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Contemporary Theories of Religion Interest in theories of religion has never been greater. While anthropologists, archaeologists, classicists, evolutionary biologists, philosophers, psychiatrists and scholars of religion have presented new theories in academic publications, ‘New Atheists’ such as Richard Dawkins and Daniel Dennett have brought the debate to wider audiences. For everyone eager to understand the current state of the field, Contemporary Theories of Religion surveys the neglected landscape in its totality. Michael Stausberg brings together leading scholars in the field to review and discuss seventeen contemporary theories of religion. Each chapter provides students with background information on the theoretician, a presentation of the theory’s basic principles, an analysis of basic assumptions and a review of previous critiques. In a concluding section entitled ‘Back and forth’, Stausberg compares the different theories and points to further avenues of discussion for the future. Michael Stausberg is Professor of Religion at the University of Bergen (Norway). Recent publications include Zarathustra and Zoroastrianism (2008) and Theorizing rituals (co-editor, 2 vols, 2006–7). He is the European editor of the journal Religion. Contemporary Theories of Religion A critical companion Edited by Michael Stausberg First published 2009 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN Simultaneously published in the USA and Canada by Routledge 270 Madison Ave., New York, NY 10016 Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2009. To purchase your own copy of this or any of Taylor & Francis or Routledge’s collection of thousands of eBooks please go to www.eBookstore.tandf.co.uk. © 2009 Michael Stausberg for selection and editorial materials. The contributors for their contributions. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data A catalog record for this book has been requested ISBN 0-203-87592-3 Master e-book ISBN ISBN10: 0-415-46346-7 (hbk) ISBN10: 0-415-46347-5 (pbk) ISBN10: 0-203-87592-3 (ebk) ISBN13: 978-0-415-46346-1 (hbk) ISBN13: 978-0-415-46347-8 (pbk) ISBN13: 978-0-203-87592-6 (ebk) Contents List of figures vii List of contributors viii 1 There is life in the old dog yet: an introduction to contemporary theories of religion 1 Michael Stausberg 2 Religion as superhuman agency: on E. Thomas Lawson and Robert N. McCauley, Rethinking religion (1990) 22 Steven Engler and Mark Quentin Gardiner 3 Anthropomorphism and animism: on Stewart E. Guthrie, Faces in the clouds (1993) 39 Benson Saler 4 From need to violence: on Walter Burkert, Creation of the sacred (1996) 53 Gustavo Benavides 5 Religion as ritual: Roy Rappaport’s changing views from Pigs for the ancestors (1968) to Ritual and religion in the making of humanity (1999) 66 Robert A. Segal 6 Religious economies and rational choice: on Rodney Stark and Roger Finke, Acts of faith (2000) 83 Gregory D. Alles 7 Religion as communication: on Niklas Luhmann, The religion of society (2000) 99 Peter Beyer 8 Exotic experience and ordinary life: on Andrew Newberg, Eugene D’Aquili and Vince Rause, Why God won’t go away (2001) 115 Matthew Day vi Contents 9 Religion as the unintended product of brain functions in the ‘standard cognitive science of religion model’: on Pascal Boyer, Religion explained (2001) and Ilkka Pyysiäinen, How religion works (2003) 129 Jeppe Sinding Jensen 10 Religion as evolutionary cascade: on Scott Atran, In gods we trust (2002) 156 Joseph Bulbulia 11 Religion as superorganism: on David Sloan Wilson, Darwin’s cathedral (2002) 173 Joseph Bulbulia and Marcus Frean 12 Roots in the brain: on David Lewis-Williams and David Pearce, Inside the Neolithic mind (2005) 195 Donald Wiebe 13 Boundary maintenance: religions as organic-cultural flows: on Thomas Tweed, Crossing and dwelling (2006) 209 Aaron W. Hughes 14 Theory of religion as myth: on Loyal Rue, Religion is not about God (2005) 224 Hubert Seiwert 15 New Atheistic approaches in the cognitive science of religion: on Daniel Dennett, Breaking the spell (2006) and Richard Dawkins, The God delusion (2006) 242 Armin W. Geertz 16 Interventionist practices and the promises of religion: on Martin Riesebrodt, Cultus und Heilsversprechen (2007) 264 Michael Stausberg 17 Back and forth 283 Michael Stausberg Index 296 Richard Bartholomew Figures 9.1 Boyer’s ‘catalogue of the supernatural’ 142 10.1 Standard view 159 10.2 Guthrie’s wager 162 10.3 Religious culture as cognitive noise 167 10.4 Reformed model 169 11.1 The standard cognitive picture 174 11.2 Religion as cognovirus 175 11.3 Darwin’s cathedral 175 11.4 The natural selection of altruistic groups 178 11.5 Coordination problem 180 11.6 Developmental processes 183 11.7 Evolution: utility versus accuracy 185 11.8 Zeus commands: ‘Woe unto ye who run instead of fight!’ 