Mind, Morality and Magic: Cognitive Science Approaches in Biblical Studies

Mind, Morality and Magic

Cognitive Science Approaches in Biblical Studies

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Edited by István Czachesz, University of Heidelberg, Germany, Risto Uro, University of Helsinki, Finland

Publisher:: Acumen Publishing
Online publication date:: April 2014
Print publication year:: 2013
Online ISBN:: 9781844657346

Subjects:: Biblical Studies - Old Testament, Hebrew Bible, Religion
Series:: BibleWorld

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The cognitive science of religion that has emerged over the last twenty years is a multidisciplinary field that often challenges established theories in anthropology and comparative religion. This new approach raises many questions for biblical studies as well. What are the cross-cultural cognitive mechanisms which explain the transmission of biblical texts? How did the local and particular cultural traditions of ancient Israel and early Christianity develop? What does the embodied and socially embedded nature of the human mind imply for the exegesis of biblical texts? Mind, Morality and Magic draws on a range of approaches to the study of the human mind - including memory studies, computer modeling, cognitive theories of ritual, social cognition, evolutionary psychology, biology of emotions, and research on religious experience. The volume explores how cognitive approaches to religion can shed light on classical concerns in biblical scholarship - such as the transmission of traditions, ritual and magic, and ethics - as well as uncover new questions and offer new methodologies.

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Mind, Morality and Magic

Cognitive Science Approaches in Biblical Studies

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Frontmatter
pp i-iv

Contents
pp v-vi

Preface
pp vii-viii

1 - The cognitive science of religion: a new alternative in biblical studies
pp 1-14

2 - Past minds: evolution, cognition, and biblical studies
pp 15-23

I - Memory and the transmission of biblical traditions

3 - How religions remember: memory theories in biblical studies and in the cognitive study of religion
pp 24-42

4 - Rethinking biblical transmission: insights from the cognitive neuroscience of memory
pp 43-61

5 - The interface of ritual and writing in the transmission of early Christian traditions
pp 62-76

6 - Computer modeling of cognitive processes in biblical studies: the primacy of urban Christianity as a test case
pp 77-97

7 - “I was El Shaddai, but now I'm Yahweh”: God names and the informational dynamics of biblical texts
pp 98-119

II - Ritual and magic

8 - Is Judaism boring? On the lack of counterintuitive agents in Jewish rituals
pp 120-143

9 - Ritual system in the Qumran movement: frequency, boredom, and balance
pp 144-163

10 - A cognitive perspective on magic in the New Testament
pp 164-179

11 - From corpse impurity to relic veneration: new light from cognitive and psychological studies
pp 180-196

III - Altruism, morality, and cooperation

12 - Why do religious cultures evolve slowly? The cultural evolution of cooperative calling and the historical study of religions
pp 197-211

13 - Empathy and ethics: bodily emotion as a basis for moral admonition
pp 212-233

14 - A socio-cognitive perspective on identity and behavioral norms in Ephesians
pp 234-250

15 - Emotion, cognition, and social change: a consideration of Galatians 3:28
pp 251-270

Bibliography
pp 271-304

Index of modern authors
pp 305-312

Subject index
pp 313-316

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Mind, Morality and Magic

Cognitive Science Approaches in Biblical Studies

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