Religious Experience Reconsidered: A Building-Block Approach to the Study of Religion and Other Special Things (Paperback or Softback)

Taves, Ann

ISBN 10: 069114088X / ISBN 13: 9780691140889

Verlag: Princeton University Press 10/23/2011, 2011

Beschreibung

Religious Experience Reconsidered: A Building-Block Approach to the Study of Religion and Other Special Things 0.7. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers BBS-9780691140889

Bibliografische Details

Titel: Religious Experience Reconsidered: A ...

Verlag: Princeton University Press 10/23/2011

Erscheinungsdatum: 2011

Einband: Paperback or Softback

Zustand: New

Art des Buches: Book

Über diesen Titel

Inhaltsangabe:

How the sciences of the mind can advance the study of religion

The essence of religion was once widely thought to be a unique form of experience that could not be explained in neurological, psychological, or sociological terms. In recent decades scholars have questioned the privileging of the idea of religious experience in the study of religion, an approach that effectively isolated the study of religion from the social and natural sciences. Religious Experience Reconsidered lays out a framework for research into religious phenomena that reclaims experience as a central concept while bridging the divide between religious studies and the sciences.

Ann Taves shifts the focus from "religious experience," conceived as a fixed and stable thing, to an examination of the processes by which people attribute meaning to their experiences. She proposes a new approach that unites the study of religion with fields as diverse as neuroscience, anthropology, sociology, and psychology to better understand how these processes are incorporated into the broader cultural formations we think of as religious or spiritual. Taves addresses a series of key questions: how can we set up studies without obscuring contestations over meaning and value? What is the relationship between experience and consciousness? How can research into consciousness help us access and interpret the experiences of others? Why do people individually or collectively explain their experiences in religious terms? How can we set up studies that allow us to compare experiences across times and cultures?

Religious Experience Reconsidered demonstrates how methods from the sciences can be combined with those from the humanities to advance a naturalistic understanding of the experiences that people deem religious.

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor:

Ann Taves is professor of religious studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and past president of the American Academy of Religion. Her books include "Fits, Trances, and Visions: Experiencing Religion and Explaining Experience from Wesley to James" (Princeton).