EFTA02444849

Page 1101
social brain to achieve an understanding
Inferring Minds Where None
of God and what God wants. This kind
Can Be Seen
of anthropomorphism can be taken to
The social brain seeks different metaphoric extremes in
connections with others. But what is the personifying God as father or friend.
foundation that we use to build such But an overly concrete personification
connections? We experience empathy as may have costs perhaps diminishing the
a form of emotional resonance and universality and pervasiveness of God in
understanding of other people. This other religions. Thus religions may
connection allows us to comfort and differ in theological perspective on the
support and celebrate with others. Being value of the anthropomorphic impulse
in tune with emotional states of others inherent in the social brain.
allows us to respond in ways that
strengthen a group. But how do we
understand the thoughts and goals of
others? How do we predict choices and
decisions to facilitate cooperation in
groups? Anthropomorphism is the basis
for predicting behavior and thoughts and
goals. Nick Epley discusses how
anthropomorphism is rooted in an
egocentric view of others. Moreover our
view of others is not confined to the
others that are people. It is perhaps
reflective of the deep and fundamental
nature of anthropomorphism in the
social brain that its anthropomorphic
inferences about agents can be derived
from observed behavior, allowing us to
understand "minds" where none may
exist, as in mechanical toys or alarm
clocks. Of course we tend to understand
those minds by thinking they are just
like us.
Even when there is no agent to
be seen, events in the world may be
understood by attributing them to unseen
agents. During World War II, the
bombing of London was demonstrably
random, but citizens of London could
not help but discern intentional patterns
in the attacks. As Epley points out,
hurricanes and floods are even today
attributed to the hand of God, perhaps an
angry God. Clark Gilpin discusses how
religions may use this aspect of the
EFTA_R1_01522186
EFTA02444949

Page 1102
thirties, mounted the narrow steps into
the pulpit on July 8, 1741, the sermon he
h = God aaellebst-
was about to preach would become one
Ur rnangag 41riitz- of the most famously electrifying
ifithailatim—dtphigingisrenlvaz,
orations in American history, "Sinners in
raar rnEdwrz 2
n9filitinianmsdern,11—
the Hands of an Angry God." Edwards
ProizdefliEt t77--- rel
preached this sermon during the massive
ima plithania
-1 it transatlantic religious revival that gave
31
rise to Methodism in England and came
Chapter I In to be known in the American colonies as
"the Great Awakening." This was not
Anthropomorphism: Human
the familiar pulpit of his congregation in
Connection to a Universal Society
Northampton, Massachusetts, but rather
When Jonathan Edwards, an the church at Enfield, a town that had
angular New England minister in his late gained notoriety for stubbornly resisting
the exhortations of previous preachers of
spiritual awakening. From his scriptural
" The lead author, Clark Gilpin, Ph.D., is the text—"their foot shall slide in due time"
Margaret E. Burton Professor of the History of
(Deut. 32: 35)—Edwards drew the
Christianity at the University of Chicago
doctrine that "there is nothing that keeps
Divinity School. Clark studies the cultural
wicked men, at any one moment, out of
history of theology in England and America
from the seventeenth century to the present. hell, but the mere pleasure of God."
From 1990 to 2000, he served as dean of the Sinners living here and now, Edwards
Divinity School, and from 2000 to 2004 he declared, were "the objects of that very
directed the Martin Marty Center. the Divinity
same anger and wrath of God, that is
School's institute for advanced research in all
expressed in the torments of hell," and
fields of the academic study of religion. His
current research projects include a book with the that wrath was an annihilating fire that
working title Alone with the Alone: Solitude in already "bums against them; their
American Religious and Literary History, which
damnation does not slumber; the pit is
explores ways in which the spiritual discipline of
prepared; the fire is made ready...to
solitary writing—autobiographic narratives,
receive them." In a notorious image,
journals, and letters—shaped the careers of
major New England intellectuals of the Edwards portrayed God dangling the
eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. sinner's soul over the fires of hell like a
Anthropomorphic representations of
spider on a single, slender filament of its
God make many modem people very nervous,
web. The sermon achieved stunning
including many religious people. Attributing
results, as recorded in the diary of one of
human-like ideas and emotions to the
comprehending powers of the universe not only those present, Stephen Williams:
seems out of step with modem science but also a "before the sermon was done, there was
presumptuous confinement of the world within
a great moaning and crying out
merely human needs and capacities. Yet, the
throughout the whole house—what shall
impulse to speak anthropomorphically about our
I do to be saved; oh, I am going to hell;
**ultimate environment" has vigorously persisted
into the modem age. Rather than dismissing oh, what shall I do for a Christ." The
anthropomorphism as an outmoded way of "shrieks and cries were piercing and
thinking, this essay adopts a historical approach amazing," Williams reported, and the
to rethink why anthropomorphism exhibits this
scene was so tumultuous that Edwards
perennial capacity to focus the human ethical
had to stop before finishing his sermon.'
imagination on our relations with and obligations
to the universe within which we live.
EFTA_R1_01522187
EFTA02444950

