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The New Sciences of Religion: Exploring Spirituality from the Outside In and the Bottom Up

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  • Metanexus Institute

Abstract

The New Sciences of Religion is a critical analysis of new scientific research on religious and spiritual phenomena. William Grassie takes a two-staged phenomenological approach working from the “outside in” and the “bottom up” without privileging at the outset any religious traditions or philosophical assumptions. Using insights from economics, evolutionary psychology, the neurosciences, and medicine, Grassie develops a complex and multifaceted understanding of religion as potentially functional and dysfunctional in specific contexts, differentially so for individuals and groups. The New Sciences of Religion then asks what in religion and spirituality might also be true and profound when our received traditions are reinterpreted in light of contemporary sciences. In contrast to the New Atheists, Grassie argues for a concept of God-by-whatever-name that is fully compatible with contemporary science and the reinterpretation of traditional religions. In the end, there is no grand unified theory of religion and none of the many scientific explanations of religion preclude that religions have intuited, experienced, and discovered true and profound insights into the nature of ultimate reality and human existence. This is an original and compelling scientific interpretation of religion and also a religious interpretation of science that will challenge and delight students and scholars alike. PART I: RELIGION FROM THE OUTSIDE IN 1. The Challenge of Comparative Religion 2. The Old Sciences of Religion 3. The Economics of Religion 4. The Evolution of Religion 5. The Neurosciences of Religion 6. The Medicine of Religion PART II: RELIGION FROM THE BOTTOM UP 7. The Narratives of Religion 8. The New Religion of Science 9. God-by-Whatever-Name 10. Reiterations and Reflections Bibliography
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... The economy mainly based on long distance trade associated with a stable currency of gold and silver, and yielded many innovations. Some of the innovations such as bills of exchange, limited partnerships and checks were closely related to the economic system (Grassie, 2010). ...
... The reemergence of Islamic economic thought as Islamic economics (Grassie, 2010) is after the Second World War. While Muslim countries were constructing their economies after independence, the Islamic approach of economics began to reappear (Chapra, 2000). ...
... A contemporary example was the approach of Muhammad Sayyid Tantawi, another mufti of Egypt. In 1989, he announced that the interest-bearing financial instruments beneficial for each party of the transaction were religiously allowed (Grassie, 2010). ...
Thesis
Interest has been always a part of the humans' daily economic life. Therefore, the concept of interest has attracted an intensive attention, studied and discussed by philosophers, religious scholars, lawmakers, administrators and economists, regarding almost all economical, social, moral and religious aspects. Receiving interest was considered sin, condemned for being dishonorable, disrespectable, uncharitable, unjust, and source of many evils in many societies. For this reason, interest-based lending has been always restricted by the authorities through legislative, administrative and financial arrangements, religion and ethics. In cases where it was allowed, the rules of practicing interest were regulated heavily. However, despite all concerns and regulations, interest has been always practiced. By the seventeenth century, when the role of interest in economic life became more significant, the scholars began to deal with the concept of interest more systematically and many theories were developed on the nature of interest. Among many others, Böhm-Bawerk's comprehensive time preference theory of interest presented causes for the existence of interest that may be claimed to be inherent. On the other hand, a controversy emerged on the consequences of interest rate control in the relevant literature. It is claimed that, as a type of price control, prohibiting interest or limiting its rate have undesired distortive effects on the market. If so, the means-ends consistency in regulations may have to be reevaluated. In this work, we evaluate the responses of the regulation supporters to the causes of time preference asserted by Böhm-Bawerk as the justifiers of interest, and to the claims of the distortive consequences of interest rate control. The concept of interest with respect to its meaning, history and relevant theories is reviewed. The time preference theory and the concept of interest rate control as a type of price control are presented. Considering that the supporters of an interest-free economic system have the most explicit attitude against interest, the works of Muslim economists are scrutinized regarding their approach to the issues of the causes of time preference and the consequences of interest rate control.
