The Question of Methodological Naturalism

Erscheinungsjahr 2018
ISBN: 978-90-04-34662-8
Verlag: Brill

Buch, Englisch, Band 11, 296 Seiten, Format (B × H): 157 mm x 236 mm, Gewicht: 726 g

Reihe: Supplements to Method & Theory in the Study of Religion

The traditions and institutions that we call religions abound with references to the supernatural: ancestral spirits, karma, the afterlife, miracles, revelation, deities, etc. How are students of religion to approach the behaviors, doctrines, and beliefs that refer to such phenomena, which by their very nature are supposed to defy the methods of empirical research and the theories of historical scholarship? That is the question of methodological naturalism. The Question of Methodological Naturalism offers ten thoughtful engagements with that perennial question for the academic study of religion. Contributors include established senior scholars and newer voices propounding a range of perspectives, resulting in both surprising points of convergence and irreconcilable differences in how our shared discipline should be conceptualized and practiced.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Blum, Jason N

Fachgebiete

• Geisteswissenschaften Religionswissenschaft Religionswissenschaft Allgemein
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Erkenntnistheorie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Contents

Acknowledgements

Notes on Contributors

The Question of Methodological Naturalism

emsp;Jason N. Blum

Naturalism as Method and Metaphysic: A Comparative Historical Taxonomy

emsp;Daniel L. Pals

Incapacitating Scholarship: Or, Why Methodological Agnosticism Is Impossible

emsp;Craig Martin

Orthodoxy Is Not Scientific: a Phenomenological Critique of Naturalism

emsp;Jonathan Tuckett

Naturalisms, Ineffability Claims, and Symbolic Meanings

emsp;Nancy Frankenberry

Natural Ineffability and the Scandal of Language

emsp;Jason N. Blum

In Defense of a Naturalistic Approach to Religion

emsp;Robert A. Segal

Who's Afraid of Reductionism? Methodological Naturalism and the Academic Study of Religion

emsp;Edward Slingerland

What Can the Failure of Cog-Sci of Religion Teach Us about the Future of Religious Studies?

emsp;Ivan Strenski

Must a Scholar of Religion Be Methodologically Atheistic or Agnostic?

emsp;Michael A. Cantrell

A Better Methodological Naturalism

emsp;Kevin Schilbrack

Index

Über Autor(innen)

Jason N. Blum, Ph.D. (2009), University of Pennsylvania, is a Visiting Assistant Professor at Davidson College. He is the author of Zen and the Unspeakable God (Penn State Press, 2015), and various articles concerning methodology in religious studies and topics at the intersection of philosophy and religion.