Religion Explained The Cognitive Science of Religion after Twenty-Five Years [Hardcover]

With contributions from founders of the field, including Justin Barrett, E. Thomas Lawson, Robert N. McCauley, Paschal Boyer, Armin Geertz and Harvey Whitehouse, as well as from younger scholars from successive stages in the field's development, this is an important survey of the first twenty-five years of the cognitive science of religion.

Each chapter provides the author's views on the contributions the cognitive science of religion has made to the academic study of religion, as well as any shortcomings in the field and challenges for the future.Religion Explained? The Cognitive Science of Religion after Twenty-five Yearscalls attention to the field whilst providing an accessible and diverse survey of approaches from key voices, as well as offering suggestions for further research within the field.

This book is essential reading for anyone in religious studies, anthropology, and the scientific study of religion.

List of contributors
Introduction: Religion Explained? The Cognitive Science of Religion after Twenty-five Years, Luther H. Martin (University of Vermont, USA) and Donald Wiebe (University of Toronto, Canada)
Part One: Retrospectives
1.The Cognitive Science of Religion and the Growth of Knowledge, E. Thomas Lawson (Queen's University, Belfast, UK)
2.Twenty-Five Years In: Landmark Empirical Findings in the Cognitive Science of Religion, Robert N. McCauley (Emory University, USA)
3.Twenty-Five Years of CSR: A Personal Retrospective,Harvey Whitehouse (University of Oxford, UK)
4.The Beautiful Butterfly: On the History and Prospects of the Cognitive Science of Religion,
Uffe Schj?dt & Armin W. Geertz (Aarhus University, Denmark)
Part Two: State of the Art
5.Religion Explained? Some Variants of Cognitive Theory,Stewart Elliott Guthrie,(Fordham University, USA)
6.Cognitive Attractors in the Evolution and Diffusion of ReligiouslãC