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How Religion Works
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Book Synopsis How Religion Works by : Ilkka Pyysiäinen
Download or read book How Religion Works written by Ilkka Pyysiäinen and published by BRILL. This book was released on 2021-10-11 with total page 284 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recent findings in cognitive science and evolutionary psychology provide important insights to the processes which make religious beliefs and behaviors such efficient attractors in and across various cultural settings. The specific salience of religious ideas is based on the fact that they are 'counter-intuitive': they contradict our intuitive expectations of how entities normally behave. Counter-intuitive ideas are only produced by a mind capable of crossing the boundaries that separate such ontological domains as persons, living things, and solid objects. The evolution of such a mind has only taken place in the human species. How certain kinds of counter-intuitive ideas are selected for a religious use is discussed from varying angles. Cognitive considerations are thus related to the traditions of comparative religion. This publication has also been published in paperback, please click here for details.
Download or read book Religion written by Christian Smith and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2019-03-26 with total page 292 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A groundbreaking new theory of religion Religion remains an important influence in the world today, yet the social sciences are still not adequately equipped to understand and explain it. This book advances an innovative theory of religion that goes beyond the problematic theoretical paradigms of the past. Drawing on the philosophy of critical realism and personalist social theory, Christian Smith explores why humans are religious in the first place—uniquely so as a species—and offers an account of secularization and religious innovation and persistence that breaks the logjam in which religious scholarship has been stuck for so long. Certain to stimulate debate and inspire promising new avenues of scholarship, Religion features a wealth of illustrations and examples that help to make its concepts accessible to readers. This superbly written book brings sound theoretical thinking to a perennially thorny subject, and a new vitality and focus to its study.
Download or read book How God Works written by David DeSteno and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2022-09-06 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing on a wealth of new evidence, pioneering research psychologist David DeSteno shows why religious practices and rituals are so beneficial to those who follow them—and to anyone, regardless of their faith (or lack thereof). Scientists are beginning to discover what believers have known for a long time: the rewards that a religious life can provide. For millennia, people have turned to priests, rabbis, imams, shamans, and others to help them deal with issues of grief and loss, birth and death, morality and meaning. In this absorbing work, DeSteno reveals how numerous religious practices from around the world improve emotional and physical well-being. With empathy and rigor, DeSteno chronicles religious rites and traditions from cradle to grave. He explains how the Japanese rituals surrounding childbirth help strengthen parental bonds with children. He describes how the Apache Sunrise Ceremony makes teenage girls better able to face the rigors of womanhood. He shows how Buddhist meditation reduces hostility and increases compassion. He demonstrates how the Jewish practice of sitting shiva comforts the bereaved. And much more. DeSteno details how belief itself enhances physical and mental health. But you don’t need to be religious to benefit from the trove of wisdom that religion has to offer. Many items in religion’s “toolbox” can help the body and mind whether or not one believes. How God Works offers advice on how to incorporate many of these practices to help all of us live more meaningful, successful, and satisfying lives.
Book Synopsis A Critical Introduction to the Study of Religion by : Craig Martin
Download or read book A Critical Introduction to the Study of Religion written by Craig Martin and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-04-21 with total page 259 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A Critical Introduction to the Study of Religion introduces the key concepts and theories from religious studies that are necessary for a full understanding of the complex relations between religion and society. The aim is to provide readers with an arsenal of critical concepts for studying religious ideologies, practices, and communities. This thoroughly revised second edition has been restructured to clearly emphasize key topics including: Essentialism Functionalism Authority Domination. All ideas and theories are clearly illustrated, with new and engaging examples and case studies throughout, making this the ideal textbook for students approaching the subject area for the first time.
Book Synopsis Why We Need Religion by : Stephen T. Asma
Download or read book Why We Need Religion written by Stephen T. Asma and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2018-05-09 with total page 288 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How we feel is as vital to our survival as how we think. This claim, based on the premise that emotions are largely adaptive, serves as the organizing theme of Why We Need Religion. This book is a novel pathway in a well-trodden field of religious studies and philosophy of religion. Stephen Asma argues that, like art, religion has direct access to our emotional lives in ways that science does not. Yes, science can give us emotional feelings of wonder and the sublime--we can feel the sacred depths of nature--but there are many forms of human suffering and vulnerability that are beyond the reach of help from science. Different emotional stresses require different kinds of rescue. Unlike secular authors who praise religion's ethical and civilizing function, Asma argues that its core value lies in its emotionally therapeutic power. No theorist of religion has failed to notice the importance of emotions in spiritual and ritual life, but truly systematic research has only recently delivered concrete data on the neurology, psychology, and anthropology of the emotional systems. This very recent "affective turn" has begun to map out a powerful territory of embodied cognition. Why We Need Religion incorporates new data from these affective sciences into the philosophy of religion. It goes on to describe the way in which religion manages those systems--rage, play, lust, care, grief, and so on. Finally, it argues that religion is still the best cultural apparatus for doing this adaptive work. In short, the book is a Darwinian defense of religious emotions and the cultural systems that manage them.
