Automatic Religion

Automatic Religion PDF Author: Paul Christopher Johnson
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022674986X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 333

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Book Description
What distinguishes humans from nonhumans? Two common answers—free will and religion—are in some ways fundamentally opposed. Whereas free will enjoys a central place in our ideas of spontaneity, authorship, and deliberation, religious practices seem to involve a suspension of or relief from the exercise of our will. What, then, is agency, and why has it occupied such a central place in theories of the human? Automatic Religion explores an unlikely series of episodes from the end of the nineteenth century, when crucial ideas related to automatism and, in a different realm, the study of religion were both being born. Paul Christopher Johnson draws on years of archival and ethnographic research in Brazil and France to explore the crucial boundaries being drawn at the time between humans, “nearhumans,” and automata. As agency came to take on a more central place in the philosophical, moral, and legal traditions of the West, certain classes of people were excluded as less-than-human. Tracking the circulation of ideas across the Atlantic, Johnson tests those boundaries, revealing how they were constructed on largely gendered and racial foundations. In the process, he reanimates one of the most mysterious and yet foundational questions in trans-Atlantic thought: what is agency?

Automatic Religion

Automatic Religion PDF Author: Paul Christopher Johnson
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022674986X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 333

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Book Description
What distinguishes humans from nonhumans? Two common answers—free will and religion—are in some ways fundamentally opposed. Whereas free will enjoys a central place in our ideas of spontaneity, authorship, and deliberation, religious practices seem to involve a suspension of or relief from the exercise of our will. What, then, is agency, and why has it occupied such a central place in theories of the human? Automatic Religion explores an unlikely series of episodes from the end of the nineteenth century, when crucial ideas related to automatism and, in a different realm, the study of religion were both being born. Paul Christopher Johnson draws on years of archival and ethnographic research in Brazil and France to explore the crucial boundaries being drawn at the time between humans, “nearhumans,” and automata. As agency came to take on a more central place in the philosophical, moral, and legal traditions of the West, certain classes of people were excluded as less-than-human. Tracking the circulation of ideas across the Atlantic, Johnson tests those boundaries, revealing how they were constructed on largely gendered and racial foundations. In the process, he reanimates one of the most mysterious and yet foundational questions in trans-Atlantic thought: what is agency?

Religion

Religion PDF Author: Seth Daniel Kunin
Publisher: JHU Press
ISBN: 9780801877278
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 244

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Book Description
Over the course of the twentieth century, the way we understand the religious experience has been transformed. Various thinkers and intellectual approaches have shaped the ways in which scholars examine rituals, symbols, and belief systems. In."

The Psychology Of Religion

The Psychology Of Religion PDF Author: Bernard Spilka
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429964463
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
Theory in the psychology of religion is in a state of rapid development, and the present volume demonstrates how various positions in this field may be translated into original foundational work that will in turn encourage exploration in many directions. A number of new contributions are collected with previously published pieces to illustrate the

Psychological Perspectives on Religion and Religiosity

Psychological Perspectives on Religion and Religiosity PDF Author: Benjamin Beit-Hallahmi
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1317610369
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 328

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Book Description
Is religion to blame for deadly conflicts? Should religious behaviour be credited more often for acts of charity and altruism? In what ways are religious and ‘spiritual’ ideas, practices and identities surviving and changing as religion loses its political power in those parts of the world which are experiencing increasing secularization? Written by one of the world’s leading authorities on the psychology of religion and social identity, Psychological Perspectives on Religion and Religiosity offers a comprehensive and multidisciplinary review of a century of research into the origins and consequences of religious belief systems and religious behaviour. The book employs a unique theoretical framework that combines the ‘new’ cognitive-evolutionary psychology of religion, examining the origins of religious ideas, with the ‘old’ psychology of religiosity, which looks at correlates and consequences. It examines a wide range of psychological variables and their relationship with religiosity. It is also provides fresh insights into classical topics in the psychology of religion, such as religious conversion, the relevance of Freud’s ideas about religion and religiosity, the meaning of secularization, and the crucial role women play in religion. The book concludes with the author’s reflections on the future for the psychology of religion as a field. Psychological Perspectives on Religion and Religiosity will be invaluable for academic researchers in psychology, sociology, anthropology, political science, economics, and history worldwide. It will also be of great interest to advanced undergraduate students and graduate students across the social sciences.

Theories of Religion

Theories of Religion PDF Author: Seth Daniel Kunin
Publisher: Rutgers University Press
ISBN: 9780813539652
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 534

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Book Description
This book provides a comprehensive selection of readings that relate to and explore the definition of religion. The texts come from a wide range of approaches, unified both by the questions they are addressing and their broadly social scientific perspective. The disciplines covered include anthropology, phenomenology, psychology and sociology. The editors have also included some key texts relating to the feminist approach to and critique of religion. The first section of the book includes some of the foundational texts, such as materials by Marx, Freud, and Durkheim. The remaining sections look at more recent discussions of the issues from the different disciplinary perspectives. Each reading is introduced by a biographical sketch of the author. The book also includes introductory discussions to each section that both raise the key issues developed in a particular discipline and address the disciplinary approaches from a more critical stance. Theories of Religion: A Reader is an invaluable critical resource, accessible to a broad audience as well as students of theology and religious studies.

