December 2012/January 2013

 In this issue:
Bible scholars rely on cognitive science for new insights
Lutheran School of Theology takes up “Situated Brain and Mind”
Researchers find link between guilt and generosity

Bible scholars rely on cognitive science for new insights

An emerging movement within biblical scholarship is underway where researchers are embracing the discoveries in cognitive science as a way to provide new theories surrounding religious phenomena.

This year saw the first issue of the Journal for Cognitive Science of Religion, and a number of new research projects are set to highlight how the human mind and religious ritual go hand in hand. A session, “Cognitive Science of Religion: A New Tool for Biblical Scholars,” held at the recent annual meetings of the Society of Biblical Literature and the American Academy of Religion in Chicago featured six professors from Sweden, Canada and Germany who have been incorporating cognitive science into their daily work.

Cognitive science, defined as the interdisciplinary scientific study of the mind and its processes, opens up a host of new research possibilities, according to Ristro Uro of the University of Helsinki. An example of how this research is being done in biblical studies includes research by Uro into how cognitive theories of ritual provide a (partial) explanation of the Jesus Movement. Other research is being done on how biological and evolutionary studies on emotions can be brought to bear on the interpretation of biblical laws and moral codes of ancient Israel. In studying New Testament, other biblical scholars are looking at how neuroscience explains Paul’s and his congregants’ ecstatic experiences.

Specialists in cognitive science of religion are now gaining funding for long standing projects as well. Edward Slingerland at the University of British Columbia was the recipient of a $6 million, six year grant that has established the Cultural Evolution of Religion Research Consortium (CERC). The hypothesis, Slingerland said, is that religions arose as a byproduct of evolution followed by gene culture. Interdisciplinary teams are formulating hypotheses that can be tested via data sets, including neuro imaging.

A full report on the CERC’s findings will be available in 2018, when the University of British Columbia will also host a large public workshop and museum exhibition to illustrate its central findings. Ongoing reports and list of publications and public policy reports from the six-year project will be posted on Centre for the Study of Human Evolution, Cognition, and Culture (HECC) website at www.hecc.ubc.ca.

Cognitive science of religion is not a reductionist enterprise by this group of researchers. Slingerland said that humanities scholars and scientists are being brought together, and all are “hopeful to be helpful integration, not reductive integration.”

Thomas Kazen of the Stockholm School of Theology is also looking to evolutionary biology, neuroscience, cognitive linguistics and artificial intelligence as complementary tools to analyze biblical texts. He is currently working on a project on Apocalypticism as a world view and linguistic metaphor. In studying emotions in biblical law, he has taken a cognitive science approach to disgust, empathy, fear of demonic forces and justice illustrated in the Bible.

The work is in its early stages, but biblical scholars are finding more ideas behind religious texts. The new section within the Society of Biblical Literature annual meeting, “Mind, Society and Religion in the Biblical World,” shows promising interest for future meetings among these scholars.

Lutheran School of Theology takes up “Situated Brain and Mind”

The Advanced Seminar in Science and Religion at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago will focus on neuroscience this spring. The topic “Situated Brain and Mind” will be discussed in great detail.

Three elements will be the focus of the seminar sessions: the brain as the seat of our awareness, the mind pointing to what we do with brain-based awareness and the interaction between brain and mind. Scholars will look at how the brain and mind are situated and how their interaction is critical for understanding ourselves. According to organizers, the seminar’s agenda is to gain a basic acquaintance with each of the three elements and to reflect on their significance for Christian faith and theology.

The Advanced Seminar begins in February and runs through May. It takes its shape as a multidisciplinary network of persons seeking to understand how the sciences and the religions engage each other and to interpret the fundamental issues posed in this engagement. The goal is to gain insight into the import of the sciences for the critical function of religion in its role as a cultural vehicle of ultimate values and concerns.

Researchers find link between guilt and generosity

Recently published research found that people who recall being absolved of their sins are more likely to donate money to the church.

Researchers from Royal Holloway and the University of Oxford assigned participants two memory tasks. The first task had individuals recall a sin they committed in the past, while a second task had them recall attending confession for this sin or imagine they had confessed this sin.

Each participant was given an opportunity to donate to a local Catholic church by placing some money in an envelope. For some the donation was collected before they recalled being absolved of the sin, while others turned in their donation after recollection of confession. The results showed that recalling (or imagining) absolution strongly increased church donations, with the effect more pronounced in participants who believed in divine judgment and engaged in religious activities such as reading the bible or praying.

The researchers, according to Royal Holloway, are now keen to see if similar results would be seen beyond Catholicism. The research is part of a wider project on ‘Ritual, Community and Conflict’ supported by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC).

The results of the group’s initial research were published in the journal Religion, Brain and Behavior.

Covalence, December 2012/January 2013