... There is a growing acknowledgement that R/S issues are really the particular expressions of universal existential human motivations (Grassie 2010;Piedmont and Wilkins 2020). From this perspective, all people confront a similar array of issues surrounding personal needs for meaning, worthiness, and finitude (Tillich [1952(Tillich [ ] 2000. ...
... From this perspective, all people confront a similar array of issues surrounding personal needs for meaning, worthiness, and finitude (Tillich [1952(Tillich [ ] 2000. As such, spiritual issues and concerns are addressed by all people, although the responses to these concerns may be quite varied (Comte-Sponville 2006;Grassie 2010). Piedmont (2015); Piedmont and Wilkins (2020) has developed an ontological model that outlines the origins, role, and functioning of numinous dynamics. ...
... However, all of these studies included religious believers. It could be argued that the conceptual and theological differences between these faith traditions are not as large as one would believe them to be (Grassie 2010). Therefore, any belief in a transcendent, eternal being/reality brings with it exposure to similar numinous concepts. ...
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While there is a tremendous literature documenting the positive value of religious and spiritual (R/S) constructs on an array of psychosocial outcomes (e.g., health, resilience, coping ability), Spiritual Crisis (SC) reflects the negative side of the numinous in a way that stresses the value and importance of R/S constructs for psychological functioning. This study examined whether numinous constructs are more relevant to theists or represent universal psychological qualities. Using an MTurk-based sample comprising both theists and atheists (N = 1399; 800 women and 595 men, four gave no response), the predictive ability of SC on both affective and characterological distress was examined using both regression and SEM analyses. The results indicated that both theists and atheists understood the numinous in similar ways and that scores on SC were of equal incremental predictiveness for both groups. SEM analyses supported the causal model that understood SC to be a unique and independent (from the personality domains of the Five-Factor Model) predictor of these clinical outcomes. These findings stress the value of the numinous for understanding all clients and that psychological assessment needs to systematically address numinous constructs in order to ensure comprehensive treatment of psychological impairment.
... (1) different methods for detecting patterned phenomena and explaining causal relationships, (2) applied by communities of specialists (3) in rigorous "dialogue" with phenomena, (4) always implicated in lived historical contexts and limitations, (5) resulting in a self-correcting, self-transcending, and progressive learning process that (6) makes strongly objective truth claims, (7) which facts are pragmatically verified in practical applications (8) and cumulatively related in a unified body of knowledge (9) that can be organized hierarchically by chronology of emergence, scales of size, and degrees of complexity (Grassie, 2010a). ...
Chapter
Metaphors and models are indispensable in both science and religion, but they play different roles in the two fields. This paper makes two arguments. First, I want to emphasize the importance and universal scope of the concept of metaphor. Second, I argue that the relationship between models and metaphors as defined in this study is the reverse in religious discourse from what it is in science. In science metaphors are first of all heuristic; they indicate the possibility of developing models. Secondarily they serve as shorthand, popularization, or labels. Once satisfactory models have been developed, scientific metaphors are either discarded or become subservient to them. Religion, however, is always metaphorical. Unlike science, theological models are not checked by their objects, but they are models based on metaphors. What significance is accorded to these metaphors depends on whether one believes in a transcendent reality that can only be talked about in metaphors.
Chapter
The chapter briefly reviews the historical background of Islamic economics and its basic principles that differ from the conventional systems, particularly its main distinctive feature, namely the prohibition of interest. It introduces the pre-Islamic riba, briefs the origins of the ban in the Quran (holy book) and Sunnah (practices of the Prophet), shortly reviews the approach of fiqh (Islamic jurisprudence) to riba and interest, and presents the traditional view on the definition of riba. The chapter also summarizes the opposing views to the mainstream approach to the relation of riba and interest, the instruments developed to be alternative to the interest-based transactions, and other devious ways used to overcome the prohibition of interest. It presents the similarities of the devious ways used in Islamic economics with the ones used in Christianity and Judaism. Finally, it provides a chronological bibliography of Islamic economics on the concept of interest.
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