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Mind and Religion: Psychological and Cognitive Foundations of Religion: Psychological and Cognitive Foundations of Religiosity
Author(s): Harvey Whitehouse (Editor), Robert N. McCauley
- Publisher: AltaMira Press (UK)
- Publication Date: 28 May 2005
- Language: English
- Print length: 248 pages
- ISBN-10: 0759106185
- ISBN-13: 9780759106185
Book Description
Recent cognitive approaches to the study of religion have yielded much understanding by focusing on common psychological processes that all humans share. One leading theory, Harvey WhitehouseOs modes of religiosity theory, demonstrates how two distinct modes of organizing and transmitting religious traditions emerge from different ways of activating universal memory systems. In Mind and Religion, top scholars from biology to religious studies question, test, evaluate and challenge WhitehouseOs sweeping thesis. The result is an up-to-date snapshot of the cognitive science of religion field for classes in psychology, anthropology, or history of religion.
Editorial Reviews
Review
This book provides an excellent set of commentaries, and for those interested in cognitive approaches to religion more generally, it offers a good overview.
About the Author
Harvey Whitehouse is Professor of Anthropology and Director of the Institute of Cognition and Culture at Queen’s University Belfast. Robert N. McCauley is Professor of Philosophy at Emory University in Atlanta. He is the author, with E. Thomas Lawson, of Rethinking Religion: Connecting Cognition and Culture (1990) and Bringing Ritual to Mind: Psychological Foundations of Cultural Forms (2002).