Page 1103
As the classic American example interpretations of influence on the course
of fire-and-brimstone Protestant of nature by divine ideas and purposes.
preaching, "Sinners in the Hands of an Since the late nineteenth century, many
Angry God" depends, for its effect, on instances of the so-called "warfare"
anthropomorphism: ascribing human between science and theology have
form and attributes—hands, emotions, turned on the issue of whether any
and purposive agency—to nonhuman scientific plausibility could be attached
phenomena. Anthropomorphism has to concepts of a divine mind, purpose, or
been a hotly debated feature of religion intention that guided or ordered the
since classical antiquity. But, in the structure of the universe.' According to
modem world, religious the philosopher Charles Taylor, the
anthropomorphism has become transition from perceptions of a divinely
especially controversial, while, at the ordered, purposive universe to an
same time, also becoming a crucial "impersonal order" of nature marked a
concept in modem theories about the pivotal change that, especially since the
very nature of religion." Modem eighteenth century, has shaped "a secular
objections to anthropomorphism have age" among the societies of the modem
taken two major forms. First, traditions West.' In short, anthropomorphism has
within Judaism, Christianity, and Islam not only become a source of tension
have long opposed the worship of within religions but also something of an
"idols," and regarded anthropomorphism impasse between religious and scientific
as a dangerous assault against genuine interpretations of the universe.
piety and properly theological Nonetheless, anthropomorphic
understanding of existence. In the assumptions remain vigorously present
modem period these religious objections in many of the modem forms of
against anthropomorphism have theology, spiritual practice, and religious
eventuated not only in sophisticated art, a persistence that suggests the
intellectual polemics against strength of the psychological and social
anthropomorphic concepts of God but functions performed by
also in popular movements of anthropomorphic representation.
iconoclasm, which protested against
In light of these longstanding
anthropomorphic representations of the
controversies about religious
divine and sometimes physically
anthropomorphism, the graphically
destroyed anthropomorphic images.
anthropomorphic, spider-dangling deity
Second, the rise and development of
of Edwards's sermon would seem to
modem science has emphasized the
offer a good test case for understanding
regularity of the processes that structure
how anthropomorphic religious language
the natural world. And even when these
works in the modern era. Such an
orderly processes were described as
understanding begins with one of the
natural "laws"—a term with obvious
central themes of this book, namely, the
anthropomorphic connotations—they
powerful human motivation to establish
have generally been understood in ways
and maintain social connections.
that are thoroughly impersonal and
Anthropomorphism extends this drive
lacking any intrinsic purpose or design.
for social connection beyond the
Hence, modem science has generated
boundaries of human societies by
numerous questions about religious
attributing human characteristics to
EFTA_R1_01522188
EFTA02444951

Page 1104
nonhuman phenomena. In this way, of mind in other agents, including the
anthropomorphic language incorporates presence of goal-directed agency,
human society in a web of ethical emotions such as anger, guilt, or pride, a
obligations that connect to the natural capacity for self-awareness, and free
environment and, by imaginative will. As Nick Epley demonstrated in the
extension, to the universe as a whole. preceding chapter, the perception of
Although the drive toward social these distinctively human traits—"seeing
connection is a general human trait, invisible minds"—is a psychological
however, persons neither seek nor find mechanism with tremendous influence
satisfaction in a generalized sense of on the way humans order and understand
connection. Instead, satisfying social their social environment.
connections are sought and experienced
Mind perception is such a
in terms of the social norms and values
powerful tool of inductive inference,
of particular historical and cultural
however, that it regularly crosses the line
settings. Likewise, anthropomorphism,
it has itself drawn between the human
as an inferred social connection to the
and the nonhuman. Scholars from a
nonhuman, takes shape and becomes
wide array of disciplines have long
persuasive in terms of historically and
observed humans' anthropomorphic
culturally specific assumptions about
tendency to see nonhuman things or
society and social relations. This
events as humanlike, imbuing the real or
chapter will, therefore, step back from
imagined behavior of nonhuman
"Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God,"
phenomena with human motivations,
in order to describe how contemporary
agency, and emotions. By perceiving
scholarship in social neuroscience and in
the world in terms of human capacities
the history of religions provides a fresh
and social relationships,
point of view on the workings of
anthropomorphism builds a complex
anthropomorphic perception and then
system of analogies that uses knowledge
test that interpretive model by
of what it is like to be a person, in order
reappraising Edwards's famous sermon
to interpret the behavior of animals, the
in its historical context.
function of technological devices, the
The Boundary of the Human operation of complex social systems
such as "the market," or natural
The line between the human and
occurrences such as violent weather
the nonhuman is, perhaps, the most
patterns or catastrophic events: Hence,
consequential presupposition that any
anthropomorphism, as a process of
society, group, or individual adopts
inference that not only draws but also
about life in the world. The way various
crosses the line between the human and
cultures draw this line, between "us" and
the nonhuman, has very substantial
"the other," has shaped civilizations and
consequences for the human sense of
their goals as well as the norms of
connection to nonhuman animals, to
personal conduct and identity. Although
larger ecological systems, and to the
concepts of the human have a long and
structure of the universe taken as a
contentious philosophical history, people
whole.
in their everyday lives show remarkable
consensus in the features they use to Contemporary psychological
define "human." Central to this process research has created an intellectual space
of perceiving the human is a perception that opens the phenomenon of
EFTA_R1_01522189
EFTA02444952

Page 1 105
anthropomorphism to fresh possibilities nonhuman phenomenon, the person
for interpretation that are especially nonetheless continues to perceive it as
important for understanding its role in nonhuman. When, for instance, a pet
the human spiritual traditions in owner observes a dog's reliability and
modernity, as well as the controversies infers that this behavior arises from the
surrounding that role. This research dog's faithfulness, the owner does not go
proposes that a single set of on to say that the dog is human. Indeed,
psychological mechanisms is likely to an indispensable aspect of an
explain when people perceive a mind at anthropomorphic way of seeing Fido's
work in an encountered phenomenon, faithfulness is that the person also
regardless of whether the thing in continues to see Fido as a dog. This dual
question is a god, a machine, an animal, perception is even more pronounced in a
another person, or an uncanny sequence parallel illustration: a person observes
of events. From this perspective, the the everyday reliability of gravity and
psychological process of infers that this arises from faithfulness at
anthropomorphic inference works in the heart of the natural order. Both
concert with two other motivational illustrations indicate a close connection
mechanisms: the need to interact of anthropomorphism to metaphor, in
effectively with nonhuman phenomena which persons understand one kind of
in our environment and the desire to thing in terms of another by identifying a
establish social connections with other feature that bridges their difference
humans." The phrase anthropomorphic without eliminating it. The specific
inference fails to capture, however, the feature, in this case faithfulness, posits a
interactive dynamism that infuses a point of comparison that enables a
person's perception that a mind is at familiar human capacity for loyalty to
work in another agent. Put more enable interpretation of another,
strongly, our sense that mind is present unfamiliar or alien phenomenon. The
in the other is, in no small measure, the illustrations further suggest that Fido's
sense that we are communicating. The faithfulness is what could be called weak
absence of this communicative anthropomorphism, because one could
dimension of mind perception is plausibly argue that dogs and humans
precisely the tragedy in the family of an actually do share a capacity for
Alzheimer's patient—the loss of faithfulness. We perceive that, as
reciprocal recognition. As Tanya mammals, they exhibit many behavioral
Luhrmann vividly illustrates in the next similarities. By contrast, the perception
chapter, religious anthropomorphism of faithfulness as an attribute of the
builds on the notion that this natural order is strong
communicative reciprocity extends anthropomorphism, because it makes a
beyond the boundary of human society far more daring inference in its effort to
into the wider environment and includes draw an analogy that produces insight or
social connection and communication knowledge about the communicative
with the divine. reciprocity of the human and the
nonhuman. Religions, as Edwards's
Anthropomorphism adds an
sermon illustrates, build primarily on
obvious but important twist to these
strong anthropomorphism in order to
psychological mechanisms: whenever a
propound communicative social
person ascribes human attributes to a
EFTA_R1_01522190
EFTA02444953

