Is Religion Natural

(Paperback)

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How natural is religion Is it a phenomenon written in our genes or brains, naturally developing with the development of the human race The book considers the findings of evolutionary psychology from scientific, philosophical and theological perspectives and critically examines the relation between empirical, epistemological and theological notions. Chapters in the book deal with the naturalness of religion and religious experiences as based on genetics, biology and social psychology. Other authors examine the relationship between religion, science and theology with regard to the naturalness of religion from a more general perspective. The last part of the book includes views from a Muslim scholar and a historian.

Reviews

One of the highlights of the volume is the rich bibliography (these were conference talks, after all) and the book can serve as an interesting, if not unconventional, entry point into the field of cognitive study of religion, whatever your perspectival orientation. -- Matthew Dowling, Oklahoma Christian University, US * Theological Book Review *

Author Bio

The Rt Rev Dr Antje Jackelen is Bishop of Lund (Sweden) and Adjunct Professor of Systematic Theology/Religion and Science at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago, USA.
Taede A. Smedes is research fellow at the Catholic University Leuven, Belgium, and Scientific Programme Officer of ESSSAT, and the author of Chaos, Complexity, and God: Divine Action and Scientism (Peeters, 2004) and God en de menselijke maat: Gods handelen en het wetenschappelijk wereldbeeld (Meinema, 2006).