of Symbolism, edited by Roy Willis (1975), and Symbol as Sense, edited by
Mary Foster and Stanley Brandes (1980). Despite the excellence of its
contributions, the latter has not had much impact on scholars of religion.
More recently, the main work on symbolization has been carried in the
context of research on cognitive science—Cognitive Aspects of Religious
Symbolism, edited by Pascal Boyer (1993)—and evolutionary theory—Terrence
Deacon’s The Symbolic Species (1997). Research on cognitive science,
mentioned already in connection with Lawson’s and McCauley’s work on
ritual, is one of the most promising new departures in the study of religion.
Despite the narrow ethnographic basis and the initial lack of concern with
history—partly ameliorated now by a series of studies undertaken under the
leadership of Luther Martin—cognitive scientists such as Pascal Boyer have
steadily built up their theories, refining their hypotheses and engaging in
experimental work. In general terms, their research—a sample of which can
be found in Religion in Mind, edited by Jensine Andresen (2001)—is concerned
with accounting for the cognitive mechanisms that generate the counterintuitive
but appealing—in fact, appealingly counterintuitive—representations, such as
superhuman agents, that constitute the building blocks of religion. Against the
fashionable rejection of universals, the very titles of Boyer’s The Naturalness
of Religious Ideas(1994) and of McCauley’s ‘The Naturalness of Religion and
the Unnaturalness of Science’ (2000) point to the recurrent features of the
cluster of phenomena that constitute religion. Parallel to cognitive science is
work on evolutionary theory and ethology, although one would wish for more
cross-fertilization among these approaches. Among the main contributions
reference should be made to Scott Atran’s extraordinary In Gods We Trust
(2002) and to David Wilson’s Darwin’s Cathedral(2002), the former being
marred by the vehemence of Atran’s critique of Wilson. Not as well known
as Atran’s or Wilson’s are the contributions by Richard Sosis and Candace
Alcorta, not to mention Joseph Bulbulia, who is based in New Zealand.
Other work in psychology that can help to clarify the genesis of the kind
of reasoning that generates religion can be found in research on developmental
psychology, especially on children’s perception of agency, causality, and
teleology, some of which shows that children are ‘intuitive theists’. Relevant
work on these issues is done by Deborah Kelemen, Jesse Bering, David
Bjorklund, Dominic Johnson, and Justin Barrett. Equally relevant in that
regard, as well as in connection to magic and moral reasoning, are the studies
found in Imagining the Impossible, edited by Karl Rosengren, Carl Johnson,
and Paul Harris (2000).
Sociologies of religion
A panorama of current research on the sociology of religion in North America,
after the dominance of Peter Berger during his pre-theological phase, can be
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