Cris
MY BLOGS
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Genealogy of Religion
http://genealogyreligion.net/
Exploring the Origins, History, and Future of Religion
LATEST ARTICLES ( 560 )
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Bellah’s Reading on Religious Evolution
I’ve finally gotten round to reading Robert Bellah’s Religion in Human Evolution: From the Paleolithic to the Axial Age (2011). Read more
Posted on 22 June 2012 BIOLOGY, CULTURE, DEBATE, HISTORY, RELIGION -
Selling Spirituality & Global Capital
Whatever else one thinks of Slavov Zizek, he is occasionally capable of keen and clear insights. One of his favorite targets is New Age spirituality and... Read more
Posted on 21 June 2012 BIOLOGY, CULTURE, DEBATE, HISTORY, RELIGION -
Steven Pinker Contra Group Selection
Over at The Edge, Steven Pinker has posted a long essay on the false allure of group level selection, which is often touted by group selectionists as the... Read more
Posted on 20 June 2012 BIOLOGY, CULTURE, DEBATE, HISTORY, RELIGION -
Onward Christian Soldiers
Over the past few years I have become vaguely aware of a strong religious current running through the US military that more or less parallels the rise of the... Read more
Posted on 17 June 2012 CURRENT, DEBATE, HISTORY, RELIGION -
Cognizing the Supernatural & Religion
Over at Religion Bulletin, Kenneth MacKendrick has posted a densely packed piece that should be required reading for all cognitive theorists of religion. Read more
Posted on 15 June 2012 DEBATE, PSYCHOLOGY, RELIGION -
Terry Eagleton on Political Religion
One of my favorite recollections from an exuberant time at Duke in the company of Frederic Jameson, Stanley Fish, Eve Sedgewick, and a host of other enfants... Read more
Posted on 13 June 2012 BIOLOGY, CULTURE, DEBATE, HISTORY, RELIGION -
Genetic Hardwiring for God
Over the past week I was hiking the Four Corners area and visiting ancestral Puebloan sites spanning the entire range of culture history for the region — from... Read more
Posted on 11 June 2012 RELIGION -
Radical & Revolutionary Catholicism
What counts as “radical” and “revolutionary” when it comes to the Catholic Church? If this review of John Connelly’s From Enemy to Brother: The Revolution in... Read more
Posted on 03 June 2012 RELIGION -
Facing Death with Philosophy
In this moving post, philosopher Jeff Mason discusses his reaction to being diagnosed with inoperable cancer. He will die soon, without the solace of belief in ... Read more
Posted on 03 June 2012 BIOLOGY, CULTURE, DEBATE, HISTORY, RELIGION -
Post-Neolithic Death Obsessions
In the past 24 hours, I’ve come across a curious concatenation of death obsessions. If I didn’t know better, I’d take it as a sign — an omen from nothingness. Read more
Posted on 31 May 2012 ART & DESIGN, CULTURE, DEBATE, RELIGION -
Political Theology & Civil Religion
In this review of Simon Critchley’s The Faith of the Faithless: Experiments in Political Theology (2012), David Winters comments: “Throughout his career,... Read more
Posted on 29 May 2012 DEBATE, HISTORY, RELIGION -
Fear & Spirit Loathing in Melanesia (2)
Now that we have some background on Melanesian ethnography and animism, let’s look at Theodore Schwartz’s “Cult and Context: The Paranoid Ethos in Melanesia”... Read more
Posted on 27 May 2012 BIOLOGY, CULTURE, DEBATE, HISTORY, RELIGION -
Mass Culture as Mythology
In this riff on Roland Barthes, Sam Anderson nails the anti-essence of his critical stance: Barthes’s basic idea (although with Barthes it’s always dangerous... Read more
Posted on 27 May 2012 BIOLOGY, CULTURE, DEBATE, HISTORY, RELIGION -
Fear & Spirit Loathing in Melanesia
Few books in the history of anthropology have had a larger or more lasting impact than Bronislaw Malinowski’s Argonauts of the Western Pacific. Read more
Posted on 25 May 2012 BIOLOGY, CULTURE, DEBATE, HISTORY, RELIGION -
Sexing the Buffalo
At this time of year I like to take a break from heavy scholarly reading for lighter fare, which means I can be forgiven for having just consumed Stephen... Read more
Posted on 23 May 2012 HISTORY -
Storytelling & Self-Delusion
It’s no secret that humans like to tell stories and the most satisfying stories have a beginning, middle, and end — all narrated in a way which gives rise to th... Read more
Posted on 14 May 2012 DEBATE, SELF EXPRESSION -
Commencement Creationist at Emory University
For its commencement speaker this year, Emory University has chosen John Hopkins neurosurgeon and humanitarian Ben Carson. Carson’s personal story and scientifi... Read more
Posted on 08 May 2012 DEBATE, RELIGION, SCIENCE -
Moral Psychology: Shades of Gray
In Misfires of Moral Psychology, a post prompted by Jonathan Haidt’s The Righteous Mind: Why Good People Are Divided by Politics and Religion, I commented:... Read more
Posted on 06 May 2012 DEBATE, HISTORY, RELIGION -
Research Riches & Plains Visions
One of the fantastic and daunting things about a project which seeks to comprehend “religion” in its historical entirety and cultural variety is that it’s... Read more
Posted on 04 May 2012 DEBATE, HISTORY, RELIGION -
Conflicting Torahs: To Victors Go the Myths
Of all the spoils that come from success in war, perhaps the least appreciated is the ability to write the history. To the victor goes the narrative. When the... Read more
Posted on 02 May 2012 CULTURE, DEBATE, HISTORY, RELIGION