Religion in Multidisciplinary Perspective : Philosophical, Theological, and Scientific Approaches to Wesley J. Wildman

Religion in Multidisciplinary Perspective provides the first comprehensive treatment of the work of Wesley J. Wildman, one of the most inventive thinkers in the field of religious studies. Scholars with expertise in philosophical, theological, and scientific approaches to the study of religion offer critical and constructive engagements with Wildman's astonishingly creative and integrative oeuvre. The essays address themes that will be of interest to those concerned with the current state of scholarship on religion from a variety of disciplines, including philosophy, theology, ethics, psychology, sociology, anthropology, and others. The volume concludes with a response by Wildman. Contents 6 1 Introduction to the Work of Wesley J. Wildman 8 Notes 16 Part 1. Philosophical Approaches 18 2 The Model(ing) Philosophy of Wesley Wildman 20 Computational and Apophatic Models: Always Wrong, Sometimes Useful 21 Modeling “God” 25 Modeling “Religion” 29 God, Forsaken ... and No Religion Too 33 Notes 38 3 Wildman’s Reconstruction of Philosophy of Religion 44 Wildman’s Reconstruction of Philosophy of Religion 45 Having Hope for Correction 45 Making Room for Theology 50 Changing the Field and the Academy 53 Notes 57 4 Wesley Wildman’s Lessons for and from Ethics 60 Wildman’s Method: Multidisciplinary, Comparative, Fallible Inquiry into Big Questions 62 Advantages to the Multidisciplinary Comparative Fallibilist Inquiry 67 Ethics Aids the Multidisciplinary, Comparative, Fallible Method 73 Conclusion 79 Notes 80 5 Pragmatist Inquiry and the Problem of Value 86 Pragmatist Inquiry 88 Aesthetics and Inquiry 93 Reflections on the Scientific Study of Religion from the Standpoint of Aesthetics 101 Notes 108 Part 2: Theological Approaches 112 6 Pragmatism and the Future of Philosophical Theology 114 I 114 II 115 III 118 IV 124 V 127 Notes 132 7 Committing Theology in the Secular University 136 Introduction 136 Three Models of Theology in the Secular Academy 138 Which Theological Tasks Belong in the Secular University? 141 The Criteria for Theology in the Secular Academy 146 An Example of Comparative Religious Philosophy 152 Notes 154 8 Wesley Wildman’s Theology 160 Theology’s Public 161 Comparative Erudition 163 Hypothesis and Understanding 164 The Backstory of Anthropomorphism 169 God and Ultimacy 171 Apophaticism 174 Religious Symbolism and Philosophy of Religion 181 Notes 184 9 Wildman’s Effing Symbology 188 Introduction 188 What is Ultimacy? 190 Three Philonian Inconveniences 193 What is Symbolic Meaning? 196 Between Semantics and Pragmatics 199 Effing the Ineffable 201 In Defense of the Analytic Ascetic 211 Notes 212 10 Nature and Homo religiosus in Wildman’s Science and Religious Anthropology 216 Religious Naturalism and the Nature of Nature 217 Homo Religiosus and the Sacred 220 Conclusion 225 Part 3: Scientific Approaches 228 11 Relating within Wildman’s Integrative Engagement with Psychology, Spirituality, and Humility 230 Relational Interdisciplinarity 232 Philosophical and Methodological Pluralism 236 Interdisciplinary Realism 237 Multidimensional Humility 238 Relational Spirituality, Humility, and Ultimacy Manifestations 243 Loneliness 243 Intensity 246 Bliss 249 Conclusion 251 Notes 252 12 Wildman’s Contributions to the Neuroscience of Religious and Spiritual Experiences 256 Introduction 256 Religious Naturalism and RSEs 258 Wildman’s Work on the Neurologic and Phenomenologic Properties of RSEs 262 Conclusion 263 Notes 264 13 Religious and Spiritual Experiences: An Imagined Dialogue with Wesley Wildman 266 Notes 277 14 The Man Who Receives Too Many Emails: Exploring the Construction of Wildman’s Institutional Reality 280 My Colleague Riding Shotgun 280 Entering Wildman’s Wild World: The Birth of a Journal 282 International Conference on the Evolution of Religion 282 Publish or Perish 283 Institute for the Bio-Cultural Study of Religion 284 IBCSR Research Review 285 The Grateful Dead School of Business 286 What’s in a Name? 287 Naked Supernatural Beings 288 Religion, Brain & Behavior 289 From IBCSR to CMAC 290 Anthropologist Plays Psychoanalyst 291 Brain-Group Nexus 291 Conclusion 293 Acknowledgments 294 Notes 294 15 Response to Religion in Multidisciplinary Perspective 296 Note 333 Author Bios 334 Index 338