Page 1106
connection with the nonhuman world. difference and the other accentuating
The metaphorical and analogical identity, have varied according to social
reasoning so characteristic of religious circumstance, rhetorical purpose, and
interpretations of the world is not merely political ramifications. "Sinners in the
a rhetorical flourish but is, instead, Hands of an Angry God" illustrates, in
closely tied to general psychological one historical context, how
processes in which self-knowledge and anthropomorphic language crosses the
knowledge of other humans function as boundary of the human in order to
the most readily accessible starting interpret human ethical responsibility to
points for inferences we make about both the human and the nonhuman
human connections to the most environment.
comprehensive and consequential forces
The Rhetoric of Divine Wrath
at work in the nonhuman world.'"
Clearly, Edwards's
Anthropomorphism's dual
anthropomorphic rhetoric destabilized in
perception of nonhuman phenomena—as
a terrifying way the Enfield
simultaneously both like and unlike
congregation's complacent perceptions
human persons—has shaped modern
of the world. It did so by starting from
religious and spiritual perceptions in two
an assumption that Edwards and the
especially intriguing directions. In one
congregation shared: that humanity's
case, it has fastened on the difference
ultimate environment should be
between the human and the divine and
construed, anthropomorphically, as a
cultivated iconoclastic perceptions of the
cosmic society held together by a
spiritual in which anthropomorphic
covenant that God had made with the
representation is regarded as a
whole of creation. The sermon induced
dangerously misleading, albeit
terror among the congregants by
necessary, accommodation to the
graphically portraying their own
limitations of human reason?."" In the
responsibility for disrupting the
other case, it has emphasized the point of
harmonious order of this all-
metaphorical identity between the human
encompassing society and provoking
and the nonhuman. Thus, an ancient
divine wrath for their rebellion against
idea held that the physical universe was
the covenant.
a macrocosm mirroring the human
microcosm, and this included what The primary evidence for this
literary critics have named "the pathetic divine wrath came not, however, from
fallacy," that is, a sympathetic response the external orders of nature and divine
in nature to the affective states of providence, which Edwards imagined
humans. The early modem political working together to maintain the
philosopher Hugo Grotius (1583-1645), harmonious order of the world. Instead,
for example, described how human wrath had arisen from a clash between
disobedience to divine law prompted an the benign will of the world and the
anthropomorphic emotional response rebellious human will: "there is laid in
from nature: "with sad motion the very nature of carnal men a
wheeling, let the sky lament and foundation for the torments of hell:
mourn."" In the modem history of there are those corrupt principles, in
religions, these two modes of reigning power in them, and in full
anthropomorphism, one accentuating possession of them, that are seeds of hell
EFTA_R1_01522191
EFTA02444954

Page 1 107
fire." For the present God restrained contrary to their nature and end." A
human wickedness "by his mighty rebellious humanity antagonized the rest
power, as he does the raging waves of of creation, "and the world would spew
the troubled sea," but, if God should you out, were it not for the sovereign
withdraw that restraining power, hand of him who hath subjected it in
humanity's willful self-regard would hope."
overturn nature. The most dangerous
The just order of the cosmos
fire in creation was not, therefore, the
would rightly destroy humanity for its
fire of hell but rather the hellfire bursting
willful rebellion against the order of the
forth from an unrestrained human will:
whole, and the fact that this had not
"The corruption of the heart of man is a
already happened was the expression of
thing that is immoderate and boundless
something like the self-restraining mercy
in its fury; and while wicked men live
of a monarch who does not order the
here, it is like fire pent up by God's
execution of a traitor who has offended
restraints," but, should God ever relax
the royal honor: "The bow of God's
his governance, humanity's boundless
wrath is bent, and the arrow made ready
fury "would set on fire the course of
on the string, and Justice bends the
nature."
arrow at your heart, and strains the bow,
The turmoil stirred by human and it is nothing but the mere pleasure of
willfulness, like a violent storm at sea, God, and that of an angry God, without
threatened to capsize the ark of the any promise or obligation at all, that
universe, and the earth responded to this keeps the arrow one moment from being
threat in a terrifying version of the made drunk with your blood."
pathetic fallacy, in which not empathy
The Great Awakening was
but enmity arose between humans and
coterminous and interactive with the
their natural environment.
eighteenth century development of the
Consequently, except for "the sovereign
modern physical sciences, especially
pleasure of God, the earth would not
building on the work of Isaac Newton
bear you one moment," and Edwards
(1642-1727). Edwards's assumptions
warned the Enfield congregation that
about the harmonious order of creation
"the creation groans with you" and
combined the science of his day with the
resented its subservience to human
aristocratic social order of eighteenth-
usurpation: "the sun don't willingly
century society. In warning the town of
shine upon you to give you light to serve
Enfield that it had transgressed the
sin and Satan; the earth don't willingly
cosmic order, Williams was also
yield her increase to satisfy your lusts;
asserting that it had violated the societal
nor is it willingly a stage for your
aspect of that order; as minister, he
wickedness to be acted upon; the air
called the town to task for both
don't willingly serve you for breath to
violations.
maintain the flame of life in your vitals,
while you spend your life in the service Conclusion
of God's enemies. God's creatures are
good, and were made for men to serve Edwards imagined the
God with, and do not willingly subserve Newtonian universe as an aristocratic
to any other purpose, and groan when social hierarchy held in harmony by
they are abused to purposes so directly sovereign law, at once moral and natural.
EFTA_R1_01522192
EFTA02444955

