How God Becomes Real: Kindling the Presence of Invisible Others PDF
Preview How God Becomes Real: Kindling the Presence of Invisible Others
HOW GOD BECOMES REAL HOW GOD BECOMES REAL Kindling the Presence of Invis!ible Others T. M. LUHRMANN !"# $ % & '($ ) $ # * & " +# ' , !"& + + !"# $ % & '($ - $ . /0 1 (". Copyright © 2323 by Prince ton University Press Requests for permission to reproduce material from this work should be sent to permissions@press . princeton . edu Published by Prince ton University Press 45 William Street, Prince ton, New Jersey 36743 8 Oxford Street, Woodstock, Oxfordshire OX23 5TR press . princeton . edu All Rights Reserved Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Luhrmann, T. M. (Tanya M.), 5979– author. Title: How God becomes real : kindling the presence of invisible others / T. M. Luhrmann. Description: Princeton, New Jersey : Princeton University Press, 2323. | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identi;ers: LCCN 2323322882 (print) | LCCN 232332288< (ebook) | ISBN 9=63895584487 (acid-free paper) | ISBN 9=63895255967 (ebook) Subjects: LCSH: Spirituality. | Presence of God. Classi;cation: LCC BL824 .L64 2323 (print) | LCC BL824 (ebook) | DDC 232/.55=—dc2< LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2323322882 LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/232332288< British Library Cataloging- in- Publication Data is available Editorial: Fred Appel and Jenny Tan Production Editorial: Natalie Baan Text and Jacket Design: Leslie Flis Production: Erin Suydam Publicity: Kate Hensley and Kathryn Stevens Copyeditor: Hank Southgate Jacket art: !e Angels Presenting to God the Souls of the Elect. From a ;>eenth-century miniature. Illustration in Military and Religious Life in the Middle Ages by Paul Lacroix (published ca. 5663) / Alamy Stock Photo ?is book has been composed in Minion Pro Printed on acid- free paper. ∞ Printed in the United States of Amer i ca 53 9 6 = 8 7 4 < 2 5 in memory of my mother All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms ! CONTENTS Preface ix 1 !e Faith Frame " 2 Making Paracosms #$ 3 Talent and Training $% 4 How the Mind Matters &' 5 Evidence for the Way Gods and Spirits Respond "(' 6 Why Prayer Works ")* 7 A God Who Responds "$* Acknowl edgments "%$ General Notes on Methods "%& Bibliographic Essays and Notes "%' Bibliography #(' Index ##' All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms ! PREFACE We are all in the gutter, but some of us are looking at the stars. — Oscar Wilde, Lady Windemere’s Fan When I ponder why faith endures, I am struck by how little our theo- ries consider two straightforward features of religion. First, religion is a practice in which people go to e!ort to make contact with an invisible other. Second, p eople who are religious want change. "ey want to feel di!erently than they do. Yet instead of exploring these features, most theories of religion begin by treating belief in an invisible other both as taken for granted and as a cognitive mistake. "ey assume that a prayer for rain is actually a prayer for rain and that it fails. "en these theories go on to explain why apparently foolish beliefs can be held by sensible people. P eople are afraid of aloneness and so proj ect a parent (Freud); the experience of the social is so power ful that p eople have symbolized it as God (Durkheim); people dream and have odd experiences that seem evidence of something super natural (Tylor, James); people have evolved an attributional style such that when they think quickly and automati- cally they intuit the presence of an invisible other (Boyer, Barrett); trans- lations of nature stories have slipped and stumbled so much over the course of time that a “disease of language” led to mythologies about oth- erworldly beings (Müller). "ese theories presume that belief is direct and unproblematic— that in most cultures, p eople simply take spirit and the super natural to be there. "at doesn’t make sense. Gods and spirits cannot be seen. You can- not shake their hands, look them in the eye, or hear their voice when they speak. It seems odd to assume that people just take for granted that they are pre sent. Moreover, p eople sometimes have elaborate ideas about what t hese invisible beings w ill deliver to them, and t hese promises o#en fall short. In many cases, gods are supposed to know one’s thoughts and determine one’s fate, and in many cases they promise justice and rewards to those who worship them. Yet even for the faithful, life can sometimes All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms
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