THE COGNITIVE SCIENCE OF RELIGION
LUTHER H. MARTIN
Cognitive scientists seek to explain the kinds of perceptual and conceptual
representations--including "religious" representations--which
the mental processing of sensory input allows, the memory, transmission,
and transformations of these mental representations, and the relationships,
historical and potential, among them. Although a cognitive
science of religion was first proposed in 1980 (Guthrie), it was not until
the following decade that systematically cognitive theories of religion
began to be proposed. These theories focused largely on religious ritual
(Lawson-McCauley 1990), religious ideas (Guthrie 1993; Boyer
1994), religious persistence (Whitehouse 1995; 2000), and the relationship
of these practices and ideas to evolutionary theory (Mithen 1996).
These theoretical proposals have produced--and are continuing to produce--a
large number of works that now firmly establish this new field
of inquiry as an exciting new approach to the study of religion. (e.g.,
Barrett 2000, 2004; Boyer 2001; Pyysiäinen 2001; McCauley-Lawson
2002; Atran 2002; Pyysiäinen-Antttonen 2002; Martin 2003; Slone 2004;
Malley 2004; Whitehouse 2004).
One of the cognitive theories of religion that has generated a significant
amount of commentary and research--and that is the primary focus
of this special issue of Method & Theory in the Study of Religion--is that
of divergent modes of religiosity, proposed by the British anthropologist
Harvey Whitehouse (and summarized in this journal by him, 2002).
Briefly stated, Whitehouse has identified two different clusters of variables
that tend to be selected for in processes of religious transmission
(Whitehouse 2004). He terms these two modes of religiosity "imagistic"
and "doctrinal". It need be emphasized at the outset that the
"imagistic" mode does not refer, in Whitehouse's description, to religious
traditions that trade in images--a trait of virtually all religions.
Rather, "imagistic" is Whitehouse's designation for a convergence of
analogical precepts and practices that are transmitted through infrequently
performed rituals and are rendered especially salient and memorable
through intense sensory pageantry and heightened emotionality.
The dramatic, often traumatic, means of transmission (e.g., by some initiation
rites) typically occasions a personal and spontaneous exegesis of
that knowledge among its recipients as well as an enduring cohesion
 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2004 Method & Theory in the Study of Religion
Also available online ­ www.brill.nl 16, 201-204
202 LUTHER H. MARTIN
among its participants in small, face-to-face communities. By contrast,
Whitehouse contends that an alternative clustering of variables characterize
a "doctrinal" mode of religiosity. The style of codification of
knowledge in this mode is formulated digitally or discursively as a coherent
and authorized body of beliefs or teachings that are widely transmissible
by means of repetitive instruction and routinized ritual. While
this modality may be found in non-literate contexts, it is most often
characteristic of literate societies or of those influenced by them. The
wide dissemination of knowledge that is characteristic of this mode of
religiosity is facilitated by a dynamic and centralized leadership, and is
constitutive of large, imagined communities in which group affinities
are largely anonymous.
The two modes of religiosity proposed by Whitehouse rely on and
are constrained by different and selective systems of memory. The memory
system selected is determined by the alternative ways in which cultural
knowledge is encoded and by the different forms of ritual practices.
The catechetical instruction in and repetitive reinforcement of beliefs
that are characteristic of the doctrinal mode of religiosity become
encoded as generalized schemas of knowledge in the explicit memory
system and they rely upon this generalizing system for their coherent
transmission. The unique and personalized experiences characteristic of
the imagistic mode are, on the other hand, encoded in episodic or
autobiographical memory and rely upon the activation of this system
for a specifically religious knowledge "revealed" as a significant cohesion
of personal associations.
Specific theoretical proposals, such as that by Whitehouse, require,
in turn, assessments by those pursuing research and teaching in the
fields upon which the theories impinge. Three international symposia
have been held to assess Whitehouse's modes theory and publications
of their findings are forthcoming. The first of these symposia was held
for anthropologists at King's College, Cambridge in 2001 (WhitehouseLaidlaw
2004); a second was held for archaeologists, historians, and
historians of religion at the University of Vermont in 2002 (WhitehouseMartin
2004; Martin-Whitehouse, forthcoming); and a third was held
for cognitive and developmental psychologists in 2003 at Emory University
(Whitehouse-McCauley, forthcoming). These symposia were generously
funded by grants from the British Academy, from The John Templeton
Foundation, and from the host institutions.
As a follow-up to the 2002 Vermont symposium, a panel was organized
for the 2002 annual meeting of the North American Association
for the Study of Religion in Toronto on the "Implications of the `Modes
THE COGNITIVE SCIENCE OF RELIGION 203
of Religiosity Theory' for the Study of Religion". The papers presented
to this panel by Greg Alles, William Paden, Ted Vial and Donald
Wiebe form the basis of this special issue of MTSR.
In addition to the papers first presented at the 2002 NAASR panel,
we have also included in this special issue contributions by Kimmo
Ketola, Benson Saler, and Matthew Day. Ketola's contribution was
originally presented at the 2001 "modes" symposium at King's College,
Saler's contribution was first delivered in 2000 at the University of
Turku and bo. All of these papers have been revised for this special
issues; Day's is an original contribution invited for this issue. Harvey
Whitehouse has graciously revised and expanded his response to this
panel to include the larger scope of the present issue. Finally, a review
article of recent publications in this new cognitive science of religion
by Ilkka Pyysiäinen concludes this special issue of the journal.
We offer these papers as a contribution to on-going conversations
about the significance of cognitive science for the study of religion, conversations
that have grown exponentially over the past four years from
the specialized symposia and from several early NAASR panels, to panels
at the 2000 Quinquennial Congress of the International Association
for the Study of Religion (with several currently being planned for the
2005 Congress), to the annual meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature
in 2002, and, most recently, at the 2003 annual meeting of the American
Academy of Religion (with several being planned for 2004). This conversation
continues in print in a dedicated journal (Journal of Cognition
and Culture) and in a dedicated series (Cognitive Science of Religion Series,
AltaMira Press). Systematic research in the cognitive science of religion
is currently being pursued in the context of several newly funded research
initiatives--at Aarhus University, Denmark, at the University of Helsinki,
Finland, and at the newly founded Institute for Cognition and Culture
at Queen's University, Belfast. We invite any who may be interested
in this growing and scientifically promising new direction--a direction
envisioned by the nineteenth-century founders of the field as an academic
study--to contribute to these conversations and research agendas,
many of which are joined in this issue of MTSR.
Department of Religion
The University of Vermont
Burlington, VT 05405
USA
204 LUTHER H. MARTIN
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