Genealogy of Religion

Exploring the Origins, History and Future of Religion

Entries Tagged as 'Pentecostals'

The Eschatology of Spaceship Jesus

November 7th, 2010 · No Comments · Axial Age, Emotions

Frank Schaeffer, son of famed evangelical theologian Francis Schaeffer, connects the religious, cultural, and political knots in this spooky assessment of end times lunacy.  As a former insider, his knowledge of such beliefs is considerable.  There are few emotions more powerful — or easily played — than fear.

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Spirits in Salem & Africa

October 25th, 2010 · No Comments · Classifications, Ecology, Economy, Globalization, Ritual

Just the other day, I commented on the origin of ritual and noted that Jonathan Z. Smith sees “the thrill of coincidence” as at least a partial explanation.  Before rationalists dismiss this thrill as mere superstition, Smith also notes that the same kind of coincidence resides at the heart of scholarship:
The discovery that two events, [...]

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Exorcising Autistics and Gays

June 11th, 2010 · No Comments · Axial Age, Cognition, Daily Devolutions, Magic, Ritual

Evangelicals love their demons — which they claim to see or sense in just about everything bad that happens.  All it takes is some exorcism or “casting out” and all will be well.
As I have mentioned in several previous posts, one of autism’s effects is a lack of “theory of mind.”  This in turn renders [...]

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“Speaking in Tongues” — Translating the Spirit

March 9th, 2010 · 1 Comment · Cognition, Ritual

“Speaking in Tongues” or glossolalia is most often associated with Pentecostal worship.  It is an interesting phenomenon that has attracted some scholarly interest.  A recent post over at Brain Blogger discusses some of these studies:
Research performed in the 1980s at Denison University by the late anthropologist Felicitas Goodman led to a theory that glossolalia was [...]

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