Processes of Believing: The Acquisition, Maintenance, and Change in Creditions PDF
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New Approaches to the Scientifi c Study of Religion 1 Series Editors: Lluis Oviedo · Aku Visala Hans-Ferdinand Angel · Lluis Oviedo Raymond F. Paloutzian Anne L.C. Runehov Rüdiger J. Seitz Editors Processes of Believing: The Acquisition, Maintenance, and Change in Creditions New Approaches to the Scientific Study of Religion Volume 1 Series editors Lluis Oviedo, Pontifical University Antonianum, Roma, Italy Aku Visala, Helsinki University, Helsingin Yliopisto, Finland Editorial Board Helen de Cruz, Oxford Brookes University, UK Nathaniel Barrett, University of Navarra, Spain Joseph Bulbulia, Victoria University, New Zealand Miguel Farias, Coventry University, UK Jay R. Feierman, University of New Mexico, NM, USA Jonathan Jong, Oxford University, UK Justin McBrayer, Fort Lewis College, CO, USA Introduction to the Series This series presents new approaches to the scientific study of religion, moving from the first generation of studies that try to ‘explain religion’ towards a more critical effort to explore alternative paths in correspondence with this highly complex human and social feature. The series supports the development of new scientific models that advance our understanding of religious faith, emotions, symbols, r ituals, meaning, and the anthropological and cultural dimensions of religions, integrating them into more complex models. Recent decades have witnessed a growing interest in the study of religious mind and behavior from new disciplinary fields, such as cognitive psychology, neurosci- ence and bio-evolutionary science. The amount of published research is impressive and has reached a level that now calls for evaluation and revision of current models and developments. This new series supports this fast-moving development, encour- aging the publication of new books that move on from current research towards larger horizons and innovative ideas. This series: • Increases academic communication and exchange in this multi-disciplinary research area. • Provides a new impetus to the science and religion dialogue. • Opens up new avenues of encounter and discussion between science and human- ities traditions. More information about this series at http://www.springer.com/series/15336 Hans-Ferdinand Angel • Lluis Oviedo Raymond F. Paloutzian • Anne L.C. Runehov Rüdiger J. Seitz Editors Processes of Believing: The Acquisition, Maintenance, and Change in Creditions Editors Hans-Ferdinand Angel Lluis Oviedo Institute of Catechetics and Religious Pontifical University Antonianum Education Rome, Italy Karl-Franzens University of Graz Graz, Austria Anne L.C. Runehov Department of Theology Raymond F. Paloutzian University of Uppsala Department of Psychology Uppsala, Sweden Westmont College Santa Barbara, CA, USA Rüdiger J. Seitz Department of Neurology, Centre for Neurology and Neuropsychiatry, LVR-Klinikum Düsseldorf Heinrich-Heine-University Düsseldorf Düsseldorf, Germany ISSN 2367-3494 ISSN 2367-3508 (electronic) New Approaches to the Scientific Study of Religion ISBN 978-3-319-50922-8 ISBN 978-3-319-50924-2 (eBook) DOI 10.1007/978-3-319-50924-2 Library of Congress Control Number: 2017934308 © Springer International Publishing AG 2017 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, express or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. Printed on acid-free paper This Springer imprint is published by Springer Nature The registered company is Springer International Publishing AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland Preface This book addresses the notion of believing as a fundamental process determining the broad range of human behaviour. To intensify the scientific discourse on the “normal processes of believing”, the Credition Research Project was inaugurated some years ago, culminating in the creation of this volume. The perspective is fully multidisciplinary. The intention of the Credition Research Project (http://credition.uni-graz.at/) is to work out a “model of a normal process of believing” regardless of whether it may take place in religious or mundane contexts. In addition, possible applications of the model of credition in different fields of relevance (law, economic, religious science, communication theory, conflict resolution, education, and so on) are discussed. There are three different but interdependent goals of research that cannot be con- sidered in isolation, because they mutually influence each other. They are named and explained below. • Basic research: to work out a model of credition in an interdisciplinary and trans- disciplinary approach. • Applied research: to review the scientific fields to which the model of credition may be applied and to test its validity. • Implementation research: the focus of this type of research is to observe and to stimulate the integration of the model of credition in the context of conceptual work such as “concepts of sustainability” or “transitional justice”, into commu- nication processes (for instance, “development of education”) or into organisa- tions (“development of organisations” or “cross-culture exchange within organisations”). The structure of credition has been the title of a series of yearly conferences on basic research that have been held in Graz, Austria, since 2011. Additionally, a series of conferences was started in 2013, which opened the door to questions related to the application of the model of credition. The financial support of the Karl-Franzens University of Graz, the Government of Styria, and especially the continuous appreciation and financial contribution by