The emerging cognitive psychology of religion: A review article

Abstract

The emerging cognitive psychology of religion: A review article BRIAN E. MALLEY Mind matters.' Emile Durkheim's postulate about the independence of the social from the psychological notwithstanding, recent anthropological thought has increasingly recognized the role of cognition in organizing cultural phe- nomena. Religious phenomena figure prominently in cognitive anthropolog- ical discussions, because religion, in several ways, is a limiting case for anthropological theory. As a result, a considerable body of cognitive theory has developed around religion, and recent years have witnessed the emer- gence of a distinctly cognitive psychology of religion. In this essay I shall survey the cognitive scientific