Rethinking Religion: Connecting Cognition and Culture

Description

This book develops a cognitive approach to religion. Focusing particularly on ritual action, it borrows analytical methods from linguistics and other cognitive sciences. The authors provide a lucid, critical review of established approaches to the study of religion, and make a strong plea for the combination of interpretation and explanation. Often represented as competitive approaches, they are, rather, complementary and equally vital to the study of symbolic systems. Rethinking Religion deals with the relationship between cognition and culture in a novel manner, and introduces a method of analysis that will have many applications.

'Lawson and McCauley have done the psychology of religion a service by opening new theoretical and research vistas. Their work merits close study because Rethinking Religion offers a truly creative and different kind of contribution to the field.' Bernard Spika, Contemporary Psychology '... a very important book that marks a turning point in the way anthropologists think about religious ideas and practices.' Pascal Boyer, American Anthropologist