Changing Minds

This volume addresses the problem of change and continuity in religious
traditions from the perspective of cognitive science. Relying on the
rapidly growing body of scientific knowledge about the human mind, the
authors examine cross-culturally recurrent religious phenomena and
specific religious traditions, in an attempt to explain why religions
change dynamically whilst still exhibiting high degrees of continuity. The
volume contributes to our understanding of how social and cultural
phenomena emerge from mental processes taking place in the brains of many
individuals.

The cognitive turn in the humanities entails not only
a new, biologically grounded view of human phenomena, but also novel
questions and methods. Some of the chapters, written by philosophers and
linguists, discuss what the study of religion can learn from other
disciplines that have already undertaken the cognitive turn.
Anthropologists and psychologists of religion build bridges from different
areas within the cognitive sciences to very specific issues of religion;
they thus pave the way for Biblical scholars and theologians who are
embracing the new cognitive method.

This volume is the result of
the International Workshop on Religion and Cognition, co-organised
by the Cultural Change programme and the Centre for Religion and
Cognition at the University of Groningen in 2006.