the City of Graz are gratefully acknowledged. v vi Preface The topics of the Structure of Credition conferences were: 2011 The Role of Cognition, Emotion, and Appraisal 2012 Memory, Space of Action, and Social Binding 2013 Formation, Causation, and Ideation 2014 Valuation, Association, and Decision Making 2015 Stabilisation, Awareness, and Attitude 2016 Epistemology, Networks, and Translation The topics of the Credition Applied Research conferences which were held in different universities were: 2013 The Model of Credition and Its Possibilities of Application (Graz/Austria) 2014 The Application of the Credition Research Project in Economics and Social Sciences (Würzburg/Germany) 2015 How to Use the Model of Credition as Communication Tool in the Field of Politics and Education (Thessaloniki/Greece) 2016 Credition and Worldviews (Utrecht/The Netherlands) The conference series of the Credition Implementation Research was inaugu- rated recently. 2016 The Model of Credition in Theology and Neuroscience (Rome/Italy) This volume intends to give insights into our discussions of the recent years, and into the complexity of our interdisciplinary approach. All contributors to this book were speakers in the basic research conferences. Their contributions reflect their own scientific approach to and perspective on the topic. At the same time, they show that an interdisciplinary endeavour opens the door to a fundamental transformation of perspective without disregarding the foundational soil of traditional reflections. The book therefore highlights many perspectives which are connected to the ques- tion of what normal processes of believing – religious or not – might be. The inten- tion is twofold: • First, we intend to present approaches that integrate traditional discussions that are relevant for building a theory of normal believing processes. • Second, we want to give the floor to a few contributions that explicitly integrate the process character of believing, shedding new light on the question of belief. Of course, we know that much more research needs to be done. Therefore, this volume aims to encourage an interdisciplinary approach to research to develop a better understanding of what happens when people are believing. The title of this book Processes of Believing intends to signify the conceptual switch from the noun “belief” to an expression suggesting the dynamic of the “pro- cess of believing”. Similarly, the subtitle Acquisition, Maintenance, and Change outlines the broad perspective of this, highlighting such putative processes con- nected to believing. It may sound grammatically strange to combine acquisition, maintenance, and change with the proposition “in” (i.e. “in Credition”). But many terms of our every- Preface vii day language are not sufficient to express those processes that we want to highlight when using the term “credition”. Importantly, we wish to indicate the need to inte- grate the question of credition into a theoretical frame, which will allow for a deeper understanding of the basic function of processes of believing in relation to human meaning-making system. This book would not have been published without the dedicated cooperation of the editors at Springer. We especially want to thank Cristina Alves dos Santos and Anita van der Linden-Rachmat for their kind and empathetic support by which they followed the growing of the volume. Finally, we want to express our special gratitude to two people who went the extra kilometre in helping this book come to completion. Katrin Staab, at the University of Graz, did a tremendous amount of work formatting all the chapters. Katelyn Mukai, at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, did a marvellous job of copy-editing all 31 chapters while accomplishing the dual goal of crafting correct English while keeping the author’s native tone. The editors and authors appreciate their contributions very much. This book is the far better for it. Graz, Austria Hans-Ferdinand Angel Rome, Italy Lluis Oviedo Santa Barbara, CA, USA Raymond F. Paloutzian Uppsala, Sweden Anne L.C. Runehov Düsseldorf, Germany Rüdiger J. Seitz Acknowledgments The authors acknowledge the financial support by the University of Graz. ix Contents Part I Introduction Introduction: What We Do Not Know About Believing – Approaching a New Scientific Hot Spot .................................... 3 Hans-Ferdinand Angel, Lluis Oviedo, Raymond F. Paloutzian, Anne L.C. Runehov, and Rüdiger J. Seitz Credition: From the Question of Belief to the Question of Believing......... 17 Hans-Ferdinand Angel Part II Psychology and Neuroscience Believing, Remembering, and Imagining: The Roots and Fruits of Meanings Made and Remade ............................... 39 Raymond F. Paloutzian and Katelyn J. Mukai Connection Between Scripts Embedding Motor Schemes and Decision Making ....................................................................... 51 Gennaro Auletta Beliefs and Believing as Possible Targets for Neuroscientific Research .......................................................................... 69 Rüdiger J. Seitz Neurobiological Factors Underlying Attachment and Trust in the Believing Process ................................................................. 83 Corina Aguilar-Raab and Beate Ditzen New Concepts on the Motor System: Implications for Emotions and Credition ................................................................................................... 97 Giovanni Buccino and Ivan Colagè Neural Underpinnings of the Human Belief System .................................... 111 Irene Cristofori and Jordan Grafman xi
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