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ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The religion and media field has grown strongly as an academic subject in recent years, especially regarding studies of religion in contemporary mass media, TV, film, internet, social media etc., and in relation to popular culture. Scholars of religion have also begun to pay attention to the important role that media, mediation, and mediatization have played in the history of religions. It is this growing awareness that we wish to examine here. Our focus is not intended to signal the abandonment of interest in contemporary religion, media and popular culture; rather we wish to place this development in the deep and broad perspective of the study of religion. Media, mediation, and the more recent phenomenon of mediatization, are processes that are inseparable from the ways in which religion functions and is passed on from generation to generation. Thus, from a general study of religion perspective, we promote the argument that media and mediation processes are central aspects of how all religions function because all communication, including religious communication, can be seen as mediated. In this article, we reflect on and discuss the roles that media have played in the deep history of religions and continue to play in the present by bringing religion and media studies in conversation with cultural evolution and cognitive perspectives. DANSK RESUMÉ: Religion og medier er blomstret stærkt op som emnefelt i de seneste år, særligt med fokus på religion i samtidens massemedier, tv, film, internet, sociale medier m.m. og i relation til populærkultur. Samtidigt er religionsforskere blevet opmærksomme på at medier og mediering har spillet vigtige roller for religionshistorien og det er dén udvikling vi her vil gribe fat i. Dermed ønsker vi ikke på nogen måde at signalere en opgiven af interessen for religion, medier og populærkultur i samtiden, men snarere at vi ønsker at indsætte denne udvikling i et langt og bredt religionsvidenskabeligt perspektiv. Medier og mediering er uadskilleligt fra hvordan religion fungerer og videreføres fra generation til generation. Derfor anlægger vi det overordnede perspektiv her, at medier og mediering udgør centrale aspekter af hvordan alle religioner fungerer, da al kommunikation, inklusiv religiøs kommunikation, kan anskues som medieret. I denne artikel reflekterer vi over og diskuterer den rolle medier, mediering og medialisering har spillet i religionshistorien og i samtiden bl.a. med inddragelse af kulturevolutionære og kognitive perspektiver.

Engelsk summary: “Why, Wherefrom (and When) Did Religion Appear?” This article presents my reflections on the evolution of religion from the perspective of the cognitive science of religion and the neurobiology of religion. Two important features of the brain were crucial to our evolution, i.e. the expansion of the emotional and subcortical areas on the one hand and the cortex on the other. The former was essential to the development of viable social systems and the latter to the development of stone tool technologies and material culture. Furthermore, the growth of the brain was apparently due to the growing complexity of human social structures that culture brought with it. A key feature of the brain is that it is incomplete in human infants and is first fully matured after two decades of social and cultural life: the unfinished animal that becomes completed through a particular culture. Looking closer at the neuropsychological evidence of our brains and behavior, I have identified four key human features, namely, a finely honed social cognition, a drive to communicate and cooperate, a self-deceptive brain and a superstitious brain prone to unusual mental and/or emotional experiences. These traits, I argue, are prerequisites for religious behavior. In looking through the archaeological records, there is good reason to look beyond our species into the deep hominin past. A likely candidate that seems to have evinced proto-religious behavior is Homo heidelbergensis (between 600,000 and 400,000 years ago). Dansk Resumé: I denne artikel præsenterer jeg med udgangspunkt i den kognitive og den neurobiologiske religionsvidenskab mine refleksioner over religionens evolution. To aspekter af hjernen er afgørende for vores evolution. Den ene er udvidelsen af de emotionelle og indre dele af hjernen og den anden er udvidelsen af hjernebarken. Førstnævnte var en nødvendig forudsætning for udviklingen af levedygtige social systemer og sidstnævnte for udviklingen af stenredskaber og anden materiel kultur. Hertil kommer at hjernens udvikling hang kausalt sammen med den voksende social kompleksitet og den kulturelle udvikling, som denne kompleksitet førte med sig. Hjernen har den særlige egenskab, at den ikke er fuldt udviklet ved fødslen og først er “moden” efter to årtiers sociale og kulturelle liv, hvor også hjerneskallen først er vokset endelig sammen (for kvinder 18 år for mænd 21 år). Således bliver det ufærdige dyr færdiggjort inden for en specifik kultur. Når man ser på de seneste landvindinger inden for neuropsykologien, er der fire kendetegn, som jeg mener, er konstituerende for mennesket. Disse er: en finudviklet social kognition, en kommunikations- og samarbejdsdrift, en bedragerisk hjerne samt en overtroisk hjerne med tendens til ualmindelige mentale og/eller emotionelle oplevelser. Disse egenskaber er en nødvendig forudsætning for religiøst adfærd. Når man ser på de arkæologiske vidnesbyrd i jagten på det religiøse menneske, skal man gå betydeligt længere tilbage end Homo sapiens, ja, man skal langt tilbage i homininlinjen. De første proto-religiøse træk synes at komme til syne med Homo heidelbergensis (mellem 600.000 og 400.000 år siden).

