other-advanced-economies-say-covid-19-has-strengthened-religious-faith/
Purzycki, B. G. (2013). The minds of gods: A comparative study of supernatural agency. Cognition, 129(1), 163–179. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cognition.2013.06.010
Sheikh, H., Ginges, J., Coman, A., & Atran, S. (2012). Religion, group threat, and sacred values. Judgment & Decision Making, 7(2), 110–118.
Slingerland, E. (2013). Body and mind in early China: An integrated humanities-science approach. Journal of the American Academy of Religion, 81(1), 6–55. https://doi.org/10.1093/jaarel/lfs094
van Eyghen, H., Peels, R., & van der Brink, G. (Eds.). (2018). New developments in the cognitive science of religion. Berlin: Springer.
White, C. (2021). An introduction to the cognitive science of religion: Connecting evolution, brain, cognition, and culture. Abingdon: Routledge.
Whitehouse, H. (1995). Inside the cult: Religious innovations and transmission in Papua New Guinea. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
Whitehouse, H., & Laidlaw, J. (Eds.). (2004). Ritual and memory: Toward a comparative anthropology of religion. Walnut Creek, CA: AltaMira Press.
Whitehouse, H., & Lanman, J. A. (2014). The ties that bind us: Ritual, fusion, and identification. Current Anthropology, 55(6), 674–695. https://psycnet.apa.org/doi/10.1086/678698
Xygalatas, D. (2012). The burning saints: Cognition and culture in the fire-walking rituals of the Anastenaria. Sheffield: Equinox Publishing Ltd.
Published
Issue
Section
License
Equinox Publishing Ltd.
