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To Naturalize is to Differentiate
- Source :
- Method & Theory in the Study of Religion. 30:71-95
- Publication Year :
- 2018
- Publisher :
- Brill, 2018.
-
Abstract
- Many scholars have expressed fears that naturalism will homogenize religion, thereby reifying the concept and distorting the academy’s perception of local cultures. Yet this fear is misplaced. In fact, recent advances in cognitive science, most notably regarding the development of interactional theories of cognition, lend significant support to conceptualizing religion heterogeneously. In this paper I first explore Russell McCutcheon’s rationale for fearing naturalism. I then obviate McCutcheon’s fears by demonstrating how the interactionalist perspective in cognitive science both promotes a heterogeneous understanding of human behavior as well as refutes sui generis religion. I conclude by recommending fusing insights from interactionalism with a ground-up, sociological approach to “religion” such as Timothy Fitzgerald’s, which results in research methodology that is appropriately sensitive to the natural differences of behavior that have been historically identified as religious.
- Subjects :
- Sociological theory
060303 religions & theology
media_common.quotation_subject
Research methodology
Perspective (graphical)
Religious studies
Cognition
06 humanities and the arts
0603 philosophy, ethics and religion
Epistemology
Perception
060302 philosophy
Natural (music)
Sociology
Cognitive science of religion
Naturalism
media_common
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 15700682
- Volume :
- 30
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Method & Theory in the Study of Religion
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi...........974a3439899a07c3779981e94da97e57
- Full Text :
- https://doi.org/10.1163/15700682-12341423