ABSTRACT
This concluding chapter expands on James’ approach to truth to offer a vision for the roles of researchers in academic work. I argue that theory cannot be avoided by researchers because being “simply” pragmatic can be disingenuous, which is why the foregoing was an attempt and careful discussion of theory in the cognitive science of religion. Discussions about theory are crucially important because they challenge simplistic or reductionist answers, and this is a skill that academic researchers need as the cloistered intellectual is becoming untenable. Being open to theory while practicing the skill of understanding the life worlds of our participants does not mean uncritical acceptance of whatever research participants say. I cast the vision for an academic researcher to be an ambivalent figure – a figure in exile yet not wholly disconnected. A researcher in the cognitive science of religion can be one who moves across barriers and so is a specialist in making connections by being both in and outside of the communities studied.
