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

The New Sciences of Religion explores 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 evolution, economics, social psychology, cognitive neurosciences, medicine, and more, Grassie develops a complex and multifaceted understanding of religion “from the outside in” as potentially functional and dysfunctional in specific contexts, differentially so for individuals and groups. The New Sciences of Religion then asks “from the bottom up” 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 and the old fundamentalists, Grassie argues for a concept of God-by-whatever-name that is fully compatible with contemporary science. 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.