Foreword; Acknowledgements; Introduction; 1. The Academic Study of Religion: A Theological or Theoretical Undertaking?; 2. The Academic Study of Religions during the Cold War: A Western Perspective; 3. Secular Theory and the Academic Study of Religion; 4. Of Religious Syncretism, Comparative Religion and Spiritual Quests; 5. To Use "Syncretism," or Not to Use "Syncretism": That is the Question; 6. Comparison; 7. Comparativism and Sociobiological Theory; 8. Akin to the Gods or Simply One to Another? Comparison with Respect to Religions in Antiquity.
19. Performativity, Narrative, and Cognition: "Demythologizing" the Roman Cult of Mithras20. Cognitive Science, Ritual, and the Hellenistic Mystery Religions; 21. Why Christianity Was Accepted by Romans but Not by Rome; 22. Aspects of Religious Experience among the Hellenistic Mystery Religions; 23. The Uses (and Abuse) of the Cognitive Sciences for the Study of Religion; 24. The Future of the Past: The History of Religions and Cognitive Historiography; Author Index; Subject Index.
9. Secrecy in Hellenistic Religious Communities10. The Anti-Individualistic Ideology of Hellenistic Culture; 11. Rationalism and Relativity in History of Religions Research; 12. Evolution, Cognition, and History; 13. Does Religion Really Evolve? (And What Is It Anyway?); 14. Religion and Cognition; 15. The Promise of Cognitive Science for the Study of Early Christianity; 16. Globalization, Syncretism, and Religion in Western Antiquity: Some Neurocognitive Considerations; 17. What Do Rituals Do (and How Do They Do It)? Cognition and the Study of Ritual; 18. The Deep History of Religious Ritual.
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Over the course of his career, Luther H. Martin has experimented with methodological approaches to the study of religion, particularly Hellenistic religions. This volume represents Martin's shift from comparative to socio-political to scientific studies of religion, and especially to the cognitive science of religion. The 25 contributions collected here, selected from over 100 essays, are representative of his work over the past two decades.
Deep History, Secular Theory : Historical and Scientific Studies of Religion.