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| Introducing a Critical Thinking Approach to Religious Studies | |
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| Chapter Summary | |
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| How Religion Complicates Life in the Twenty-First Century | |
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| The Widespread Ignorance of Religion and Its Consequence | |
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| Religious Studies: Avoiding Hazards and Gaining Benefits | |
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| A Textbook for the Twenty-First Century | |
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| The Advantages of Studying Religion | |
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| Key Terms | |
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| Key Questions | |
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| Methods of Studying Religion | |
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| Chapter Summary | |
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| Defining the Problem: The Muslim Headscarf in Personal Experience | |
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| Focusing the Problem: Assumptions, Frames of Reference, and Associations of Ideas | |
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| Surveying the Alternative Approaches: The Development of Religious Studies | |
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| Proposing the Most Promising Solution: Strategies to Avoid Bias | |
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| Evaluating the Most Promising Solution: No Easy Way Out | |
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| Key Terms | |
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| Key Questions | |
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| Would You Believe! Religious Beliefs and Their Reasons | |
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| Chapter Summary | |
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| Defining the Problem: Opinions without Sufficient Evidence | |
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| Focusing the Problem: What Is the Nature of Religious Belief When People Are Free to Believe Anything? | |
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| Surveying the Alternative Approaches: The Justification of Religious Belief | |
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| Proposing the Most Promising Solution: Beliefs and the Questions They Answer | |
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| Evaluating the Most Promising Solution: Ways of Seeing and Ways of Life | |
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| Key Terms | |
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| Key Questions | |
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| The Right to Sacred Things: Symbol, Myth, and Ritual | |
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| Chapter Summary | |
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| Discovering the Problem: Old Bones Create New Controversy | |
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| Focusing the Problem: Museums Change Their Ways | |
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| Surveying the Alternative Approaches: Investigating Symbol, Myth, and Ritual | |
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| Proposing the Most Promising Solution: The Ritual Context within a Social Setting | |
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| Evaluating the Most Promising Solution: Dispute over a Hawaiian Object | |
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| Key Terms | |
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| Key Questions | |
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| Inside the Religious Brain: New Research into Religious Experience | |
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| Chapter Summary | |
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| Discovering the Problem: Finding Religion in the Brain | |
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| Focusing the Problem: The Current Challenges to Past Studies | |
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| Surveying the Alternative Approaches: Essentialist and Contextualist Theories | |
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| Proposing the Most Promising Solution: A Three-Point Program | |
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| Evaluating the Most Promising Solution: Prayers, Nursery Rhymes, and a Test Case | |
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| Key Terms | |
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| Key Questions | |
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| Trouble in the Global Village: Violence in the Name of Religion | |
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| Chapter Summary | |
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| Discovering the Problem: Strange Actions and Odd Alliances | |
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| Focusing the Problem: The Complexities of Religious Violence | |
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| Surveying the Alternative Approaches: What Does Violence Have to Do with Religion? | |
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| Proposing the Most Promising Solution: A Multiple Conditions Approach | |
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| Evaluating the Most Promising Solution: Empirical and Practical Tests | |
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| Key Terms | |
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| Key Questions | |
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| Making It After All: The Future of Religion | |
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| Chapter Summary | |
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| Discovering the Problem: The Secularization Thesis Revisited | |
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| Focusing the Problem: Evidence for a "Resurgence of Religion"? | |
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| Surveying the Alternative Approaches: Four Theories of Prediction | |
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| Proposing the Most Promising Solution: The Rational Choice Theory | |
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| Evaluating the Most Promising Solution: A Test of Two Catholic Settings | |
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| Key Terms | |
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| Key Questions | |
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| Glossary | |
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| Key Scholars of Religious Studies | |
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| Notes | |
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| Bibliography | |
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| Index | |