Modes of Religiosity

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).

Harvey Whitehouse's Modes of Religiosity is very serious, part of a new movement that challenges everything that is usually written about religiosity.

• Part 1 PrefacePart 2 IntroductionChapter 3 What is "Religion"?Chapter 4 What is "Ritual"?Chapter 5 Ritual and Religious RevelationChapter 6 Outline of the VolumePart 7 PART ONE: COGNITION AND RELIGIOUS TRANSMISSIONPart 8 Chapter One: First Principles for Explaining Religion and RitualChapter 9 Religious Traditions are Materially ConstrainedChapter 10 Religious Phenomena are SelectedChapter 11 The Selection of Religious Phenomena is Context-DependentChapter 12 Religious Transmission is Partly Motivated by Explicit Religious ConceptsPart 13 Chapter Two: Cognitively Optimal ReligionChapter 14 The Naturalness of GodsChapter 15 The Naturalness of RitualChapter 16 The Naturalness of MythPart 17 Chapter Three: Cognitively Costly ReligionChapter 18 Cognitively Costly GodsChapter 19 Cognitively Costly RitualsChapter 20 Cognitively Costly NarrativesPart 21 PART TWO: THE THEORY OF MODES OF RELIGIOSITYPart 22 Chapter Four: The Theory of Modes of ReligiosityChapter 23 Modes of Religiosity and MemoryChapter 24 The Doctrinal Mode of ReligiosityChapter 25 The Imagistic Mode of ReligiosityChapter 26 Modes of Religiosity ContrastedChapter 27 Modes of Religiosity in the Real WorldChapter 28 The Origins of Modes of ReligiosityPart 29 Chapter Five: Ritual and Meaning in the Doctrinal ModeChapter 30 The Distinction Between Implicit and Explicit MemoryChapter 31 The Theory of Representational RedescriptionChapter 32 Representational Redescription and Routinized RitualChapter 33 Routinized Ritual and ExegesisChapter 34 Routinization, Relevance, and RevelationPart 35 Chapter Six: Ritual and Meaning in the Imagistic ModeChapter 36 Emotion and Episodic MemoryChapter 37 Episodic Memory and RitualChapter 38 Episodic Memory and Spontaneous Exegetical ReflectionChapter 39 Representational Redescription and the Imagistic ModePart 40 Chapter Seven: Religious Enthusiasm and Its LimitsChapter 41 Religious EnthusiasmChapter 42 The Limits of Religious EnthusiasmPart 43 PART THREE: THEORETICAL AND EMPIRICAL CHALLENGESPart 44 Chapter Eight: Theoretical ChallengesChapter 45 The ChallengesChapter 46 Form and FrequencyChapter 47 Selectionism or Mechanistic Causation?Chapter 48 Arousal, Memory, and MotivationChapter 49 Procedural versus Exegetical Knowledge in the Domain of RitualChapter 50 Historical TransformationsPart 51 Chapter Nine: Testing the TheoryChapter 52 PredictionsChapter 53 Evidence Needed from Ethnography, Historiography, and ArchaeologyChapter 54 Evidence Needed from the Cognitive SciencesChapter 55 Epilogue: Theory, Description, and the Cognitive Science of ReligionChapter 56 ReferencesChapter 57 IndexChapter 58 About the Author