![]() ![]() In the end I deconstruct the metaphoric boundary that places religion on the inside as the object and science as the subject on the outside looking in. I am critical of confusing the scientific study of religion with scientism and trace this ideological project back to August Comte. Indeed, the new sciences of religion can help religions in becoming more effective and wholesome. I argue that religious persons and institutions should welcome these investigations, because science affects only interpretative strategies and does not present a fundamental challenge to core religious commitments. I argue for pluralistic methodologies in the scientific study of religious and spiritual phenomena. The purpose is to welcome these approaches but also delineate some of their philosophical and theological limitations. In this essay I examine the new sciences of religion, spanning the traditional fields such as the psychology, sociology, and anthropology of religion to new fields such as the economics, neurosciences, epidemiology, and evolutionary psychology of religion. ![]()
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