ABSTRACT
This is a book about wonder. Specifically, it is a book that seeks a deeper understanding of wonder by means of a new integration of religious studies (RS) and cognitive neuroscience (CN). Pursuing such an integration might seem a quixotic quest given the long history of antagonism between religion and science, a bitter history that continues right into the present day. Particularly in the United States, where many religious communities are hostile to evolutionary theory and many scientists are scornful of spiritual belief, the prospects for greater mutual comprehension appear bleak. Even more unlikely is the possibility that religious and scientific perspectives could ever work together in the study of human life. Yet, that is exactly the goal of this book, and a primary inspiration is the pioneering work of Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung, William James, and other researchers in the psychology of religion. In the early years of the twentieth century they used the most advanced scientific psychology of their day to investigate religion, culture, art, and creativity. The time has come for us in the early years of the twenty-first century to use the most advanced scientific psychology of
our
day to push their investigations in new directions, opening up new vistas of scientific knowledge and spiritual insight.