186 11.9 Zeus commands: ‘Hunt stags with thy brethren!’ 187 Contributors Gregory D. Alles is Professor of Religious Studies at McDaniel College, Westminster, MD, USA. His publications include The Iliad, the Ramayana, and the work of religion (1994) and the edited volume Reli- gious studies: a global view (2008). Gustavo Benavides teaches at the Department of Theology and Religious Studies at Villanova University, Pennsylvania, USA. His research and publications deal with the theory and historiography of religion. He is co-editor of Numen: International Review for the History of Religions and of the series Religion and society and Religion and reason. Peter Beyer is Professor of Religious Studies in the Department of Classics and Religious Studies at the University of Ottawa, Canada. His research specializations include religion and globalization, social theory of reli- gion, religion and transnational migration and religion in Canada. His books include Religions in global society (2006). He is the co-editor of Religion, globalization and culture (2007) and The world’s religions: continuities and transformations (2009). Joseph Bulbulia is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences at Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand. His research considers the place of religious culture and cognition in the evolution of large-scale cooperative society. He is a co-editor of The evolution of reli- gion: studies, theories and critiques (2008). Matthew Day teaches at the Department of Religion at Florida State Univer- sity, Florida, USA. He is editor of the journal Method & Theory in the Study of Religion. Steven Engler teaches at the Department of Humanities, Mount Royal College, Calgary, and is adjunct at the Department of Religion, Concordia University, Montreal, Canada. He is the North American editor of the Contributors ix journal Religion, co-editor of the Numen book series Studies in the history of religions and editor of the Key thinkers in the study of religion book series. He is the co-editor of Historicizing ‘tradition’ in the study of religion (2005). Marcus Frean is a Senior Lecturer in the Faculty of Engineering and Computer Science at Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand. He has longstanding interests in the evolution of cooperation. Mark Quentin Gardiner is a Philosophy Instructor in the Department of Humanities, Mount Royal College, Calgary, Canada. He works primarily in the area of philosophical semantics and in contemporary metaethics. He is the author of Semantic challenges to realism: Dummett and Putnam (2000). Armin W. Geertz is Professor in the History of Religions at the Depart- ment of the Study of Religion, the University of Aarhus, Denmark. His main interests are cognitive theory in the study of religion, the religions of indigenous peoples, recent developments in contemporary religiosity and method and theory in the comparative study of religions. His books include The invention of prophecy: continuity and meaning in Hopi Indian religion (1992). He is a co-editor of Perspectives on method and theory in the study of religion (2000), New approaches to the study of religion (2 vols, 2004) and of the series Religion, cognition and culture. Aaron W. Hughes is Associate Professor of History and the Gordon and Gretchen Gross Professor of Jewish Studies at the University at Buffalo, SUNY, USA. He works in the areas of Jewish thought and critical discourses in religion. His books include Jewish philosophy A–Z (2005), Situating Islam: the past and future of an academic discipline (2007), The art of dialogue in Jewish philosophy (2008) and Defining Judaism (forthcoming). Jeppe Sinding Jensen is Associate Professor, Department for the Study of Religion, Aarhus University. His research interests include semantics and cognition in religious narrativity, myth and cosmology and method, theory and the philosophy of science in the study of religion. He is the author of The study of religion in a new key: theoretical and philosoph- ical soundings in the comparative and general study of religion (2003) and the co-editor of Rationality and the study of religion (2003). He is the co-editor of the series Religion, cognition and culture. Benson Saler is Professor Emeritus of Anthropology at Brandeis University, Massachusetts, USA. He is the author of Los Wayú (Guajiro) (1988),

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