Book Synopsis The Story of Religion by : John Hawkins
Download or read book The Story of Religion written by John Hawkins and published by Arcturus Publishing. This book was released on 2016-09-02 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book traces the history of the world's great religions from their foundation to the present day. Their development is shown in interesting visuals - such as maps and photographs - as well as informative yet concise text. Also included are short biographies of major figures, statistics, calendars of festivals and timelines. The religions included are: Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism and Sikhism.
Book Synopsis Religion and Social Problems by : Titus Hjelm
Download or read book Religion and Social Problems written by Titus Hjelm and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2011-01-21 with total page 269 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Although students and scholars of social problems have often acknowledged the role of religion, no thorough examinations of the relation between the two have emerged. This volume fills this gap by providing a definitive work on the role of religion in assessing, constructing, and solving social problems. Contributors chart the relation between religion and social problems, exploring such case studies as the impact of religion on drugs and alcohol use among Muslims, the rising importance that religion is given in social policy, the role of the Orthodox and Catholic churches in tackling social problems in post-communist East Europe, and the contested role of religion in the national and international politics of contemporary Japan. Religion and Social Problems is a broad and path-breaking contribution to the fields of sociology of religion, sociology of social problems, and religious studies.
Book Synopsis God Is Not Great by : Christopher Hitchens
Download or read book God Is Not Great written by Christopher Hitchens and published by McClelland & Stewart. This book was released on 2008-11-19 with total page 322 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Christopher Hitchens, described in the London Observer as “one of the most prolific, as well as brilliant, journalists of our time” takes on his biggest subject yet–the increasingly dangerous role of religion in the world. In the tradition of Bertrand Russell’s Why I Am Not a Christian and Sam Harris’s recent bestseller, The End Of Faith, Christopher Hitchens makes the ultimate case against religion. With a close and erudite reading of the major religious texts, he documents the ways in which religion is a man-made wish, a cause of dangerous sexual repression, and a distortion of our origins in the cosmos. With eloquent clarity, Hitchens frames the argument for a more secular life based on science and reason, in which hell is replaced by the Hubble Telescope’s awesome view of the universe, and Moses and the burning bush give way to the beauty and symmetry of the double helix.
Book Synopsis Jesus Hates Religion by : Alex Himaya
Download or read book Jesus Hates Religion written by Alex Himaya and published by B&H Publishing Group. This book was released on 2014-05-01 with total page 256 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Alex Himaya writes for those who have been hurt by religious people– who have been betrayed by religion– because he too has been wounded. No longer content with pretending those things don't happen, pastor Himaya retreats with readers back to the Scriptures to see what Jesus thinks about man-made religion. Himaya, a popular speaker and Bible teacher, draws upon years of pastoral experience, providing insight into the ways religion cripples the church. While it may seem reasonable to earn one's way to God through a works-based system, a religion of rules, Himaya warns readers of the danger of putting their faith in good deeds. Jesus Hates Religion is not simply another book about Christianity, but a detour sign on the road of life. Himaya points readers away from himself, and towards Jesus saying, "Don’t trust me. Trust God, and let Him speak for Himself."
Book Synopsis Progress and Religion by : Christopher Dawson
Download or read book Progress and Religion written by Christopher Dawson and published by CUA Press. This book was released on 2012-08-09 with total page 225 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Progress and Religion was perhaps the most influential of all Christopher Dawson's books, establishing him as an interpreter of history and a historian of ideas.
Book Synopsis Cicero on the Philosophy of Religion by : J. P. F. Wynne
Download or read book Cicero on the Philosophy of Religion written by J. P. F. Wynne and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2019-10-17 with total page 321 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Do the gods love you? Cicero gives deep and surprising answers in two philosophical dialogues on traditional Roman religion.
Book Synopsis Faith Versus Fact by : Jerry A. Coyne
Download or read book Faith Versus Fact written by Jerry A. Coyne and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2016-05-17 with total page 338 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A superbly argued book.” —Richard Dawkins, author of The God Delusion The New York Times bestselling author of Why Evolution is True explains why any attempt to make religion compatible with science is doomed to fail In this provocative book, evolutionary biologist Jerry A. Coyne lays out in clear, dispassionate detail why the toolkit of science, based on reason and empirical study, is reliable, while that of religion—including faith, dogma, and revelation—leads to incorrect, untestable, or conflicting conclusions. Coyne is responding to a national climate in which more than half of Americans don’t believe in evolution, members of Congress deny global warming, and long-conquered childhood diseases are reappearing because of religious objections to inoculation, and he warns that religious prejudices in politics, education, medicine, and social policy are on the rise. Extending the bestselling works of Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett, and Christopher Hitchens, he demolishes the claims of religion to provide verifiable “truth” by subjecting those claims to the same tests we use to establish truth in science. Coyne irrefutably demonstrates the grave harm—to individuals and to our planet—in mistaking faith for fact in making the most important decisions about the world we live in. Praise for Faith Versus Fact: “A profound and lovely book . . . showing that the honest doubts of science are better . . . than the false certainties of religion.” —Sam Harris, author of The End of Faith
Book Synopsis Moral, Believing Animals by : Christian Smith
Download or read book Moral, Believing Animals written by Christian Smith and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2009 with total page 173 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What kind of animals are human beings? And how do our visions of the human shape our theories of social action and institutions? In Moral, Believing Animals, Christian Smith advances a creative theory of human persons and culture that offers innovative, challenging answers to these and other fundamental questions in sociological, cultural, and religious theory. Smith suggests that human beings have a peculiar set of capacities and proclivities that distinguishes them significantly from other animals on this planet. Despite the vast differences in humanity between cultures and across history, no matter how differently people narrate their lives and histories, there remains an underlying structure of human personhood that helps to order human culture, history, and narration. Drawing on important recent insights in moral philosophy, epistemology, and narrative studies, Smith argues that humans are animals who have an inescapable moral and spiritual dimension. They cannot avoid a fundamental moral orientation in life and this, says Smith, has profound consequences for how sociology must study human beings.
