عنوان

Understanding Belief:

LA115866

انگلیسی

Understanding Belief:

[Article]

Some Qualitative Evidence

Carles Salazar

Leiden

Brill

The purpose of this paper is to explore the question of religious belief by bringing in some qualitative evidence about the meaning of religious behaviors and ideas. Whereas mainstream cognitive approaches to the study of belief have traditionally focused their attention on the memorability of religious ideas, the problem of meaning has been somehow left unexamined. New approaches have emphasized the role of the so-called "Credibility-Enhancing Displays" in the actual production of religious beliefs. But still there is no clear explanation as to what makes those displays enhance credibility. With the help of data coming from an ethnographic research conducted in an Irish Catholic community, this paper attempts to address the question of religious belief by turning it into a question of meaning, of the transmission of religious meanings and of the constitution of religious beliefs through meaning-producing practices. The purpose of this paper is to explore the question of religious belief by bringing in some qualitative evidence about the meaning of religious behaviors and ideas. Whereas mainstream cognitive approaches to the study of belief have traditionally focused their attention on the memorability of religious ideas, the problem of meaning has been somehow left unexamined. New approaches have emphasized the role of the so-called "Credibility-Enhancing Displays" in the actual production of religious beliefs. But still there is no clear explanation as to what makes those displays enhance credibility. With the help of data coming from an ethnographic research conducted in an Irish Catholic community, this paper attempts to address the question of religious belief by turning it into a question of meaning, of the transmission of religious meanings and of the constitution of religious beliefs through meaning-producing practices.

2014

199-213

Journal of Empirical Theology

27/2

1570-9256

belief

ethnography

meaning

metonymy

ritual

symbolism

Carles Salazar

10.1163/15709256-12341300

p

[Article]

275578

a

Y