Cognitive Science and the New Testament
A New Approach to Early Christian Research
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Product details:
- Publisher OUP Oxford
- Date of Publication 5 January 2017
- ISBN 9780198779865
- Binding Hardback
- No. of pages284 pages
- Size 241x161x22 mm
- Weight 558 g
- Language English 0
Categories
Short description:
This work demonstrates the value of applying the insights of cognitive science to biblical studies, mirroring the so-called cognitive turn seen in disciplines such as linguistics, psychology, and philosophy as well as the more recent emergence of the cognitive science of religion.
MoreLong description:
Over the last few decades, our knowledge of how the human mind and brain works increased dramatically. The field of cognitive science enables us to understand religious traditions, rituals, and visionary experiences in novel ways. This has implications for the study of the New Testament and early Christianity. How people in the ancient Mediterranean world remembered sayings and stories, what they experienced when participating in rituals, how they thought about magic and miracle, and how they felt and reasoned about moral questions--all of that can be now better understood with the help of insights from cognitive science. Istv--n Czachesz argues that the field of New Testament Studies witnesses the beginning of a cognitive turn. He surveys relevant developments in the Cognitive Science of Religion and explores the field of cognitive and behavioral sciences in search of opportunities of gaining new insights about biblical materials. Czachesz presents some methodological tools and initial steps, together with a large number of examples of applying the cognitive approach to the New Testament and related ancient literature.
This is a landmark study in the field of NT and one I highly recommend.
Table of Contents:
Introduction
A Cognitive Turn
Opening the black box
The human mind: Basic questions
Cognitive Science of Religion
Cognitive science and the study of the New Testament
Evolution
A very short introduction to evolutionary theory
Genetic inheritance and religion
Hypersensitive agent-detection
Theory of Mind
Teleological reasoning
Expectations about ontological categories
Recursion
Emotions
Adaptations for cooperation
Traits favored by sexual selection
Group selection
Epigenetic inheritance in religion
Behavioral inheritance and religion
Symbolic inheritance and religion
Excursus: Epidemiology and memetics
Conclusion
The Human Brain: A Guided Tour
Brain and mind: same or different?
The anatomy of the human brain
Are all brains alike?
Memory and transmission
Memory in the brain
Chunks of information
Mental schemata
Narrative schemata: Scripts
Serial recall
Memory and emotions
Selective processes in transmission
Memory and literacy in antiquity
Memory and the New Testament: Some reflections
Ritual
What is ritual?
Acting without practical purpose
Ritual as the foundation of society
Ritual as a tool of cultural transmission
Ritual as a means of changing the state of affairs
Encountering the Holy
Conclusion
Magic and Miracle
Magic as an academic concept
Magic and superstitious conditioning
How people think about magic
The appeal of miracle stories
Miracle and culture
Example: Paul in Ephesus
Conclusion
Religious experience
Subjective religious experience
Religious experience in context
The Lobes Theory of religious experience
The Lobes Theory and the Corinthian church
Tours of heaven
Neuroscientific explanations of extreme religious experience
Toward a neuroscientific model of the narrative structure of the tours
Example: The tour of heaven in the Ascension of Isaiah
Conclusion
Morality
Empathy and morality
Religion from evolved morality
Morality from religion
Morality and exploitation
Imitating moral examples
Conclusion
Social networks and computer models
Computer models of religion
Weak social ties in emerging Christianity
Modeling the spread of Christianity
Learning from the Mission model
Patterns of conversion
Conclusions
Hermeneutical reflections
The text as window
Text as mirror
Text as image
Bibliography
