Rationality and the Study of Religion

Rationality and the Study of Religion PDF Author: Jeppe Sinding Jensen
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136480242
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
Does rationality, the intellectual bedrock of all science, apply to the study of religion? Religion, arguably the most subjective area of human behaviour, has particular challenges associated with its study. Attracting crowd-healers, conjurers, the pious and the prophetic alongside comparativists and sceptics, it excites opinions and generalizations whilst seldom explicitly staking out the territory for the discussions in which it partakes. Increasingly, scholars argue that religious study needs to define and critique its own field, and to distinguish itself from theology and other non-objective disciplines. Yet how can rational techniques be applied to beliefs and states of mind regarded by some as beyond the scope of human reason? Can these be made empirically testable, or comparable and replicable within academic communities? Can science explicate religion without reducing it to mere superstition, or redefine its truth in some empirical but meaningful way? Featuring contributions from leading international experts including Donald Wiebe, Roger Trigg and Michael Pye, Rationality and the Study of Religion gets under the surface of the religious studies discipline to expose the ideologies beneath. Reopening debate in a neglected yet philosophically significant field, it questions the role of rationality in religious anthropology, natural history and anti-scientific theologies, with implications not only for supposedly objective disciplines but for our deepest attitudes to personal experience. 'Interesting and important. Religion has long been associated with irrationality, both by its defenders and its critics, and the topic of rationality has been unjustly neglected The book certainly deserves to be widely circulated.' Greg Alles, Western Maryland College

Rationality and the Study of Religion

Rationality and the Study of Religion PDF Author: Jeppe Sinding Jensen
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136480242
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 224

Get Book Here

Book Description
Does rationality, the intellectual bedrock of all science, apply to the study of religion? Religion, arguably the most subjective area of human behaviour, has particular challenges associated with its study. Attracting crowd-healers, conjurers, the pious and the prophetic alongside comparativists and sceptics, it excites opinions and generalizations whilst seldom explicitly staking out the territory for the discussions in which it partakes. Increasingly, scholars argue that religious study needs to define and critique its own field, and to distinguish itself from theology and other non-objective disciplines. Yet how can rational techniques be applied to beliefs and states of mind regarded by some as beyond the scope of human reason? Can these be made empirically testable, or comparable and replicable within academic communities? Can science explicate religion without reducing it to mere superstition, or redefine its truth in some empirical but meaningful way? Featuring contributions from leading international experts including Donald Wiebe, Roger Trigg and Michael Pye, Rationality and the Study of Religion gets under the surface of the religious studies discipline to expose the ideologies beneath. Reopening debate in a neglected yet philosophically significant field, it questions the role of rationality in religious anthropology, natural history and anti-scientific theologies, with implications not only for supposedly objective disciplines but for our deepest attitudes to personal experience. 'Interesting and important. Religion has long been associated with irrationality, both by its defenders and its critics, and the topic of rationality has been unjustly neglected The book certainly deserves to be widely circulated.' Greg Alles, Western Maryland College

Rationality and the Study of Religion

Rationality and the Study of Religion PDF Author: Jeppe Sinding Jensen
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136480315
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 323

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Book Description
Does rationality, the intellectual bedrock of all science, apply to the study of religion? Religion, arguably the most subjective area of human behaviour, has particular challenges associated with its study. Attracting crowd-healers, conjurers, the pious and the prophetic alongside comparativists and sceptics, it excites opinions and generalizations whilst seldom explicitly staking out the territory for the discussions in which it partakes. Increasingly, scholars argue that religious study needs to define and critique its own field, and to distinguish itself from theology and other non-objective disciplines. Yet how can rational techniques be applied to beliefs and states of mind regarded by some as beyond the scope of human reason? Can these be made empirically testable, or comparable and replicable within academic communities? Can science explicate religion without reducing it to mere superstition, or redefine its truth in some empirical but meaningful way? Featuring contributions from leading international experts including Donald Wiebe, Roger Trigg and Michael Pye, Rationality and the Study of Religion gets under the surface of the religious studies discipline to expose the ideologies beneath. Reopening debate in a neglected yet philosophically significant field, it questions the role of rationality in religious anthropology, natural history and anti-scientific theologies, with implications not only for supposedly objective disciplines but for our deepest attitudes to personal experience. 'Interesting and important. Religion has long been associated with irrationality, both by its defenders and its critics, and the topic of rationality has been unjustly neglected The book certainly deserves to be widely circulated.' Greg Alles, Western Maryland College

Rationality in Science, Religion, and Everyday Life

Rationality in Science, Religion, and Everyday Life PDF Author: Mikael Stenmark
Publisher: University of Notre Dame Pess
ISBN: 0268091676
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 408

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Book Description
Mikael Stenmark examines four models of rationality and argues for a discussion of rationality that takes into account the function and aim of such human practices as science and religion.

