scholarly journals Primitive Theories of Religion: Evolutionism after Evans-Pritchard

e-Rhizome ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 2 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-18
Author(s):  
Konrad Talmont-Kaminski
Keyword(s):  
Theories Of Religion

Religion and the Construction of a Christian Roman Polity

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 76-113
Author(s):  
Francesco Rotiroti
Keyword(s):  
Theoretical Framework ◽  
Political Community ◽  
The Political ◽  
Political Dimension ◽  
Roman World ◽  
Recent Scholarship ◽  
Theories Of Religion ◽  
Ancient Christianity

This article seeks to define a theoretical framework for the study of the relation between religion and the political community in the Roman world and to analyze a particular case in point. The first part reviews two prominent theories of religion developed in the last fifty years through the combined efforts of anthropologists and classicists, arguing for their complementary contribution to the understanding of religion's political dimension. It also provides an overview of the approaches of recent scholarship to the relation between religion and the Roman polity, contextualizing the efforts of this article toward a theoretical reframing of the political and institutional elements of ancient Christianity. The second part focuses on the religious legislation of the Theodosian Code, with particular emphasis on the laws against the heretics and their performance in the construction of the political community. With their characteristic language of exclusion, these laws signal the persisting overlap between the borders of the political community and the borders of religion, in a manner that one would expect from pre-Christian civic religions. Nevertheless, the political essence of religion did also adapt to the ecumenical dimension of the empire. Indeed, the religious norms of the Code appear to structure a community whose borders tend to be identical to the borders of the whole inhabited world, within which there is no longer room for alternative affiliations; the only possible identity outside this community is that of the insane, not belonging to any political entity and thus unable to possess any right.

scholarly journals The Origins of Religious Disbelief: A Dual Inheritance Approach

2021 ◽  
pp. 194855062199400 ◽  
Author(s):  
Will M. Gervais ◽  
Maxine B. Najle ◽  
Nava Caluori
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Transmission ◽  
Religious Commitment ◽  
Data Set ◽  
Cognitive Reflection ◽  
Theoretical Approaches ◽  
Cultural Exposure ◽  
Theories Of Religion ◽  
Nationally Representative ◽  
Cultural Cues ◽  
Dual Inheritance

Widespread religious disbelief represents a key testing ground for theories of religion. We evaluated the predictions of three prominent theoretical approaches—secularization, cognitive byproduct, and dual inheritance—in a nationally representative (United States, N = 1,417) data set with preregistered analyses and found considerable support for the dual inheritance perspective. Of key predictors of religious disbelief, witnessing fewer credible cultural cues of religious commitment was the most potent, β = .28, followed distantly by reflective cognitive style, β = .13, and less advanced mentalizing, β = .05. Low cultural exposure predicted about 90% higher odds of atheism than did peak cognitive reflection, and cognitive reflection only predicted disbelief among those relatively low in cultural exposure to religion. This highlights the utility of considering both evolved intuitions and transmitted culture and emphasizes the dual roles of content- and context-biased social learning in the cultural transmission of disbelief (preprint https://psyarxiv.com/e29rt/ ).

Is Social Media a Digital Pulpit? How Evangelical Leaders Use Twitter to Encourage the Faithful and Publicize Their Work

2019 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 309-339 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ryan P. Burge ◽  
Miles D. Williams
Keyword(s):  
Social Media ◽  
Natural Extension ◽  
Religious Leaders ◽  
Political Language ◽  
Political Issues ◽  
The Public ◽  
Political Commentary ◽  
Religious Communication ◽  
Theories Of Religion ◽  
Social Media Platforms

Social media is altering how some religious leaders communicate with their followers and with the public. This has the potential to challenge theories of religious communication that have been developed through the study of traditional modes such as sermons. This study examines how leaders in U.S. evangelicalism take advantage of the public platform provided by Twitter. Using over 85,000 tweets from 88 prominent evangelical leaders, we find that these leaders often use their social media platforms as a natural extension of their current modes of communication. More specifically, evangelical leaders use their account to encourage and inspire their followers, while also conveying information about upcoming personal projects such as tours and book releases. In a small number of cases, evangelical leaders do make reference to political issues, but those individuals are ones who have already built a brand based on political commentary. Speaking broadly, the usage of political language by evangelical leaders is rare. The paper concludes with a discussion of how this analysis advances theories of religion and communication.KeywordsTwitter – social media – evangelicals – leaders

Gods and Corporations: Fifth-Century B. C. E. Athena and the Economic Utility of Extraordinary Agents

2007 ◽  
Vol 19 (3-4) ◽  
pp. 323-331
Author(s):  
John Rundin
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Economic Theory ◽  
Human Mind ◽  
Fifth Century ◽  
Cognitive Structures ◽  
Cognitive Theories ◽  
Theories Of Religion

AbstractGregory D. Alles has suggested that economic theory can be a valuable supplement to cognitive theories of religion. The cult of Athena at Athens supplies evidence to support this suggestion. Athena may have origins in the cognitive structures of the human mind as an extraordinary agent. However, she developed economic functions in fifth-century B. C. E. Athens. The sanctuary of Athena served as a bank that funded Athenian civic endeavours. Athena's sanctuary was able to do this because she was a disembodied agent with functions similar to those of a modern United States corporation, which is also a disembodied agent.

