How the sciences of the mind can advance the study of religionThe essence of religion was once widely thought to be a unique form of experience that could not be explained in neurological, psychological, or sociological terms. In recent decades scholars have questioned the privileging of the idea of religious experience in the study of religion, an approach that effectively isolated the study of religion from the social and natural sciences. Religious Experience Reconsidered lays out a framework for research into religious phenomena that reclaims experience as a central concept while bridging the divide between religious studies and the sciences.Ann Taves shifts the focus from "religious experience," conceived as a fixed and stable thing, to an examination of the processes by which people attribute meaning to their experiences. She proposes a new approach that unites the study of religion with fields as diverse as neuroscience, anthropology, sociology, and psychology to better understand how these processes are incorporated into the broader cultural formations we think of as religious or spiritual. Taves addresses a series of key questions: how can we set up studies without obscuring contestations over meaning and value? What is the relationship between experience and consciousness? How can research into consciousness help us access and interpret the experiences of others? Why do people individually or collectively explain their experiences in religious terms? How can we set up studies that allow us to compare experiences across times and cultures?Religious Experience Reconsidered demonstrates how methods from the sciences can be combined with those from the humanities to advance a naturalistic understanding of the experiences that people deem religious.

List of Illustrations and Tables ix Acknowledgments xi Preface xiii Introduction: The Problem of "Religious Experience" 3 Experiences Deemed Religious 8 Previous Work 9 The Argument 12 Why an Attributional Approach Is Better 14 Chapter One: Religion: Deeming Things Religious 16 The Sui Generis and Ascriptive Models of "Religious Experience" 17 Deeming Things Religious 22 Special Things and Things Set Apart 28 Setting up Research 48 Conclusion: A Four-Fold Matrix 53 Chapter Two: Experience: Accessing Conscious Behavior 56 Clarifying the Concept 58 Accessing Experience 63 Representation and Experience Revisited 73 Conclusion 86 Chapter Three: Explanation: Attributing Causality 88 Attribution Theory: An Overview 90 An Attributional Theory of Religion 94 Four Levels of Analysis and Attribution 111 Conclusion 118 Chapter Four: Comparison: Constructing an Object of Study 120 Comparing Experiences 121 Specifying a Point of Comparison 126 Comparing Simple and Composite Formations 129 Imagination and Reality 156 Conclusion: Religions: A Building-Block Approach 161 Building Blocks 162 Religions as Composite Formations 164 Implications 165 Appendixes Appendix A: General Attribution Theory of Religion 169 Appendix B: Personal Accounts of Stephen Bradley and William Barnard 172 Appendix C: Preliminary Thoughts on the Elaboration of Composite Formations 176 Glossary 181 Works Cited 183 Name Index 203 Subject Index 207