Download or read book Bourdieu on Religion written by Terry Rey and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2014-12-05 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pierre Bourdieu was one of the most influential social theorists of our time. He developed a series of concepts to uncover the way society works and to challenge assumptions about what society is. His ideas illuminate how individuals and groups find value and meaning and so have rapidly come to be seen as hugely productive in analysing how religion works in society. 'Bourdieu on Religion' introduces students to Bourdieu's key concepts: cultural, social and symbolic capital; habitus and field; and his challenge to the structures of social inequality. This study will be invaluable to any student interested in the relationships between religion, class and social power.
Download or read book Sociology of Religion written by Abby Day and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2020-12-30 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first sociology of religion textbook to begin the task of diversifying and decolonizing the study of religion, Sociology of Religion develops a sociological frame that draws together the personal, political and public, showing how religion – its origins, development and changes – is understood as a social institution, influenced by and influencing wider social structures. Organized along sociological structures and themes, the book works with examples from a variety of religious traditions and regions rather than focusing in depth on a selection, and foregrounds cultural practice-based understandings of religion. It is therefore a book about ‘religion’, not ‘religions’, that explores the relationship of religion with gender and sexuality, crime and violence, generations, politics and media, ‘race’, ethnicity and social class, disease and disability – highlighting the position of religion in social justice and equality. Each chapter of this book is framed around concrete case studies from a variety of Western and non-Western religious traditions. Students will benefit from thinking about the discipline across a range of geographical and religious contexts. The book includes features designed to engage and inspire students: Up-to-date and comprehensive analysis of engaging and accessible material ‘Case Examples’: short summaries of empirical examples relating to the chapter themes Visually distinct boxes with bullet points, key words and phrases focusing on the context Questions suitable for private or seminar study Suggested class exercises for instructors to use Suggested readings and further readings/online resources at the end of each chapter Following a review and critique of early sociology of religion, the book engages with more contemporary issues, such as dissolving the secular/sacred binary and paying close attention to issues of epistemology, negotiations, marginalities, feminisms, identities, power, nuances, globalization, (post) (multiple) modernity (ies), emotion, structuration, reflexivity, intersectionality and urbanization. This book is essential reading for undergraduate and postgraduate students exploring the sociology of religion, religion and society, religious studies, theology, globalization and human geography.
Book Synopsis Breaking the Islam Code by : J.D. Greear
Download or read book Breaking the Islam Code written by J.D. Greear and published by Harvest House Publishers. This book was released on 2010-02-01 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: World events won’t let North Americans ignore Muslims anymore. Whether those Muslims are villagers in Iraq or neighbors down the street, Breaking the Islam Code offers everyday Christians profound insight into the way Muslims think and feel. J.D. Greear’s ability to communicate challenging heart truth, plus his expertise in Christian and Islamic theology and two years’ experience in a Muslim-dominated area, make him the perfect author for this empowering, insightful, reader-friendly book. It transcends traditional apologetics, focusing on helping Christians *understand what is deep in Muslims’ hearts, behind their theology—which will lead to friendship and effective communication of the gospel *respectfully turn many of the primary objections into opportunities to share the faith *avoid unnecessarily offending Muslims they’re interacting with Readers will be excited that sharing Christ with Muslims is something they can do—as everyday Christians in their own cities, campuses, and workplaces. www.breakingtheislamcode.com
Book Synopsis Religion and Creation by : Keith Ward
Download or read book Religion and Creation written by Keith Ward and published by Clarendon Press. This book was released on 1996-06-20 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is the second part of a major project of comparative theology begun with Religion and Revelation (Clarendon Press, 1994), which looks at major concepts of faith in all four of the main scriptural religions of the world. In Religion and Creation, the author explores the idea of a creator God in the work of twentieth century writers from Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, and Christianity. He develops a positive concept of God which stresses God's dynamic and responsive relation to the temporal structure of the universe, and the importance of that structure to the self-expression of the divine being. Professor Ward goes on to present a Trinitarian doctrine of creation, drawing inspiration from a wider set of theistic traditions and recent discussions in physics in the realm of cosmology.
