Religious Cognition in China ― Homo Religiosus?and the Dragon

Are human tendencies toward religious and spiritual thoughts, feelings, and actions outcomes of “natural” cognition? This volume revisits the “naturalness theory of religious cognition” through discussion of new qualitative and quantitative studies examining the psychological foundations of religious and spiritual expression in historical and contemporary China. Naturalness theory has been challenged on the grounds that little of its supporting developmental and experimental research has drawn on participants from predominantly secular cultural environments. Given China’s official secularity, its large proportion of atheists, and its alleged long history of dominant, nonreligious philosophies, can any broad claim for religion’s psychological “naturalness” be plausible?

Addressing this empirical gap, the studies discussed in this volume support core naturalness theory predictions for human reasoning about supernatural agency, intelligent design, the efficacy of rituals, and vitalistic causality. And yet each study elucidates, expands upon, or even challenges outright the logical assumptions of the naturalness theory. Written for a non-specialist audience, this volume introduces the naturalness theory and frames the significance of these new findings for students and scholars of cultural psychology, the psychology of religion, the anthropology of religion, and Chinese Studies.

Ryan G. Hornbeck is Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Xiamen University. His research interests include the scientific study of religion, digital culture, experimental ethnography, and interdisciplinary collaboration. His articles have appeared in International Journal of the Psychology of Religion, Games and Culture, Journal of Cognition and Culture, and European Journal of Philosophy of Religion. He holds a DPhil in anthropology from the University of Oxford.

Justin L. Barrett is the Chief Project Developer for the office for Science, Theology, and Religion initiatives at Fuller Theological Seminary. He also serves as program chair for the doctorate in psychological science. He came to Fuller from the University of Oxford, U.K., where he taught and served as senior researcher for Oxford’s Centre for Anthropology and Mind and the Institute for Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology. He has also taught at the University of Michigan and Calvin College. Barrett’s academic work has concerned cognitive scientific approaches to the study of religion. His current research interests include cognitive, evolutionary, and psychological approaches to the study of religion; cognitive approaches to the study of culture and archaeology generally; and religious and character development in children and adolescents. Barrett’s book publications include Why Would Anyone Believe in God? (2004, AltaMira), Psychology of Religion (ed., 2010, Routlege), Cognitive Science, Religion, and Theology (2011, Templeton Press), Born Believers: The Science of Children’s Religious Belief (2012, Free Press), and and The Roots of Religion: Exploring the Cognitive Science of Religion (with Roger Trigg, Ashgate, 2014).

Madeleine Kang is a writer, editor, and Cornell University alumnus. She was a featured writer for the 2017 CBS Diversity Showcase and was named a semi-finalist for the 2017 Second City Original Sitcom contest.