This book describes aspects of the concept of the supernatural from
the intellectual history of Euro-American cultures. These samplings
shed light on issues in the study of religions and religion rather
than attempting to provide either a lineally coherent or exhaustive
account of a somewhat fraught and complicated notion. Observations
include uses of the term among the ancient Greeks and medieval
Christian theologians and 19th- and 20th-century social scientists.
This book highlights more recent academics who draw on the
cognitive and evolutionary sciences in attempting to make sense of
recurrent features of the representations and meta-representations
of different cultures. This includes such counter-intuitive notions
as "the mysterious" among the Wayuu of Columbia and Venezuela and
"vampires" in Europe and North America. These observations are
concluded in a final essay - "Toward a Realistic and Relevant
Science of Religion" - which presents considered opinions on how we
might draw on the cognitive and evolutionary sciences to establish
the foundations for a genuinely scientific study of religions and
religion. Benson Saler sadly passed away shortly after writing this
book. An appreciation of his work, written by Armin W. Geertz, is
included in this volume.
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