Magic, Science and Religion and the Scope of Rationality

Magic, Science and Religion and the Scope of Rationality PDF Author: Stanley J. Tambiah
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 9780521376310
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 204

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Book Description
This accessible and illuminating book explores the classical opposition between magic, science and religion.

New Developments in the Cognitive Science of Religion

New Developments in the Cognitive Science of Religion PDF Author: Hans van Eyghen
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 3319902393
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 224

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Book Description
It is widely thought that the cognitive science of religion (CSR) may have a bearing on the epistemic status of religious beliefs and on other topics in philosophy of religion. Epistemologists have used theories from CSR to argue both for and against the rationality of religious beliefs, or they have claimed that CSR is neutral vis-à-vis the epistemic status of religious belief. However, since CSR is a rapidly evolving discipline, a great deal of earlier research on the topic has become dated. Furthermore, most of the debate on the epistemic consequences of CSR has not taken into account insights from the philosophy of science, such as explanatory pluralism and explanatory levels. This volume overcomes these deficiencies. This volume brings together new philosophical reflection on CSR. It examines the influence of CSR theories on the epistemic status of religious beliefs; it discusses its impact on philosophy of religion; and it offers new insights for CSR. The book addresses the question of whether or not the plurality of theories in CSR makes epistemic conclusions about religious belief unwarranted. It also explores the impact of CSR on other topics in philosophy of religion like the cognitive consequences of sin and naturalism. Finally, the book investigates what the main theories in CSR aim to explain, and addresses the strengths and weaknesses of CSR.

Rationality and Religion

Rationality and Religion PDF Author: Roger Trigg
Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell
ISBN: 9780631197485
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 236

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Book Description
Rationality and Religion deals with the perennial question of how far religious faith needs reason.

Feminist Philosophy of Religion

Feminist Philosophy of Religion PDF Author: Pamela Sue Anderson
Publisher: Psychology Press
ISBN: 9780415257497
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
Feminist Philosophy of Religion: Critical Readings brings together key new writings in this growing field.

Rationality and Religious Theism

Rationality and Religious Theism PDF Author: Joshua L. Golding
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1351773291
Category : Religion
Languages : en
Pages : 143

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Book Description
Throughout the ages one of the central topics in philosophy of religion has been the rationality of theistic belief. This book proposes that parties on both sides of this debate might shift their attention in a different direction, by focusing on the question of whether it is rational to be a religious theist. Explaining that having theistic beliefs is primarily a cognitive affair but being a religious theist involves a whole way of life that includes one's beliefs, Golding argues that it can be pragmatically rational to be a religious theist even if the evidence for God’s existence is minimal. The argument is applied to the case of Judaism, articulating what is involved in religious Judaism and arguing that it is rationally defensible to be a religious Jew. The book concludes with a discussion of whether a similar argument might be constructed for other versions of religious theism such as Christianity or Islam, and for non-theistic religions such as Taoism or Buddhism. Joshua Golding offers a carefully wrought explanation of how it can be rational for someone to live a religious life, in particular (but not necessarily only), a traditional Jewish life.

Rational Choice Theory and Religion

Rational Choice Theory and Religion PDF Author: Lawrence A. Young
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1134953429
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 204

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Book Description
Rational Choice Theory and Religion considers one of the major developments in the social scientific paradigms that promises to foster a greater theoretical unity among the disciplines of sociology, political science, economics and psychology. Applying the theory of rational choice--the theory that each individual will make her choice to maximize gain and minimize cost--to the study of religion, Lawrence Young has brought together a group of internationally renowned scholars to examine this important development within the field of religion for the first time.

Rationality and Religious Belief

Rationality and Religious Belief PDF Author: Cornelius F. Dalaney
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780608008813
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 176

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Book Description