Religion and Family in a Changing Society

Religion and Family in a Changing Society PDF Author: Penny Edgell
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400850762
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 232

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Book Description
The 1950s religious boom was organized around the male-breadwinner lifestyle in the burgeoning postwar suburbs. But since the 1950s, family life has been fundamentally reconfigured in the United States. How do religion and family fit together today? This book examines how religious congregations in America have responded to changes in family structure, and how families participate in local religious life. Based on a study of congregations and community residents in upstate New York, sociologist Penny Edgell argues that while some religious groups may be nostalgic for the Ozzie and Harriet days, others are changing, knowing that fewer and fewer families fit this traditional pattern. In order to keep members with nontraditional family arrangements within the congregation, these innovators have sought to emphasize individual freedom and personal spirituality and actively to welcome single adults and those from nontraditional families. Edgell shows that mothers and fathers seek involvement in congregations for different reasons. Men tend to think of congregations as social support structures, and to get involved as a means of participating in the lives of their children. Women, by contrast, are more often motivated by the quest for religious experience, and can adapt more readily to pluralist ideas about family structure. This, Edgell concludes, may explain the attraction of men to more conservative congregations, and women to nontraditional religious groups.

The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Religion and Materiality

The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Religion and Materiality PDF Author: Vasudha Narayanan
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1118660102
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 620

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Book Description
The Wiley Blackwell Companion to Religion and Materiality provides a thoughtfully organized, inclusive, and vibrant project of the multiple ways in which religion and materiality intersect. The contributions explore the way that religion is shaped by, and has shaped, the material world, embedding beliefs, doctrines, and texts into social and cultural contexts of production, circulation, and consumption. The Companion not only contains scholarly essays but has an accompanying website to demonstrate the work of performers, architects, and expressive artists, ranging from musicians and dancers to religious practitioners. These examples offer specific illustrations of the interplay of religion and materiality in everyday life. The project is organized from a comparative perspective, highlighting examples and case studies from traditions originating in both East and West. To summarize, the volume: Brings together the leading figures, theories and ideas in the field in a systematic and comprehensive way Offers an interdisciplinary approach drawing together religious studies, anthropology, archaeology, history, sociology, geography, the cognitive sciences, ecology, and media studies Takes a comparative perspective, covering all the major faith traditions

The Routledge Handbook of Religion and Secrecy

The Routledge Handbook of Religion and Secrecy PDF Author: Hugh B. Urban
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000556182
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 621

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Book Description
Secrecy is a central and integral component of all religious traditions. Not limited simply to religious groups that engage in clandestine activities such as hidden rites of initiation or terrorism, secrecy is inherent in the very fabric of religion itself. Its importance has perhaps never been more acutely relevant than in our own historical moment. In the wake of 9/11 and other acts of religious violence, we see the rise of invasive national security states that target religious minorities and pose profound challenges to the ideals of privacy and religious freedom, accompanied by the resistance by many communities to such efforts. As such, questions of secrecy, privacy, surveillance, and security are among the most central and contested issues of twenty-first century religious life. The Routledge Handbook of Religion and Secrecy is the definitive reference source for the key topics, problems, and debates in this crucial field and is the first collection of its kind. Comprising twenty-nine chapters by a team of international contributors, the Handbook is divided into five parts: Configurations of Religious Secrecy: Conceptual and Comparative Frameworks Secrecy as Religious Practice Secrecy and the Politics of the Present Secrecy and Social Resistance Secrecy, Terrorism, and Surveillance. This cutting-edge volume discusses secrecy in relation to major categories of religious experience and individual religious practices while also examining the transformations of secrecy in the modern period, including the rise of fraternal orders, the ongoing wars on terror, the rise of far-right white supremacist groups, increasing concerns over religious freedom and privacy, the role of the internet in the spread and surveillance of such groups, and the resistance to surveillance by many indigenous and diasporic communities. The Routledge Handbook of Religion and Secrecy is essential reading for students and researchers in religious studies, comparative religion, new religious movements, and religion and politics. It will be equally central to debates in the related disciplines of sociology, anthropology, political science, security studies and cultural studies.

Cognitive Science and Ancient Israelite Religion

Cognitive Science and Ancient Israelite Religion PDF Author: Brett E. Maiden
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108859259
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 311

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Book Description
In this book, Brett Maiden employs the tools, research, and theories from the cognitive science of religion to explore religious thought and behavior in ancient Israel. His study focuses on a key set of distinctions between intuitive and reflective types of cognitive processing, implicit and explicit concepts, and cognitively optimal and costly religious traditions. Through a series of case studies, Maiden examines a range of topics including popular and official religion, Deuteronomic theology, hybrid monsters in ancient iconography, divine cult statues in ancient Mesopotamia and the biblical idol polemics, and the Day of Atonement ritual in Leviticus 16. The range of media, including ancient texts, art, and archaeological data from ancient Israel, as well theoretical perspectives demonstrates how a dialogue between biblical scholars and cognitive researchers can be fostered.

Religion and Medicine

Religion and Medicine PDF Author: Elwood Worcester
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Emmanuel movement
Languages : en
Pages : 448

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Book Description