16. Cognitive Study of (Ancient) Religions
Theorizing Religion in Antiquity - Nickolas P. Roubekas
Leonardo Ambasciano [+ ]
independent researcher
Leonardo Ambasciano completed his Ph.D. on the cognitive and deep-historical re-evaluation of the ancient Roman cult of Bona Dea at the Department of Historical Studies, Università degli Studi di Torino, Italy. In 2016, he was Visiting Lecturer of Religious Studies at Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic. He is the author of Sciamanesimo senza sciamanesimo. Le radici intellettuali del modello sciamanico di Mircea Eliade: evoluzionismo, psicoanalisi, te(le)ologia (Rome: Nuova Cultura, 2014) and of various articles and book reviews. He is the European editor of the Journal of Cognitive Historiography.
Description
The chapter offers a detailed discussion of the history as well as the latest developments in the field of cognitive study of religion (CSR), and applies the theories and methods of that sub-discipline to the study of ancient religions – with Roman religion acting as a case study.