Page 1108
In this hierarchy one member—the References
human—had stepped beyond its
In the interests of clarity, I have
assigned place in the cosmic society and
slightly rearranged and modernized this
now lived in an unwitting complacency,
quotation. It and all quotations from
ignoring the precarious finitude of a life Edwards's sermon are taken from Jonathan
being pursued by a radical judgment: Edwards, Sermons and Discourses, 1739-
"'tis nothing but [God's] hand that holds 1742, ed. Harry S. Stout and Nathan O.
you from falling into the fire every Hatch, with Kyle P. Farley, The Works of
moment: 'tis to be ascribed to nothing Jonathan Edwards 22 (New Haven: Yale
else, that you did not go to hell the last University Press, 2003). 404-18.
night; that you was suffered to awake
Social scientific analysis of the relation
again in this world, after you closed your
between anthropomorphism and religion is
eyes to sleep: And there is no other
summarized by Steward Elliot Guthrie, who
reason to be given, why you have not argues "religion is anthropomorphism" in
dropped into hell since you arose in the his book Faces in the Clouds: A New
morning, but that God's hand has held Theory ofR eligion (New York: Oxford
you up." University Press, 1993), 178. The most
lucid and succinct historical treatment
Like his contemporaries, the remains Frank E. Manuel, The Eighteenth
deists and religiously inclined scientists Century Confronts the Gods (Cambridge:
such as Newton himself. Jonathan Harvard University Press. 1959).
Edwards assumed the "Newtonian world
I have in mind such authors as John
machine," operating with the
William Draper, History oft he Conflict
metronomic regularity of natural law.
between Religion and Science (1874), and
Presupposing both the science and the
Andrew Dickson White, A History oft he
aristocratic social hierarchy of his day, Warfare ofS cience with Theology in
Edward introduced anthropomorphic Christendom (1896). For a more recent
language to create a clash between this example, see Richard Dawkins, The God
harmonious order and the willful self- Delusion (Boston: Houghton Mifflin,
interest of humans who dared to ignore 2008).
their proper rung on the ladder of
Charles Taylor, A Secular Age
existence. As a preacher of penitence,
(Cambridge: Harvard University Press,
he carried his anthropomorphic imagery
2007), 270-95.
to extravagant heights in order to induce
I For a sampling of relevant recent
a reversal of behavior in a recalcitrant
work, see Philip Husbands, Owen Holland,
town. The sermon effectively threatened
and Michael Wheeler, eds., The Mechanical
the people of Enfield with what
Mind in History (Cambridge: MIT Press,
amounted to "metaphysical ostracism,"
2008); and Lorraine Daston and Gregg
an expulsion no less thoroughgoing than
Mitman, eds., Thinking with Animals: New
the primordial ejection of Adam and Eve Perspectives on Anthropomorphism (New
from the garden. The palpable effect of York: Columbia University Press, 2005).
this imagery depended on the evocation Ralph Waldo Emerson made the classic
of the natural and social orders rising up American argument for the positive
like, and yet unlike, an angry monarch to reciprocity between the human and the
natural. This idea of mutuality takes a
crush rebels against the cosmic
different turn in our contemporary situation,
commonwealth.
in which industrial and technological
EFTA_R1_01522193
EFTA02444956

Page 1109
advances have begun to alter the climate and
thereby blurred the boundary between the
human and the natural in another way. See
for examples of this phenomenon, Bill
McKibben, The End ofN ature (New York:
Random House, 1989).
Nicholas Epley, Adam Waytz, and
John Cacioppo, "On Seeing Human: A
Three-Factor Theory of
Anthropomorphism," Psychological Review
114(2007): 864-86.
Sheldon Sacks, ed., On Metaphor
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
1978); David Tracy, The Analogical
Imagination: Christian Theology and the
Culture ofP luralism (New York:
Crossroad, 1981).
Alain Besancon, The Forbidden
Image: An Intellectual History of
Iconoclasm, trans. Jane Marie Todd
(Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
2000); Joseph Leo Komer, The Reformation
oft he Image (Chicago: University of
Chicago Press, 2004).
Merritt Y. Hughes, "Earth Felt the
Wound," English Literary History 36
(1969): 193-214.
EFTA_R1_01522194
EFTA02444957

Page 1110
motivation to depict God as one's
Personifications of God
personal guide and friend, well within
Jonathan Edwards wrote during a one's sensory reach. By conjuring up an
time in which monarchs reigned anthropomorphic God with loving
supreme. Writing from this perspective, emotions, intentions, and actions, the
he argued that the universe is a cosmic Vineyard Church creates a desire for a
society organized under the leadership of personal relationship with God. But
a King of kings, a society against which developing a relationship with an
humans have rebelled and, as a invisible God defies rationality. People
consequence, humans are at risk of must learn how to transform an abstract
annihilation except for the mercy of the concept of an invisible God into a
King. Judgment day will come, concrete sensory presence in their lives.
according to Edwards, and those who Just as the social brain can perceive
have failed to meet their moral nonhuman objects as human, the social
responsibility to the directive of the brain is also capable of selectively
universe face eternal isolation. Clark attending to sensory experiences and
Gilpin notes that by conjuring up a interpreting these sensations as God's
personified God — a God with emotions, presence.
intentions, and the capacity to act —
Edwards instilled great fear and
trembling in his listeners that
presumably motivated them to change
their behaviors in the desired direction.
It is hard to imagine that Edwards would
have had comparable success had he
resorted to simple instructions or
exhortations to engage in certain
behaviors and avoid others. The innate
tendency of people to understand divine
entities in terms of what people do
understand, namely their own thoughts,
feelings, and beliefs, provided the
leverage on which Edwards relied to
drive his message home.
Tanya Luhrmann also discusses a
personalized construction of God — a
God with whom one can consult and
who intervenes in one's daily life.
People are intrinsically motivated to
form social connections, and very little
in life is more rewarding to people than
their social relationships. Luhrmann,
who adopts the perspective of a
participant observer, finds that a new
evangelical Protestant movement, the
Vineyard Church, appeals to this
EFTA_R1_01522195
EFTA02444958

