Theorizing Religions Past Archaeology, History, and Cognition

by Whitehouse, Harvey; Martin, Luther H.; Luther Martin, Harvey Whitehouse,; Lawson, E Thomas; Martin, Luther; Mithen, Stephen; Johnson, Karen; Gragg, Douglas L.; Beck, Roger; Leopold, Anita; Clark, Anne; Vial, Theodore; Berner, Ulrich; Pyysiäinen, Ilkka; We

• ISBN13: 9780759106215
• ISBN10: 0759106215
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-09-15
• Publisher: AltaMira Press

Summary

Historians bound by their singular stories and archaeologists bound by their material evidence donOt typically seek out broad comparative theories of religion. But recently Harvey WhitehouseOs Omodes of religiosityO theory has been attracting many scholars of past religions. Based upon universal features of human cognition, WhitehouseOs theory can provide useful comparisons across cultures and historical periods even when limited cultural data is present. In this groundbreaking volume, scholars of cultures from prehistorical hunter-gatherers to 19th century Scandinavian Lutherans evaluate WhitehouseOs hypothesis that all religions tend toward either an imagistic or a doctrinal mode depending on how they are remembered and transmitted. Theorizing Religions Past provides valuable insights for all historians of religion and especially for those interested in a new cognitive method for studying the past.

Table of Contents

Preface	ix
Part I: Introduction
The Wedding of Psychology, Ethnography, and History: Methodological Bigamy or Tripartite Free Love?	1	(6)
E. Thomas Lawson
Toward a Scientific History of Religions	7	(10)
Luther H. Martin
Part II: The Archaeological Evidence
From Ohalo to Catalhoyuk: The Development of Religiosity during the Early Prehistory of Western Asia, 20,000--7000 BCE	17	(28)
Steven Mithen
Primary Emergence of the Doctrinal Mode of Religiosity in Prehistoric Southwestern Iran	45	(24)
Karen Johnson
Part III: Greco-Roman Antiquity
Old and New in Roman Religion: A Cognitive Account	69	(18)
Douglas L. Gragg
Four Men, Two Sticks, and a Whip: Image and Doctrine in a Mithraic Ritual	87	(18)
Roger Beck
Syncretism and the Interaction of Modes of Religiosity: A Formative Perspective on Gnostic-Christian Movements in Late Antiquity	105	(20)
Anita Maria Leopold
Part IV: Christian Traditions
Testing the Two Modes Theory: Christian Practice in the Later Middle Ages	125	(18)
Anne L. Clark
Modes of Religiosity and Changes in Popular Religious Practices at the Time of the Reformation	143	(14)
Ted Vial
Modes of Religiosity and Types of Conversion in Medieval Europe and Modern Africa	157	(16)
Ulrich Berner
Corrupt Doctrine and Doctrinal Revival: On the Nature and Limits of the Modes Theory	173	(24)
Ilkka Pyysiainen
Part V: Critical Discussion
Critical Reflections on the Modes of Religiosity Argument	197	(18)
Donald Wiebe
Theorizing Religions Past	215	(18)
Harvey Whitehouse
Index	233	(14)
About the Contributors	247