MODES OF RELIGIOSITY AND THE COGNITIVE SCIENCE OF RELIGION

Abstract

This collection of essays addresses the core findings of a newly established field of enquiry, the cognitive science of religion. Several of the essays single out my theory of “modes of religiosity” for particular attention, and that is partly because some began as presentations at meetings on that topic. The modes theory has been summarized in a recent issue of this journal (Whitehouse 2002) and set out in detail in three monographs (Whitehouse 1995, 2000, 2004a) so I will not devote any further space to rehearsing those arguments. But what scholar could resist an opportunity to reply to erudite criticism? This essay opens with such a response but I do also have a nobler objective, namely to lead debates about the modes theory into a wider discussion, skillfully opened up by a number of other contributors to this collection, of the relevance of cognitive science to the study of culture in general and of religion in particular.