rage lin
invisible and immaterial, as God is
within the Christian tradition? This is not
Biz- -
lc...re--v.--
the question of whether God is real, but
, rem,
H_rtiri;a:Lji
rather how people learn to make the
, churchOHM 1"27 -41171.11- judgment that God is present. Such a
="1" =
experience -Flgil God is not accessible to the senses.
--ii Just —
When you talk to that God, you can
F.
neither see his face nor hear his voice.
Chapter 1212 You cannot touch him. How can you be
confident that he is there?
How Does God Become Real
Anthropology cannot answer the
How does God become real to
question of whether God is real. But the
people when God is understood to be
traditional method of the discipline,
participant observation, can use the
't The lead author is Tanya Luhrmann, Ph.D., a slow, careful method of fieldwork to
professor in the Stanford Anthropology explore the way that people learn to
Department. Her interests include the social
experience God as present in their lives.
shaping of psychological experience, and the
And what the method can teach us is that
way that social practice may affect even the most
concrete ways in which people experience their this often intensely private and personal
world, particularly in the domain of what some relationship between a creature and its
would call the "irrational". tier first project was creator is built through a profoundly
a detailed study of the way apparently reasonable
social process.
people come to believe apparently unreasonable
beliefs ("Persuasions of the Witch's Craft", In fact, one of anthropology's
Harvard, 1989). Her second project explored the
most useful contributions to
apparently irrational self-criticism of a
understanding the experience of God is
postcolonial India elite, the result of colonial
to draw attention to just how much work
identification with the colonizers ("The Good
Parsi", Harvard 1996). Her third book identified faith takes, and to the fact that different
two cultures within the American profession of kinds of faith—and different
psychiatry and examined the way these different
understandings of God—demand
cultures encouraged two different forms of
different kinds of work. Many who do
empathy and two different understandings of
not believe in God approach the question
mental illness ("Of Two Minds". Knopf, 2000).
She trained at the University of Cambridge (PhD of religious belief as the problem of why
1986), and taught for many years at the people should believe in the existence of
University of California San Diego. Prior to
an invisible, intentional agent in their
moving to Stanford she was the Max Palevsky
world. One of the more persuasive
Professor and a director of the Clinical
recent answers emerges from the
Ethnography project in the Department of
Comparative Human Development at the observation that many of our cognitive
University of Chicago. traits evolved to help us survive.
Religion is often understood as a matter
Evolutionary anthropologists and
of belief: a yes/no proposition. This essay
psychologists argue that belief in
suggests that it may be more helpful, and more
invisible beings is an accidental
accurate, to understand religious commitment as
a response to sensory experience that can be byproduct of the way our minds have
learned, and that the capacity to learn depends evolved over the millennia. Our quick,
upon one's knowledge and belief, one's
effortless, automatic intuitions lead us to
proclivity for experiencing the world in
"anthropomorphize," or to see faces in
particular ways, and the impact of devotional
the clouds, as one scholar puts it. From
practice.
EFTA_R1_01522196
EFTA02444959

Page 1112
this perspective, people believe in God expectation that our minds are private,
because it is so easy to believe in an expectation so substantial that
invisible supernatural presence, and the researchers have shown that it develops
great religions are elaborations around around the world at a more or less
this basic core. similar age and can be found even in
non-human primates. A person must
Belief in the Invisible
override the expectation that persons are
Yet it is also true that in many visible. And finally, a person must
ways it is hard for people to believe in override the expectation that love is
the invisible, intentional being of God, at conditional, as it is for all social beings
least in some ways and at some times. It beyond a certain age, when right
is one thing to believe in the abstract that behavior is expected as a condition of
there is a good and loving God; it is human interaction. At least, some
another thing to believe that this God versions of Christianity expect
loves you in particular this very unconditional love.
afternoon when your car has broken
The deep puzzle of faith is not
down in the rain. Many Christians
why but how. How is it possible that
struggle at some point with whether God
people are able to violate such
exists or with whether they understand
fundamental expectations of presence?
God's nature. A young man may come
The answer, in part, is that they do not.
to university as a devout Christian, take
For most Christians, it will be a lifelong
a course on religion, and begin to
process to believe in all times and in all
wonder whether Christ as well as
ways that their God is real for them in
Krishna are cultural constructions. A
the way that their church tells them that
depressed woman may understand
God is real. As the psalmist laments:
herself as devout, but find that when she
"how long wilt thou forget me, Oh Lord?
sits down to pray she feels that no one is
For ever? How long wilt thou hide thy
listening to her prayers. And always
face from me?" (Psalm 13: 1). What they
there are times when terrible things
do to make God plausible for them
happen to good and faithful people who
depends upon their understanding of
often continued to believe in God in the
God and on what the social world of a
abstract, but who find that they can not
faith teaches about how to experience
longer pray at all. The struggle between
their minds and bodies to find evidence
espoused religion (the religion one
for God's presence.
asserts; the Nicene creed) and lived
religion (the way in which one Learning to Sense the Presence of God
experiences God from moment to
In 2004 I set out to study
moment) is central to the life of the
ethnographically the way God becomes
Christian, and perhaps to the lives of
real for people in a church that would
most believers.
exacerbate the cognitive burden of
The problem for believers is that belief. I chose an example of the new
to experience the Christian God as Protestant church that grew up after the
present, one must override three basic 1960s. 2 Those churches set out as an
features of human psychology, features invitation to experience God as
that are also part of our evolutionary concretely and as vividly as God had
inheritance. A person must override the been experienced by the earliest
EFTA_R1_01522197
EFTA02444960

Page 1 113
Christian disciples. This God is both own experience of relationship. And
intensely human and intensely God loves: and congregants use their
supernatural. In these churches, God is own experience of being loved by a
understood as so person-like that he human as an example of the way they
becomes someone to joke and argue are loved by God. But unlike learning
with, someone one chats to when about time, congregants also map back.
walking down the street, about the little They build up a model of God by
trivial things that matter only to the interpreting out of their own familiar
congregant. Coming to know God in experience into a representation shaped
such a church is described as to hear by the social world of the church and the
God "speak." Dallas Willard, a beloved narrative of the sacred text, and then
evangelical's intellectual, puts it baldly: they seek to re-map their own interior
that God's face-to-face conversations emotional experience by matching it to
with Moses are the "normal human life this representation. This demands
God intended for us." I conducted constant effort, continual work on the
ethnographic fieldwork at a church that way one pays attention and interprets
exemplifies this approach to God, a one's experience. As an ethnographer, I
Vineyard Christian Fellowship in could see three kinds of work.
Chicago and then on the San Francisco
First, God must be recognized as
peninsula (there were eight such
present. What congregants learn to do is
churches in Chicago and four on the
to cherry-pick mental events out of the
peninsula). For three years I went to
everyday flow of their awareness, and to
Sunday morning gatherings. I joined
identify that moment as other than
three small groups, or housegroups, each
themselves, as being of God. God was
for a year; I went to conferences and
said to spcak in several different ways.
retreats; and I interviewed many
He spoke through the Bible, so that a
congregants casually and also more
verse "jumped out" at a congregant, or in
formally about the way they experienced
some way drew their attention. For
God.
example:
Overall, what I observed was that
"I was reading in [some book] and I
the process of coming to know God in
don't even know why I was reading it.
such a church could best be described as
There's a part where God talks about
a mapping process in which the
raising up elders in the church to pray
congregants learn to use the familiar
for the church. And I remember, it just
experience of their own minds and
stuck in my head and I knew that the
bodies to give content to the abstract
verse was really important and that it
experience of God. This is the way that
was applicable to me. I didn't know
humans learn most commonplace
why. It was one of those, let me put it in
abstract words, in effect cognitively
my pocket and figure it out later." How
mapping from what we know to what we
did she know that it was important?
can only imagine. God speaks: so
"Because I just felt it. I just felt like it
congregants learn to infer from their own
really spoke to me. I don't really know
experience of inner speech the way in
why. And a couple of days later a friend
which God talks to them. God relates: so
asked me to be on the prayer team and it
congregants learn to imagine a
was like, wow, that's what it was."
relationship with God based on their
EFTA_R1_01522198
EFTA02444961

