AltaMira Press
Pages: 208
Trim: 6 x 9
978-0-7591-0614-7 • Hardback • May 2004 • $126.00 • (£97.00)
978-0-7591-0615-4 • Paperback • May 2004 • $50.00 • (£38.00)
978-0-7591-1560-6 • eBook • May 2004 • $47.50 • (£37.00)
Harvey Whitehouse is professor of anthropology and director of postgraduate studies in the Faculty of Humanities at Queen's University Belfast. He is co-editor, with Luther H. Martin, of the AltaMira 'Cognitive Science of Religion Series'. His previous books include Inside the Cult: Religious Innovation and Transmission in Papua New Guinea (1995, OUP), Arguments and Icons: Divergent Modes of Religiosity, (2000, OUP), and The Debated Mind: Evolutionary Psychology versus Ethnography (2001 Berg).
Part 1 Preface
Part 2 Introduction
Chapter 3 What is "Religion"?
Chapter 4 What is "Ritual"?
Chapter 5 Ritual and Religious Revelation
Chapter 6 Outline of the Volume
Part 7 PART ONE: COGNITION AND RELIGIOUS TRANSMISSION
Part 8 Chapter One: First Principles for Explaining Religion and Ritual
Chapter 9 Religious Traditions are Materially Constrained
Chapter 10 Religious Phenomena are Selected
Chapter 11 The Selection of Religious Phenomena is Context-Dependent
Chapter 12 Religious Transmission is Partly Motivated by Explicit Religious Concepts
Part 13 Chapter Two: Cognitively Optimal Religion
Chapter 14 The Naturalness of Gods
Chapter 15 The Naturalness of Ritual
Chapter 16 The Naturalness of Myth
Part 17 Chapter Three: Cognitively Costly Religion
Chapter 18 Cognitively Costly Gods
Chapter 19 Cognitively Costly Rituals
Chapter 20 Cognitively Costly Narratives
Part 21 PART TWO: THE THEORY OF MODES OF RELIGIOSITY
Part 22 Chapter Four: The Theory of Modes of Religiosity
Chapter 23 Modes of Religiosity and Memory
Chapter 24 The Doctrinal Mode of Religiosity
Chapter 25 The Imagistic Mode of Religiosity
Chapter 26 Modes of Religiosity Contrasted
Chapter 27 Modes of Religiosity in the Real World
Chapter 28 The Origins of Modes of Religiosity
Part 29 Chapter Five: Ritual and Meaning in the Doctrinal Mode
Chapter 30 The Distinction Between Implicit and Explicit Memory
Chapter 31 The Theory of Representational Redescription
Chapter 32 Representational Redescription and Routinized Ritual
Chapter 33 Routinized Ritual and Exegesis
Chapter 34 Routinization, Relevance, and Revelation
Part 35 Chapter Six: Ritual and Meaning in the Imagistic Mode
Chapter 36 Emotion and Episodic Memory
Chapter 37 Episodic Memory and Ritual
Chapter 38 Episodic Memory and Spontaneous Exegetical Reflection
Chapter 39 Representational Redescription and the Imagistic Mode
Part 40 Chapter Seven: Religious Enthusiasm and Its Limits
Chapter 41 Religious Enthusiasm
Chapter 42 The Limits of Religious Enthusiasm
Part 43 PART THREE: THEORETICAL AND EMPIRICAL CHALLENGES
Part 44 Chapter Eight: Theoretical Challenges
Chapter 45 The Challenges
Chapter 46 Form and Frequency
Chapter 47 Selectionism or Mechanistic Causation?
Chapter 48 Arousal, Memory, and Motivation
Chapter 49 Procedural versus Exegetical Knowledge in the Domain of Ritual
Chapter 50 Historical Transformations
Part 51 Chapter Nine: Testing the Theory
Chapter 52 Predictions
Chapter 53 Evidence Needed from Ethnography, Historiography, and Archaeology
Chapter 54 Evidence Needed from the Cognitive Sciences
Chapter 55 Epilogue: Theory, Description, and the Cognitive Science of Religion
Chapter 56 References
Chapter 57 Index
Chapter 58 About the Author
Harvey Whitehouse's Modes of Religiosity is very serious, part of a new movement that challenges everything that is usually written about religiosity.
— Mary Douglas, University College, London
Recommended.
— E.O. Springsted, General Theological Seminary; Choice Reviews
An important book on ritual theory.
— International Review Of Biblical Studies
For the specialist in religious studies as well as the scholar willing to venture into a different aspect of this discipline, there is no doubt on the part of this reviewer that careful attention to Whitehouse' text, theory and arguments will pay large dividends.
— Bridges
This book is wide-ranging and is a valuable contribution to the study of religion.
— History of Religions, May 2008
In his ambitious new book, Harvey Whitehouse develops his influential 'modes of religiosity' theory, robustly defends it against his critics and bravely provides predictions to be tested against the world's religions, past and present. It is a huge step forward in our understanding of religion—the most curious, creative, and at times deeply destructive, force that resides within the human mind.
— Steven Mithen, University of Reading