How God Becomes Real (eBook)

Kindling the Presence of Invisible Others

T.M. Luhrmann (Autor)

eBook Download: PDF

2020
256 Seiten
Princeton University Press (Verlag)
978-0-691-21198-5 (ISBN)

Infos

The hard work required to make God real, how it changes the people who do it, and why it helps explain the enduring power of faithHow do gods and spirits come to feel vividly real to people-as if they were standing right next to them? Humans tend to see supernatural agents everywhere, as the cognitive science of religion has shown. But it isn't easy to maintain a sense that there are invisible spirits who care about you. In How God Becomes Real, acclaimed anthropologist and scholar of religion T. M. Luhrmann argues that people must work incredibly hard to make gods real and that this effort-by changing the people who do it and giving them the benefits they seek from invisible others-helps to explain the enduring power of faith.Drawing on ethnographic studies of evangelical Christians, pagans, magicians, Zoroastrians, Black Catholics, Santeria initiates, and newly orthodox Jews, Luhrmann notes that none of these people behave as if gods and spirits are simply there. Rather, these worshippers make strenuous efforts to create a world in which invisible others matter and can become intensely present and real. The faithful accomplish this through detailed stories, absorption, the cultivation of inner senses, belief in a porous mind, strong sensory experiences, prayer, and other practices. Along the way, Luhrmann shows why faith is harder than belief, why prayer is a metacognitive activity like therapy, why becoming religious is like getting engrossed in a book, and much more.A fascinating account of why religious practices are more powerful than religious beliefs, How God Becomes Real suggests that faith is resilient not because it provides intuitions about gods and spirits-but because it changes the faithful in profound ways.

Produkt-Details

• Erscheint lt. Verlag: 27.10.2020
• Zusatzinfo: 3 tables.
• Sprache: englisch
• Themenwelt: Geisteswissenschaften ► Religion / Theologie
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Ethnologie
• Themenwelt: Sozialwissenschaften ► Soziologie
• Schlagworte: Accra • Acts of the apostles • Adoration • Affordance • Ahura Mazda • Alan Garner • Aldous Huxley • Ambiguity • Analogy • Anomalous Experiences • anthropologist • anthropology of mind • Anthropology of Religion • Assemblies of God • Atheism • awareness • biblical literalism • Bridget Bishop • Bruce Springsteen • Buddhism • Calvary Chapel • Candomblé • Categorization • Catholicism • Charismatic Christianity • Charismatic movement • chennai • Child of God • Christian • Christian Church • Christian culture • Christianity • Christian prayer • Christian Science • Church Service • Cognition • Cognitive Science of Religion • Current Anthropology • deity • Direct evidence • Discernment • Edmund Husserl • Eduardo Viveiros de Castro • Effectiveness • Elaine Pagels • Enlightenment (spiritual) • epidemiology • ethnography • Evangelism • existence of god • Explanation • Feeling • feeling the presence of god • Finding • Fire temple • Follow-up • Gesture • God • god speaks • Good Parsi • Gratitude • Gregory Bateson • Heaven's Gate (religious group) • Hippie • how prayer works • hypnosis • Illustration • Image of God • Inanna • ineffability • inference • Ingenuity • Inner Experience • Intelligence • Intention • Islam • Jesus • Jesus Movement • Jews • John of the Cross • John Templeton Foundation • Judaism • Kabbalah • Koyukon • Lecture • Literature • loneliness • Longevity • magic realism • Make the Difference • Mary Douglas • Mental image • Metacognition • Metaphor • mitzvah • Modernity • Monotheism • Muslim • Mysticism • narrative • new atheism • New Testament • Of Two Minds • On Religion • Ontology • optimism • Orisha • Orthodox Judaism • Our Most Troubling Madness • parable • Paracosm • Parsi • participant • Pascal Boyer • Pastor • Pentecostalism • Personal god • Personhood • Persuasion of the Witch’s Craft • phenomenon • Philosophy • piety • Postulant • Prayer • Prayer Circle • Presence of God (Catholicism) • Principle • progressivism • Protestantism • psychological anthropologist • Psychological Anthropology • psychologist • psychology of prayer • psychology of religious experience • psychology of seeing god • psychotherapy • Public Space • Reality • Relationship between religion and science • Religion • Religion Explained • Religiosity • religious experience • religious text • remaster • Responsiveness • sanctification • Schizophrenia • Scientific imperialism • Scott Atran • Sekhmet • self-esteem • Sermon • Shamanism • Shavuot • Simchat Torah • Sincerity • sleep paralysis • Society of Jesus • Sophistication • Spirit Possession • Spirituality • Spiritual practice • spouse • substance abuse • The Mystery of Faith • Theology • theory • The Other Hand • The Practice of the Presence of God • The Purpose Driven Life • therapy • The Varieties of Religious Experience • the Word of the Lord • Thought • Understanding • understanding religious experience • understanding religious practice • Vocation (poem) • well-being • what happens to religious worshippers • why prayer works • wickedness • Will of God • Witchcraft • Worship • Yogi • Zoroastrianism
• ISBN-10: 0-691-21198-1 / 0691211981
• ISBN-13: 978-0-691-21198-5 / 9780691211985