An Unnatural History Of Religions: Academia, Post-Truth And The Quest For Scientific Knowledge

276 Pages·2019·3.215 MB·English

by  Leonardo Ambasciano

An Unnatural History of Religions
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Scientifi c Studies of Religion: Inquiry and Explanation
Series editors : Luther H. Martin, Donald Wiebe, William W. McCorkle Jr.,
D. Jason Slone and Radek Kundt
Scientifi c Studies of Religion: Inquiry and Explanation publishes cutting- edge research
in the new and growing fi eld of scientifi c studies in religion. Its aim is to publish
empirical, experimental, historical, and ethnographic research on religious thought,
behaviour, and institutional structures. Th e series works with a broad notion of
scientifi c that includes innovative work on understanding religion(s), both past and
present. With an emphasis on the cognitive science of religion, the series includes
complementary approaches to the study of religion, such as psychology and computer
modelling of religious data. Titles seek to provide explanatory accounts for the religious
behaviors under review, both past and present.
Th e Attraction of Religion , edited by D. Jason Slone and James A. Van Slyke
Th e Cognitive Science of Religion, edited by D. Jason Slone and William W. McCorkle Jr.
Contemporary Evolutionary Th eories of Culture and the Study of Religion,
Radek Kundt
Death Anxiety and Religious Belief, Jonathan Jong and Jamin Halberstadt
Th e Mind of Mithraists , Luther H. Martin
New Patterns for Comparative Religion, William E. Paden
Philosophical Foundations of the Cognitive Science of Religion,
Robert N. McCauley with E. Th omas Lawson
Religion Explained?, edited by Luther H. Martin and Donald Wiebe
Religion in Science Fiction, Steven Hrotic
Religious Evolution and the Axial Age , Stephen K. Sanderson
Th e Roman Mithras Cult, Olympia Panagiotidou with Roger Beck
ii
An Unnatural History of Religions:
Academia, Post- truth and the
Quest for Scientifi c Knowledge
Leonardo Ambasciano
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BLOOMSBURY ACADEMIC
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First published in Great Britain 2019
Copyright © Leonardo Ambasciano, 2019
Leonardo Ambasciano has asserted his right under the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act,
1988, to be identifi ed as Author of this work.
For legal purposes the Acknowledgements on p. xix constitute on extension of this
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To all those who tried (in vain) to turn off the lights. Close, but no cigar.
To the builders of the lighthouse, Marco Goso and Amelia Engaddi Cresta,
without whom none of this would have been possible.
To my wife Elisabeta and to Philip Davison, Alison Lennox and their team, for showing
me that the night is at its darkest just before the brightest dawn, with gratitude.
To all who, against all odds, have succeeded in lighting a candle in the dark.
I owe you. And I love you.
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Contents
List of Figures and Tables x
Preface: Ghosts, Post- truth Despair, and Brandolini’s Law xi
Acknowledgements xix
Note on Text xxi
1 An Incoherent Contradiction 1
A geological divide 1
Mapping the problematique 2
Maps, compasses and bricks 5
Sui generis crisis 8
Th e arms race of natural theology 9
2 Th e Deep History of Comparison 13
A rusty toolbox 13
Birth certifi cate(s): Ultimate origins 17
A preliminary note on imperialism, postmodernism and science 21
Rationality as cumulative by- product of comparison: From Jean Bodin
to Edward Burnett Tylor 23
Enter comparative mythology: Friedrich Max M ü ller 26
Triumph and dissolution of comparison: James George Frazer 28
Whodunnit? 31
Shape of things to come 33
3 Th e Darwinian Road Not Taken 37
‘Th e greatest historian of all time’ 37
Th e threat of a scientifi c and comparative study of religion 39
What makes us human 41
Th e Origin of Species , 1859: Breaking the chain of being 42
Th e Descent of Man , 1871: Degrees, not kinds 44
Th e Rubicon: Max M ü ller versus Darwin 46
Ladders, progress and pithecophobia 48
Original sin 51
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viii Contents
4 Goodbye Science 55
Th e theory of everything 55
A scientifi c theology? William Robertson Smith’s ‘dual life’ 57
Smith’s heretical accommodationism, 1880s 59
Th e end of the Victorian science of religion 62
Birth certifi cate(s): HoR’s proximate origins 64
Netherlands, 1860s: Tiele’s (tentative) science of religion 66
Netherlands, 1870s: Chantepie’s theological reaction 68
Netherlands, 1930s: van der Leeuw’s re- confessionalization 71
Germany, 1890s: ‘Cultural circles’, geography and reactionary politics 73
Austria and Switzerland, 1900s–1950s: Schmidt’s apologetic history
of religion 75
Schmidt’s legacy: Th e strategic rescue of Andrew Lang’s High Gods
as an early home run for post- truth 79
Italy, 1910s–1950s: Pettazzoni’s revolutionary rebuttal 82
Italy, 1920s–1930s: Pettazzoni’s two- fold gamble 84
1950: Th e foundation of the IAHR and the defeat of science 88
5 Eliadology 93
Neither with you nor without you: Mircea Eliade 93
Eliade, 1920s–1980s: From Romanian post- truth to American New Age 96
Th e sacred from the Stone Age to the present and back again 100
Schmidt’s ‘stupendous learning and industry’ 103
An epistemic twilight: Pseudoscience and esotericism 105
Shamanism, 1200s–1800s: Heretics, noble savages, (super)heroes 109
Shamanism, 1937–1946: Eliadean superpowers 110
Shamanism, 1951–1970s: Th e Eliadean synthesis 112
Resolving ‘Th e problem of shamanism’: An unwarranted answer to a
non- existent question 115
6 Th e Demolition of the Status Quo 117
Point of (k)no(w) return: Th e politics of the Eliadean HoR 117
Sexist biases and gender issues: Eliade’s tunnel vision 120
Dismantling h omo religiosus : Rita M. Gross 122
Dismantling the Eliadean research programme: Henry Pernet 124
Dismantling the primacy of shamanism: Mac Linscott Ricketts 126
Dismantling phenomenological morphology: Ioan P. Culianu 128
Dismantling classifi cation: Jonathan Z. Smith 130
Dismantling right- wing ideology: Bruce Lincoln 133
New generations, poststructuralism and Religious Studies 135
Be careful what you wish for: Postmodernism 138
From Deconstruction to New Realism 141
Contents ix
7 Th e Cognitive (R)evolution: Th e End? 145
Post- truth rules 145
What is science, anyway? 148
Forgotten forerunners: Baldwin’s evolutionary epistemology 151
Forgotten forerunners: Harrison’s evolutionary psychology 153
Forgotten forerunners: Macalister’s invention of tradition 154
Disappearing without a trace 155
Th e Dark Ages: Psychoanalysis, behaviourism and cultural anthropology 156
Modern trail- blazers, 1950s–1990s: Th e slow Renaissance of science 160
Cognition, 2000s: Back to a natural history of religion 163
Cognition, 2010s: More than meets the eye 166
Learning from your mistakes: Th e usefulness of scientifi c ‘false views’ 168
A short- lived success? Th e inevitable rise of ‘false facts’ 170
Epilogue: Th e Night of Pseudoscience 175
Notes 179
Bibliography 191
Index 233