ABSTRACT
This chapter provides a historical overview of the cognitive science of religion (CSR). The chapter situates CSR in context and outlines influences at the time, such as the cognitive revolution against behaviorism in the 1950s. This chapter helps readers to contextualize CSR as a reaction against standard assumptions about human behavior in cultural studies at the time of its formation. It also provides readers with a better understanding of the central tenets of the approach, which are outlined briefly in this chapter and developed further in Chapter 2.