rage 1114
resonate with you? They're like "oh, my
gosh, yes! How did you know that?'
God spoke also through circumstances.
What a skeptic might interpret as
coincidence is understood as God's
Most congregants find this process of
intentional decision to direct the
pulling out specific thoughts and
congregant's attention. For example:
ascribing them to God baffling at first:
"Everything in my life right now is again, the process violates the basic
focused on trying to get to England, and human experience that the mind is
I needed to get some ID pictures. So I private. A congregant commented: "now
was really anxious—the money hasn't I know that the 'something' is God,
really come together—and one afternoon God's voice. But I didn't at all have
I just felt like God said, you need to get words to describe it at that time I didn't
up and go get those. Go get those ID understand. It was very confusing."
pictures that you need. I was like, that's
The social world of the church
totally inefficient. I don't have a car, so
taught specific ways to differentiate
it's like walking half an hour to
between mental events that are God and
Walgreens and another half an hour
that are not. This technique has been
back. Like, I could do this later and
taught in the church since the earliest
combine it with several things I need to
time as "discernment," although the
get done. But I felt it was a step of faith
content of the word and its rules has
to do this thing. So I did it—grumbling.
varied with the era. In the modern
Then on the way there and back I ran
experiential evangelical church, the rules
into three people I knew, and I felt that
of discernment are more often taught by
there was a kind of pattern, and that I
example and gossip than explicitly.
was in the right place at the right time."
Nevertheless, there appeared to be four
principles. A thought might be said to
come from God if: the thought was
These ways of recognizing God are
unexpected; the thought was consonant
widely shared in many forms of
with God's nature; the congregant had
Christianity. More specific to
additional confirmation (one "tested" the
experiential evangelical Christianity is
thought); and one felt peace during the
the expectation that God will speak
experience. The process was understood
directly into the mind, by placing a
to be ambiguous, and left room not only
mental image or thought or sensation
for the congregant to be wrong, but for
there. For example:
different congregants to disagree about
"I'm praying for someone and, you whether God had, in fact, spoken in a
know, they say their situation, what they particular manner. One afternoon, a
want me to pray for. I start praying and woman spoke in front of the church
start trying to, you know, really explaining that God had spoken to her
experience God, and, you know, I see and told her that she should carry out
these vivid images, and I'm explaining some mission work in a lovely part of
these vivid images and what I think they Mexico. The man sitting next to me said
mean and, you know, sort of checking in drily, "God sure wants a lot of
with the person, you know, does this evangelizing in Puerto Vallarta."
EFTA_R1_01522199
EFTA02444962

Page X115
Second, God must be real. If God is real, a Christian (at least,
experienced in relationship. Such the modern evangelical Christian) should
churches invite congregants to experience the emotions that one would
experience God in their imaginations as feel if one were loved unconditionally.
a person. Again, this violates a basic Most do not. It is, in fact, difficult for
psychological expectation: persons have humans to experience themselves as
faces to observe and hands to shake. unconditionally loved because no matter
Human relational interactions are based how warm and loving a parent may be,
on sensorial response. Churches like the at some point the child is expected to
Vineyard explicitly suggest that one control his or her behavior and parental
should imagine a sensorial response love will becomes contingent. The task
from God and encouraged congregants of feeling unconditionally loved imposes
to participate in a kind of let's pretend upon the congregant not only the burden
play in which God was present. The of identifying and relating to an invisible
pastor suggested one Sunday morning being, but experiencing emotions in
that congregants should put out a second response to that being's love which the
cup of coffee for God, and sit down with congregant rarely, if ever, truly
him to chat. People went on "date night" experiences. Congregants talk about the
with God. They would get a sandwich, experience of unconditional love as rare:
and sit down on park bench to talk with they speak of "those moments" when
God as they imagined his arm around one really feels God's love.
their shoulders. They would ask God
I was driving home from grocery
truly trivial questions like what shirt they
shopping in the car and I stopped at a
should wear in the morning and what
light and suddenly for no reason that I
movie he thought they would like. These
could come up with, I was weeping and I
behaviors were clearly play-like. One
felt a massive and awesome sense of the
congregant remarked: "I definitely do
presence of God in the car with me. It
that. When I can't decide what to wear.
just came and I had absolutely no control
Like, God, what should I wear?" Then
over it. I pulled over to the side of the
she laughed. "And you know, then I kind
road—I remember thinking that I was so
of forget about the fact that I asked God.
in love with Jesus at that moment that no
I think God cares about really, really
one else on the planet could come close.
little things in my life. I mean I know
After about twenty minutes of real
God cares, but I don't expect him to tell
intensity the feeling subsided somewhat,
me what to wear. I'm like, Oh, I think
but the presence of Jesus stayed with me.
I'll wear that and forget I even asked
I drove home not really ever able to fully
God!" This invitation to play was C.S.
express what happened without sounding
Lewis' explicit contribution to twentieth
like I'd taken something illegal.
century Christianity: "let us pretend to
turn the pretense into a reality." In
churches which encourage such play,
The more immediate aim seemed to be
heresy fades in importance. The pastors
to experience what Galatians 5:22-23
and the committed congregants worry
calls the "fruits of the spirit": love, joy,
about "deadness," not flawed imagining.
peace, patience and so forth. The social
Third, congregants must learn to life of the church was rich in emotional
respond emotionally to God as if God is practices which sought to reshape the
EFTA_R1_01522200
EFTA02444963