Horace Bushnell among the Metaphysicians

2010 ◽  
Vol 79 (3) ◽  
pp. 614-653 ◽  
Author(s):  
Catherine L. Albanese
Keyword(s):  
Andrew Jackson ◽  
Horace Bushnell ◽  
Theories Of Religion ◽  
The Subject ◽  
The Mind

On December 15, 1851, Andrew Jackson Davis—self-styled Harmonial philosopher and noted scion of the spiritualist world—sent a public letter. Addressed through the Hartford Times to the controversial Congregationalist minister Horace Bushnell, the message concerned the first of a series of lectures Bushnell was delivering at his North Church. Davis, who at the time claimed Hartford, Connecticut, as his base, was clearly excited. The announced topic—“On the Naturalistic Theories of Religion as Opposed to Supernatural Revelation”—already gave Davis “much pleasure,” suggesting a position “entirely unlike any other ever assumed by the clergy of Christendom.” More than that, Bushnell's way of approaching the subject and defining his position was “considerably unlike the method pursued by most clergymen,” since Bushnell relied on his own “reason or judgment” to address “the corresponding faculty in the mind of the hearer.” Davis went on to propose that, with so important an issue, better to move the lectures from Bushnell's North Church pulpit to a different location and to invite “all parties interested” to “analyze and examine before the same audience the various positions.”

Science Envy in Theories of Religion

2010 ◽  
Vol 22 (4) ◽  
pp. 293-303
Author(s):  
Aaron W. Hughes
Keyword(s):  
Philosophy Of Religion ◽  
The Third ◽  
Mircea Eliade ◽  
Present Essay ◽  
Phenomenology Of Religion ◽  
Theories Of Religion ◽  
Biological Domain

AbstractRecent theorizing about religion has largely shifted from the cultural to the biological domain. This, however, comes with a cost. To explore this in greater detail, the present essay is divided into three parts: first, I seek to reclaim and redefine what usually passes for the “phenomenology” of religion in the writings traditionally associated with likes of Gerardus van der Leeuw, often by way of Mircea Eliade. I seek to take an initial, tentative step in this reclamation by returning to an admittedly idiosyncratic reading of one version of Heidegger’s philosophy that emerges from the pages of his Sein und Zeit. Second, to show how this new theorizing, rather than contribute to the dubious and quasi-theological discourses associated with the philosophy of religion, enables us to focus with renewed energy upon the constant process of self- and group making. In the third section, I try to nudge (with the aim of perhaps dislodging) what could well become the new regnant discourse of current theorizing about religion.

Religion and Progressive Activism—Introducing and Mapping the Field

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Todd Nicholas Fuist ◽  
Ruth Braunstein ◽  
Rhys H. Williams
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Movements ◽  
The United States ◽  
Democratic Politics ◽  
Political Life ◽  
Social Actors ◽  
Theories Of Religion ◽  
Religious Activism ◽  
Progressive Religion

This chapter introduces readers to the often-overlooked field of progressive religious activism in the United States, and maps its contours. First, it traces the history and continued relevance of progressive religious activism in American political life. Second, it argues that progressive religion should not be conceptualized as a category of social actors, but rather as a field of action defined by participants’ commitment to progressive action, progressive values, progressive identities, and/or progressive theology, as well as through participants’ efforts to distinguish themselves from the activities of religious conservatives and/or secular progressives. Finally, it assesses the varied ways that attention to progressive religion challenges common political binaries (like Right/Left and progress/tradition), and prompts a reconsideration of long accepted theories of religion and social movements as well as the role of faith in democratic politics and civic life.

Afterword

Melania ◽  
2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Randall Styers
Keyword(s):  
Gender Studies ◽  
History Of Christianity ◽  
Theories Of Religion ◽  
History Of ◽  
The Impact

This essay delineates the impact of gender studies, theories of religion, and hagiography on fields of patristics and the history of Christianity more broadly, with a particular focus on the influence of the work of Elizabeth A. Clark.

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