Mange antropologiske, litteraturvidenskabelige og religionsvidenskabelige indianerstudier hjemsøges af primitivisme-romantik, og megen postmoderne og postkolonial litteratur svækkes af religiøse og etniske dagsordener, trods al berettiget fag- og samfundskritik. Jeg appellerer derfor til en ‘no nonsense’ tilgang til religion, en tilgang som jeg sammenfatter i begrebet etno-hermeneutik. Bidraget dokumenterer min egen vandring fra religionshistorisk kulturrelativist til samfundskritiker og universalist, sidstnævnte i kraft af erkendelser inden for den kognitive og neurobiologiske forskning. Faget ligger midt i spændingsfeltet mellem kulturrelativistisk partikularisme og almen menneskelig universalisme. Det kan ikke være anderledes, hvis vi skal leve op til et fag, der tager sit genstands oprindelser, former, funktioner, strukturer og betydninger alvorlig.

“On Religion and Cognition: A Brief Historical and Thematic Introduction”. This article is a brief introduction to the cognitive study of religion. Ten problems are identified which serve as the backdrop of the article. These concern the problems of historical depth in the study of cognition; the increase of many different disciplinary approaches; the resultant termino­logical confusion; the weaknesses of the natural sciences in terms of the philosophy of science; the corresponding weaknesses of the cognitive science of religion in terms of the philosophy of science; the need to replace strategic triumphalism on the one hand and strategic isolationism on the other with strategic sobriety; the need to maintain that the study of religion concerns origins, functions, forms, meanings and structures as well as texts; the realization that the methodological tools accompanying cognitive approaches should be handled with care and prudence; the reduction of cognition exclusively to processes in the brain ignores recent neurological research that points to alternative models of cognition; and there are many more possibilities in cognitive research than have been acknowledged by the pioneers of cognitive approaches to the study of religion. The article briefly discusses the many histories of research in cognition during the past 150 years and illustrates various cognitive themes which might be fruitfully pursued by scholars of religion.

This article explores notions of primitivism through a critical examination of the implicit and explicit assumptions behind these notions against the background of recent developments in the philosophy of science. In the section on terms and definitions the empirical and theoretical problems involved in the use of these terms are raised. The section on primitivism and literacy explores the weaknes of the stance known as "The Great Divide" thesis. The problems associated with mentality and rationalism follow with recent criticisms from the philosophy of science and anthropology on the attempt to model the hunman and social sciences on the hard sciences, on the illusions of linguistic and other forms of exactitude in the natural sciences, on the mutual incompatibility of notions of rationalism used in the various sciences, and on the questionability of a too close encounter between the cultural sciences and philosophy. The section on tradition and change explores the role of the supposed dichotomy between the two in notions of primitivism and xplores the political and ethical problems involved i nthe historiography of exotic cultures. This leads to the section on the whole problem of the cultural construction of the Other and the role played by stereotypes in that construction. The article ends with a discussion of the formidable problems in intercultural communication with an appeal to Western scientists to be more reflective on and critidal of their own positions.

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3 debatartikler, der tager udgangspunkt i Else Marie wiberg Pedersens "kritik" af Mystik - Den indre vej?

After a brief introduction to the literature on art and iconography among native peoples of the world, Erwin Panofsky’s definition of iconological studies and its implications are accepted with certain reservations. A typology of the religions iconography of native North Americans is then developed in this article based upon the epistemology of the History of Religions. This is accomplished by focussing upon the inherent typology exhibited by indigenous mythology and by emphasizing the relationships between the visual motives and their religious meanings.

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Formålet med denne artikel har været at illustrere, at tidligere forsøg på at fortolke Hopi kosmologi postulerer en enkelhed, som det indfødte bevismateriale ikke tillader. At reducere alt til polar binære filer hverken er nyttigt eller tilrådeligt. Ved at koncentrere sig om kosmografi alene har jeg illustreret de involverede kompleksitet. Jeg har fundet ikke blot dualitet, men også flere variationer af verdens akser, verdens centre og modsatrettede verdener. Desuden ved kortvarigt at studere roller forfædres og katsinas' inden for de ceremonielle og rituelle sammenhænge, har jeg peget på to af de grundlæggende sammenhænge, der synes at integrere de forskellige kosmografiske modeller. Endelig har jeg antydet i mine konklusioner, hvor man kan lede efter de mulige årsager til sådanne divergerende kosmologiske modeller.

This editorial announces the founding of a new scientific journal in Denmark entitled Religionsvidenskabeligt Tidsskrift (“Journal for the Scientific Study of Religion”). The goal of the Journal is to create a forum of research, information and debate within the field of the humanistic, scientific study of religion. “Religionsvidenskabeligt” does not in any way refer to a particular school or a special area of the study of religion. It refers, in fact, to the holistic study of religions based upon rigorous, scientific methods. The subjects under study will be religions, world views and parareligious phenomena. The methods represented by the various contributions will span such diverging approaches as philology, phenomenology, history, psychology, semiotics, sociology and systematic philosophy. Our main concern here is confrontation between the various disciplines based upon themes chosen by the staff for each issue. An equally important concern is that of informing our readers concerning results from the study of religion. The Journal will therefore offer book reviews, review articles, informative notes and debate series. The audience intended for the Journal are teachers, scholars and students of the study of religion as well as scholars from other fields of study, theologians, priests and others interested in religion.

... af RvTs temanummer om fortællingen og det religiøse sprog.