Page 1116
congregants' interior emotional world by Jake: "I remember desperately wanting
modeling the self on God, or on the self to draw closer to God, and [to have] one
as seen from God's loving perspective. of these inspired Holy Spirit moments ...
One of the most important was prayer I wanted those [experiences] and I
ministry, where the person for whom the sought them out, but I never found
prayer is given is often crying and in myself encountering them"
visible pain; those around the person are
offering prayers which describe the ways
in which the sobbing person is loved by Irene: "I don't understand the gift of
God. Another was treating prayer like a prophecy completely. I'll probably
psychotherapy session. One congregant never will and I don't have it and I don't
explained: "It's just like talking to a want it because it would scare me."
therapist, especially in the beginning
when you're revealing things that are
Here is another congregant who has been
deep in your heart and deep in your soul,
able to do so:
the things that have been pushed down
and denied." In these churches which
emphasize God's love and intimacy, hell
Nora: "It was pretty early on in my
and fear largely disappear.
relationship with him. I was just all full
The central demand of these of myself one morning. !just had
learning practices is to use one's own wonderful devotions and worships and
mental experience as evidence and just felt so close. I went out, and it was
content for the responsive presence of the most god-awful day. It was icy rain
this God, who is believed to be other and gray and cold and it was sleeting.
than oneself, and to use pretend play to I'm just MI of the joy of the Lord, and I
integrate those mental events into a say, "God. I praise you that it isn't
representation that is persuasively snowing, and that nothing's
external to the self. The emotional accumulating, and that the streets aren't
practices provide both direct evidence of icy"—and then I went around the corner,
God's love and, more generally, and I hit a patch of ice, and just about
evidence that participation in church is went down. It was so funny to me. I just
satisfying and worthwhile. In effect the burst out laughing out loud. It was just
process asks the congregants to carve so funny that he would put me in my
God out of their own experience and to place in such a slapstick personal kind of
experience those phenomena as other; way. But then he just graced me the rest
and it uses the emotional practices taught of the morning. The bus showed up right
by the church and the social world of the away, which it never does. I was
congregation to help them hold that God reading, and I missed my stop to get off,
separate and apart and lovingly and I heard God say, "Get off the bus." I
responsive. looked up and hollered, and the bus
actually stopped, half a block on, to let
This is hard work to do, and not
me get off. I just felt that intimacy all
everyone was able to do it, or to do it
morning. Like when you go from
easily. Here two congregants describe
holding a new boyfriend's hand to
their difficulty in experiencing God
kissing him goodnight ...."
directly despite their efforts.
EFTA_R1_01522201
EFTA02444964

Page 1117
are clear that some kind of practice
effects can be seen. 3
Some people experience God speaking
directly to them in an easy relationship. Conclusion
Others do not.
Prayer is basically training in
As a result of my involvement absorption, at least the kind of prayer in
with the Templeton group, I decided to which the person praying focuses
carry out some quantitative and inwardly and disattends to the everyday
experimental work to see whether we world in order to engage with God. It
could figure out the differences between would be hard to over-estimate the
those who found it easy to do this work, importance placed on prayer and prayer
and those for whom it was difficult. That experience in a church like this and
work suggests that there is a indeed, in Christian America today.
psychological capacity that makes the Many of the best-selling Christian books
process of knowing this kind of God are books on prayer technique, and they
easier, though its absence does not sell in the millions. Such books often
prevent religious experience, and its begin by presenting the concrete sensory
presence does not predict it. It is the experience of God described in the
capacity for absorption, which is at the Hebrew Bible as the everyday
heart of imagination. Absorption is the relationship for which the ordinary
capacity to focus one's attention on a believer should strive. In these manuals,
non-instrumental (and often internal) the act of praying is understood as a skill
object while disattending to everyday that has to be deliberately learned.
exterior surrounds. Absorption is related discovered that these evangelical
to hypnosis and dissociation, but not congregants assumed that prayer was a
identical to either. All of us go into light skill which had to be taught, that it was
absorption states when we settle into a hard, that not everyone was good at it,
book and let the story carry us away. and that those who were naturally good
There are no known physiological and well trained would experience
markers of an absorption state, but as the changes associated with a more richly
absorption grows deeper, the person developed inner world. Their mental
becomes more difficult to distract, and images would seem sharper; they would
his sense of time and agency begins to be more likely to report unusual sensory
shift. He lives within his imagination experiences. They would be more able,
more, whether that be simple in short, to experience God. The more
mindfulness or elaborate fantasy, and he quantitative work—done in
feels that the experience happens to him, collaboration with Howard Nusbaum
that he is a bystander to his own and Ron Thisted--suggests that those
awareness, more himself than ever who have a proclivity for absorption and
before, or perhaps absent, but in any who trained that proclivity through
case different. And as the absorption prayer are indeed more able to
grows deeper, people often experience accomplish the demanding learning that
more imagery and more sensory this concept of God sets out.° They arc
phenomena, sometimes with more able to identify God's presence in
hallucinatory vividness. Scholars do not their mind. They are more likely to
discuss training in absorption, although experience God as an invisible
researchers of hypnosis and dissociation
EFTA_R1_01522202
EFTA02444965

