Overview
Over the last few decades, our knowledge of how the human mind and brain works increased dramatically. The field of cognitive science enables us to understand religious traditions, rituals, and visionary experiences in novel ways. This has implications for the study of the New Testament and early Christianity. How people in the ancient Mediterranean world remembered sayings and stories, what they experienced when participating in rituals, how they thought about magic and miracle, and how they felt and reasoned about moral questions--all of that can be now better understood with the help of insights from cognitive science. Istvan Czachesz argues that the field of New Testament Studies witnesses the beginning of a cognitive turn. He surveys relevant developments in the Cognitive Science of Religion and explores the field of cognitive and behavioral sciences in search of opportunities of gaining new insights about biblical materials. Czachesz presents some methodological tools and initial steps, together with a large number of examples of applying the cognitive approach to the New Testament and related ancient literature.
Full Product Details
Author: István Czachesz (Professor Department of History and Religious Studies University of Tromso)
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Imprint: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 9780191825880
ISBN 10: 0191825883
Publication Date: 05 March 2017
Audience:
General/trade
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General
Format: Undefined
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: In Print
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Reviews
"""Istvan Czachesz s Cognitive Science & the New Testament: A New Approach to Early Christian Research makes an important contribution to the growing body of scholars employing cognitive science and network theory in the study of early Christianity. Czachesz is, himself, one of the early adopters of this approach, with an impressive list of prior publications. The book represents the distillation of many years of experience, and fills an important lacuna. There are many excellent and accessible introductions to cognitive theory, but none adds an application of the theory to early Christian evidence.""--Reading Religion"
""Istvan Czachesz s Cognitive Science & the New Testament: A New Approach to Early Christian Research makes an important contribution to the growing body of scholars employing cognitive science and network theory in the study of early Christianity. Czachesz is, himself, one of the early adopters of this approach, with an impressive list of prior publications. The book represents the distillation of many years of experience, and fills an important lacuna. There are many excellent and accessible introductions to cognitive theory, but none adds an application of the theory to early Christian evidence.""--Reading Religion
Author Information
Istvan Czachesz is Professor of Biblical Studies at the University of Troms�'. His resesarch concentrates on religious antiquity, the New Testament, and the development of early Christianity. His publications include The Grotesque Body in Early Christian Discourse: Hell, Scatology and Metamorphosis (Routledge, 2012) and Mind, Morality and Magic: Cognitive Science Approaches in Biblical Studies (with Risto Uro; Routledge, 2013).
