ABSTRACT
This chapter explores cognitive metaphor and religion, providing an introduction to the cognitive dimensions of metaphor usage in religious language, beginning with more abstract, embodied elements and proceeding to introduce the notion of domains and the tendency of religious adherents to draw on more concrete domains of knowledge to describe more abstract or spiritual concepts. This is combined with an overview of some of the technical terms used by cognitive linguists, with a particular focus on exploring the hierarchical relationships between schemas, domains, frames, and mental spaces. The chapter then examines situated instances of individual believers achieving certain effects in a text or conversation by using metaphors that combine all of these elements. Conceptual metaphor is then connected to broader cognitive aspects of language use, such as perceptual simulations and idealized cognitive models or ICMs. The chapter then provides a case study analysis of two accounts of religious experiences, one a conversion experience and the other an initial experience of enlightenment, showing how accounts of religious experience often involve networks of ICMs related to key elements such as relationships, states, and systems, in addition to demonstrating how these elements are often conceptualized and consolidated in metaphorical language.