Page 1118
companion. They may be more capable Foundation 2006 (Pew, 2006, Spirit and
of responding to God emotionally. Power: Ten nation survey. Pew Forum
on Religion and Public Life) found that
All theologies have trade-offs.
23% of all Americans belong to a
This one offers an intensely personal and
loosely similar style of "renewalist
person-like God. He can comfort, like a
Christianity."
friend, and respond directly, like a
friend. He can be like a real social 3 Good summaries of work on hypnosis
relationship for those who make the and dissociation, with some reference to
effort to experience him in this way. But absorption, can be found in Spiegel, H.
because that social relationship lacks so and D. Spiegel. 2004[1978], Trance and
many features of actual human treatment. New York: Basic Books;
sociality—no visible body, no Seligman, R. and L. Kirmayer. 2008,
responsive face, no spoken voice—such "Dissociative experience and cultural
a theology demands a great deal of effort neuroscience." Culture, Medicine and
from those who follow it. They must Psychiatry 32(1): 31-64; and Butler, L.
constantly work with their attention, 2006, "Normative dissociation."
reinterpreting the ordinary and natural Psychiatric Clinics ofN orth America.
into the presence of the extra-ordinary 29: 45-62.
and super-natural. Faiths which manage
4The empirical work is presented in
God differently—less personal, more
Luhrmann, T., H. Nusbaum and R.
present in the everyday natural world—
Thisted. 2010. "The absorption
make fewer demands on their followers'
hypothesis." American Anthropologist.
attentional habits. But it may be,
March; cf. Tellegen, A. and G. Atkinson.
perhaps, that such a God may be easier
1974, "Openness to absorption and self
to take for granted. Paradoxically, it may
altering experiences ("absorption"), a
be that this high-maintenance, effortful
trait related to hypnotic susceptibility."
God appeals to so many modern people
Journal ofA bnormal Psychology 83:
(as many as a quarter of all Americans,
268-277
according to a recent Pew study)
precisely because the work demanded
makes the God feel more real in a world
in which disbelief is such a real social
option.
References
I Scholars who contribute to this
perspective include Scott Atran, Justin
Barrett, Pascal Boyer, Stewart Guthrie,
and Harvey Whitehouse.
2 These churches have been described by
Miller, D. 1997. Reinventing American
Protestantism. Berkeley: University of
California; see also Wuthnow, R. 1998.
After heaven: spirituality in America
since the 1950s. Berkeley: University of
California Press. A survey by the Pew
EFTA_R1_01 522203
EFTA02444966

Page 1119
connection is apparent in the very fabric
Belief and Connection
of daily existence. Thus, whereas
We tend to think of beliefs as Luhrmann discusses God as a palpable
wisps of the mind that have no power in friend that one can learn to attend to and
the material world. However, as Gary experience as an active presence in one's
Bemtson and Louise Hawkley have life, Tanner discusses God as the
discussed, beliefs can affect our health initiator of life and the very fabric of
even to the extent of determining life existence, a presence so ubiquitous that
and death. As Tanya Luhrmann there is no specific point on which one
discusses, in some forms of Christianity, can focus to attend to or experience God.
there is a real belief in the presence of
God. This is not simply a belief of God
in the world, but a belief of a God who is
by one's side. The idea of God as a
friend and companion clearly motivates
the desire to make such a presence
manifest in tangible ways. For some, it is
the sense of God with which they
commune, for others it is what they
believe to be a sensory experience of
God that they seek. Luhrmann outlines
how this belief, coupled with a
supportive social structure, can lead to
powerful personal experiences, such as
hearing the voice of God, reflecting the
operation of our social brains.
Our sense of social connection is
not dependent on a single set of religious
beliefs, however. In human social
connections, we can form individual
relationships with a spouse or friends
but, as John Cacioppo outlined, there are
other kinds of connections that our social
brain seeks, as well. We seek
connections with emergent structures
such as groups, clubs, teams,
congregations, and beyond. Kathryn
Tanner argues that the belief that God
created the world and bears causal
responsibility for it serves to connect
believers to life in a broader way than is
provided through individual
relationships. This broader connection to
life does not depend on the manifestation
of a presence to whom we can talk
because the evidence of social
EFTA_R1_01522204
EFTA02444967

Page 1120
to scientific hypothesis generation.'
Scientists can better test for the social
and health consequences of religious
human, commitment when they know more
-life"
about the character and range of beliefs
presencennecreatonSva—
Influences !IC-
ri,Chistiarit beirci`.t. ld about God that such commitment brings.
.. --trelationship wor t
This chapter hopes to show, in
'
particular, that exactly what Christians
believe about the nature of God's
Chapter 13's
influence on their lives is likely to have
Theological Perspectives on God as an an important bearing on one of the
Invisible Force questions of this volume: How can
religion encourage a sense of connection
An individual's beliefs about
to others, especially in situations of
God are one factor to be included in a
perceived social isolation, and thereby
multi-dimensional investigation of the
assuage the adverse health consequences
social consequences and possible health
of loneliness?
benefits of religion, an aid in particular
Depending on what they think
God is like, Christians vary in the way
13 The lead author is Kathryn Tanner, Ph.D., the they expect God to be a present
Dorothy Grant Maclear Professor of Theology at influence on their daily lives. God's
the University of Chicago Divinity School. Her
nature is supernatural or transcendent,
research relates the history of Christian thought
which means God is not very much like
to areas of contemporary theological concern
using critical, social, and feminist theory, with a any of the ordinary persons or things
special focus on the possible practical with which they come into regular
implications of Christian beliefs and symbols. contact. Christians use the same terms
She has lectured widely throughout the United
for God that they use for talking about
States and Europe, and is the author of six books:
ordinary persons and things but they
God and Creation in Christian Theology:
Tyranny or Empowerment? (1988, Blackwell); therefore know that neither set of terms
The Politics ofG od (1992, Fortress); Theories of is really adequate to capture who or what
Culture: A New Agenda for Theology (1997, God is. On the one hand, God is
Fortress); Jesus, Humanity and the Trinity (2001,
something like a human being in that
Continuum and Fortress Press); Economy of
God loves them and wants to do them
Grace (2005, Fortress); and Christ the Key
(2010, Cambridge). good, and in that God is unhappy with
Christian beliefs are not just theoretical their failings and trying, through the use
matters, involving putative truth claims about the of carrots and sticks, to get them to
nature of ultimate reality, but practical ones:
change. But, on the other hand, God is
Christian beliefs are often promulgated with the
really not very much like an ordinary
hope of impacting the way human beings live, by
establishing, for example, the meaningfulness of human being in that God is present at all
and motivations for certain forms of social times and everywhere, working
behavior. Prior research has concerned the inexorably to bring about what God
possible economic, social and political
intends throughout the entirety of
consequences of Christian beliefs about God's
peoples' lives by way of influences of
relation to the world. This essay extends such
questioning to the topic of perceived social both personal and impersonal sorts--for
isolation. How might belief in God as an example, through personal words of
invisible force in everyday life affect an advice and warning found in the Bible as
individual's sense of social connection?
EFTA_R1_01 522205
EFTA02444968