Overview

The cognitive science of religion has shown that abstract religious concepts within many established religious traditions often fail to correspond to the beliefs of the vast majority of those religions' adherents. And yet, while the cognitive approach to religion has explained why these ""theologically correct"" doctrines have difficulty taking root in popular religious thought, it is largely silent on the question of how they developed in the first place. Hugh Nicholson aims to fill this gap by arguing that such doctrines can be understood as developing out of social identity processes. He focuses on the historical development of the Christian doctrine of Consubstantiality, the claim that the Son is of the same substance as the Father, and the Buddhist doctrine of No-self, the claim that the personality is reducible to its impersonal physical and psychological constituents. Both doctrines are maximally counterintuitive, in the sense that they violate the default expectations that human beings spontaneously make about the basic categories of things in the world. Nicholson argues that that these doctrines were each the products of intra- and inter-religious rivalry, in which one faction tried to get the upper hand over its ingroup rivals by maximizing the contrast with the dominant outgroup. Thus the ""pro-Nicene"" theologians of the fourth century developed the concept of Consubstantiality in the context of an effort to maximize, against their ""Arian"" rivals, the contrast with Christianity's archetypal ""other,"" Judaism. Similarly, the No-self doctrine stemmed from an effort to maximize, against the so-called Personalist schools of Buddhism, the contrast with Brahmanical Hinduism with its doctrine of an unchanging and eternal self. In this way, Nicholson shows how religious traditions, to the extent that their development is driven by social identity processes, can back themselves into doctrinal positions that they must then retrospectively justify.

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9780190455347

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Reviews

"""a wonderful addition to a growing body of scholarship on comparative theology that raises provocative and vital questions about the formation of theology and the creativity of theologians."" -- Carol S. Anderson, Journal of Religion ""Nicholson is unquestionably a leader in the field of comparative religion and theology due in part to his penetrating insight into the historical, doctrinal, and rhetorical matrices of the Patristic and early Buddhist traditions. I struggle to think of another scholar equally accountable to both traditions and equally capable of repositioning the scholarship and comparison of both."" --John N. Sheveland, author of Piety and Responsibility ""Hugh Nicholson's The Spirit of Contradiction in Christianity and Buddhism is an interdisciplinary tour de force. Nicholson integrates theological, sociological and psychological theories to provide a compelling explanation of why counterintuitive theological concepts emerge in multiple traditions, and how they are sustained in the face of socio-cultural pressures. It will appeal to all scholars interested in the development of theological concepts, including those in religious studies and the cognitive science of religion."" --Claire White, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, California State University, Northridge ""Hugh Nicholson's new book exhibits a remarkable breadth of learning and provides a thoughtful overview of two counter-intuitive concepts: the Buddhist doctrine of no-self and the Christian doctrine of the trinity. Even more importantly, it addresses certain oversights in contemporary Buddhology and Christian theology by highlighting the sociological and evolutionary factors that led to the development of these two religions' central ideas. This book will certainly generate conversation, argument, and further reflection."" --Andrew J. Nicholson, Associate Professor, Department of Asian & Asian American Studies, Stony Brook University"

Nicholson is unquestionably a leader in the field of comparative religion and theology due in part to his penetrating insight into the historical, doctrinal, and rhetorical matrices of the Patristic and early Buddhist traditions. I struggle to think of another scholar equally accountable to both traditions and equally capable of repositioning the scholarship and comparison of both. --John N. Sheveland, author of Piety and Responsibility Hugh Nicholson's The Spirit of Contradiction in Christianity and Buddhism is an interdisciplinary tour de force. Nicholson integrates theological, sociological and psychological theories to provide a compelling explanation of why counterintuitive theological concepts emerge in multiple traditions, and how they are sustained in the face of socio-cultural pressures. It will appeal to all scholars interested in the development of theological concepts, including those in religious studies and the cognitive science of religion. --Claire White, Assistant Professor of Religious Studies, California State University, Northridge Hugh Nicholson's new book exhibits a remarkable breadth of learning and provides a thoughtful overview of two counter-intuitive concepts: the Buddhist doctrine of no-self and the Christian doctrine of the trinity. Even more importantly, it addresses certain oversights in contemporary Buddhology and Christian theology by highlighting the sociological and evolutionary factors that led to the development of these two religions' central ideas. This book will certainly generate conversation, argument, and further reflection. --Andrew J. Nicholson, Associate Professor, Department of Asian & Asian American Studies, Stony Brook University

Author Information

Hugh Nicholson is Associate Professor of Theology at Loyola University Chicago.

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