Religion, Emergence, and the Origins of Meaning

Religion, Emergence, and the Origins of Meaning PDF

Author: Paul Cassell

Publisher: BRILL

Published: 2015-05-12

Total Pages: 203

ISBN-13: 9004293760

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Why is religion so important to individuals and societies? What gives religion its profound meaningfulness and longevity? Enhancing perspectives taken from sociology and ritual theory, Religion, Emergence, and the Origins of Meaning describes how ‘emergence theory’ – developed to make sense of life and mind – explains why religious communities are special when compared to ordinary human social groups. Paul Cassell argues that in religious ritual, beliefs concerning unseen divine agencies are made uniquely potent, inviting and guiding powerful, alternative experiences, and giving religious groups a form of organization distinct from ordinary human social groups. Going beyond the foundational descriptions of Émile Durkheim and Roy Rappaport, Cassell utilizes the best of 21st century emergence theory to characterize religion’s emergent dynamics.

Religion Explained

Religion Explained PDF

Author: Pascal Boyer

Publisher: Basic Books

Published: 2007-03-21

Total Pages: 384

ISBN-13: 046500461X

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Many of our questions about religion, says renowned anthropologist Pascal Boyer, are no longer mysteries. We are beginning to know how to answer questions such as "Why do people have religion?" Using findings from anthropology, cognitive science, linguistics, and evolutionary biology, Religion Explained shows how this aspect of human consciousness is increasingly admissible to coherent, naturalistic explanation. This brilliant and controversial book gives readers the first scientific explanation for what religious feeling is really about, what it consists of, and where it comes from.

The Origin and Evolution of Religion (Routledge Revivals)

The Origin and Evolution of Religion (Routledge Revivals) PDF

Author: Albert Churchward

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2015-06-03

Total Pages: 518

ISBN-13: 1317587693

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Churchward’s The Origin and Evolution of Religion, first published in 1924, explores the history and development of different religions worldwide, from the religious cults of magic and fetishism to contemporary religions such as Christianity and Islam. This text is ideal for students of theology.

The Routledge Handbook of Evolutionary Approaches to Religion

The Routledge Handbook of Evolutionary Approaches to Religion PDF

Author: Yair Lior

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2022-11-30

Total Pages: 756

ISBN-13: 1000638413

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The past two decades have seen a growing interest in evolutionary and scientific approaches to religion. The Routledge Handbook of Evolutionary Approaches to Religion is an outstanding reference source to the key topics, problems and debates in this exciting and emerging field. Comprising over thirty chapters by a team of international contributors the handbook pulls together scholarship in the following areas: evolutionary psychology and the cognitive science of religion (CSR) cultural evolution the complementarity of evolutionary psychology, cognitive science and cultural evolution Within these sections central issues, debates and problems are examined, including: Cliodynamics, cultural group selection, costly signaling, dual inheritance theory, literacy, transmitting narratives, prosociality, supernatural punishment, cognition and ritual, meme theory, fusion theory, sexual selection, agency detection, evoked culture, social brain hypothesis, theory of mind, developmental psychology, emergence theory, social learning, cultural cybernetics, cultural epidemiology, evolutionary and cultural psychology, memetics, by-product and adaptationist theories of religion, systems and information theory, and computer modeling. This Handbook is essential reading for students and researchers in religious studies and anthropology. It will also be very useful to those in related fields, such as psychology, sociology of religion, cognitive biology, and evolutionary biology.

The Concept of God, the Origin of the World, and the Image of the Human in the World Religions

The Concept of God, the Origin of the World, and the Image of the Human in the World Religions PDF

Author: P. Koslowski

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2012-12-06

Total Pages: 168

ISBN-13: 9401009996

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All religions make statements about God or the Absolute and about "the beginning": about the beginning of the world and the beginning and nature of the human person. Propositions about God, the human person, and the world, statements about God's eternity or process of becoming, about the status and nature of the human person as the "image of God", and about the beginning of the world are woven into "religious speculations about the beginning". The theology, anthropology, and cosmology of the world religions determine the image of the human person and the image of the world in the world cultures shaped by the different religions. They stand in a tense relationship with the anthropologies and cosmologies of modern science, which in turn challenge the religions to deepen their image of the human person. With this volume leading thinkers of Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam provide the reader with a first-hand source for understanding the five world religions and their teaching about God, the human person, and the origin of the world.

The Origin of Religion

The Origin of Religion PDF

Author: Samuel M. Zwemer

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2012-02-21

Total Pages: 256

ISBN-13: 1620320347

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Based upon the Smyth Lectures delivered at Columbia Theological Seminary, Decatur, Georgia, 1935.

The Evolution of the Idea of God: an Inquiry Into the Origin of Religions

The Evolution of the Idea of God: an Inquiry Into the Origin of Religions PDF

Author: Grant Allen

Publisher:

Published: 2017-10-31

Total Pages: 312

ISBN-13: 9781979302241

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Two main schools of religious thinking exist in our midst at the presentday: the school of humanists and the school of animists. This work is tosome extent an attempt to reconcile them. It contains, I believe, the firstextended effort that has yet been made to trace the genesis of the belief ina God from its earliest origin in the mind of primitive man up to its fullestdevelopment in advanced and etherealised Christian theology. My methodis therefore constructive, not destructive. Instead of setting out to argueaway or demolish a deep-seated and ancestral element in our complexnature, this book merely posits for itself the psychological question, " Bywhat successive steps did men come to frame for themselves the conceptionof a deity? " - or, if the reader so prefers it, "How did we arrive at our knowledge of God? " It seeks provisionally toanswer these profound and important questions by reference to the earliestbeliefs of savages, past or present, and to the testimony of historicaldocuments and ancient monuments. It does not concern itself at all withthe validity or invalidity of the ideas in themselves; it does but endeavourto show how inevitable they were, and how man's relation with the externaluniverse was certain a priori to beget them as of necessity.

Science, Religion and Deep Time

Science, Religion and Deep Time PDF

Author: Lowell Gustafson

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2022-07-05

Total Pages: 378

ISBN-13: 1000522946

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This book examines the meaning of religion within the scientific, evidence-based history of our known past since the big bang. While our current major religions are only centuries or millennia old, our volume discusses the origins and development of human religious practice and belief over our species’ existence of 300,000 years. The volume also connects the scientific approach to natural and social history with ancient truths of our religious ancestors using new lines of inquiry, new technologies, new modes of expression, and new concepts. It brings together insights of natural scientists, social scientists, philosophers, writers, and theologians to discuss narratives of the universe. The essays discuss that to apprehend religion scientifically, or to interpret and explain science theologically, the subject must be examined through a variety of disciplinary lenses simultaneously and raise several theoretical, philosophical, and moral problems. With a singular investigation into the meaning of religion in the context of the 13.8 billion-year history of our universe, this book will be indispensable for scholars and students of religious studies, big history, sociology and social anthropology, philosophy, and science and technology studies.

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