As part of the outreach aspect of its mission, the Institute publishes material for a wide audience both online and in print media.

ScienceOnReligion.org

This is a busy site presenting accessible descriptions of scientific research into religious beliefs, behaviors, and experiences. Why all the traffic? Because many people are fascinated by religion and spirituality, and they rightly sense that science should be able to shed light on religious and spiritual phenomena. Check it out: scienceonreligion.org.

Science and the World's Religions

Between 2010 and 2012, Patrick McNamara and Wesley J. Wildman, working on behalf of the Institute, organized a group of talented academic writers to produce new essays on science and the world's religions. Each essay addresses a question that many ordinary people have about religion or spirituality, working through the relevant sciences and engaging at least two religions. Most essays also pursue a bio-cultural approach, befitting the purpose of the Institute. The three volumes are as follows.

Science on Religion at Patheos

We also maintain an outreach blog at Patheos.com, one of the world's busiest websites dedicated to religion, for the purpose of carrying information about the scientific study of religion to the general public. The blog differs from ScienceOnReligion.org in that the essays we post are more chatty and editorial, often addressing topical issues and calling for a better-informed dialog about religion in the public sphere. Check it out: patheos.com/blogs/scienceonreligion.

From Institute Research Projects

For information about research publications from Institute research projects, visit the specific pages for each project using the Resources menu.

Institute-Related Research Publications

What follows is a list of publications from Institute researchers or Institute research projects. All are related to the Institute's research priorities. Some have convenient links to pdfs of the articles.

[Forthcoming] Wildman, Wesley J. Science and Ultimate Reality. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate.

[Forthcoming] Wildman, Wesley J. “Science and Religion,” in Dawn DeVries and Brian A. Gerrish, eds., The New Westminster Dictionary of Christian Theology (forthcoming).

[Forthcoming] Wildman, Wesley J. “Evolution,” in Dawn DeVries and Brian A. Gerrish, eds., The New Westminster Dictionary of Christian Theology (forthcoming).

[Forthcoming] Sosis, Richard. Why are Synagogue Services so Long? An Evolutionary Examination of Jewish Ritual Signals. In Judaism and Bio-Psychology, edited by Rick Goldberg.

[Forthcoming] McNamara, Patrick; Szent-Imrey, Reka. Understanding miracles in relationship to standard religious experiences. In J. H. Ellens (Ed.), The psychology and science of miracle healings, Volume 1, Religious and spiritual events. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.

[2013] Wildman, Wesley J.; Cooley, Ian. “Neurotheology,” in James Beilby and Chad Meister, eds., The Routledge Companion to Modern Christian Thought. New York: Routledge.

[2013] Wildman, Wesley J. “Corrington’s Ecstatic Naturalism in Light of the Scientific Study of Religion.” American Journal of Theology and Philosophy.

[2013] Matthews, Luke Joseph; Edmonds, Jeffrey; Wildman, Wesley J.; Nunn, Charles L. “Cultural inheritance or cultural diffusion of religious violence? A quantitative case study of the Radical Reformation,” Religion, Brain & Behavior 3.1.

[2012] Wildman, Wesley J.; Darling, John A.; Wood, Connor P. “Religion and Biological Evolution: How Well Do They Fit?” in Patrick McNamara and Wesley J. Wildman, eds., Science and World Religions, Volume 3: Religions and Controversies (Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2012): 125-164.

[2012] Wildman, Wesley J. “Religious and Spiritual Experiences.” In Patrick McNamara and Wesley J. Wildman, eds., Science and World Religions, Volume 2: Persons & Groups (Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger, 2012): 91-119.

[2012] Wildman, Wesley J. “Reframing Transcendence: Conditions for the Compatibility of Ground-of-Being Theism and Religious Naturalism,” in Niels Gregersen and Mikael Stenmark, eds., Naturalism and Beyond: Theology and the Varieties of  Naturalism. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans.

[2012] Wildman, Wesley J. “Human Beings in the Microbial Ocean.” Journal of Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Social Sciences Edition (in Chinese).

[2012] McNamara, Patrick; Wildman, Wesley J. Science and the World’s Religions, Volume 1: Origins & Destinies. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger.

[2012] McNamara, Patrick; Wildman, Wesley J. Science and the World’s Religions, Volume 2: Persons & Groups. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger.

[2012] McNamara, Patrick; Wildman, Wesley J. Science and the World’s Religions, Volume 3: Religions & Controversies. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger.

[2011] Wildman, Wesley J.; Sosis, Richard. “Stability of Groups with Costly Beliefs and Practices.” Journal of Artificial Societies and Social Simulation 14/3.

[2011] Wildman, Wesley J. Religious and Spiritual Experiences. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

[2011] Wildman, Wesley J. “The Artful Humanism of Don Browning.” Zygon 46/3: 698-712.

[2011] Wildman, Wesley J. “Mark Johnston’s Naturalistic Account of God and Reality, Life and Death,” American Journal of Theology and Philosophy 32/2: 180-187.

[2010] Wildman, Wesley J.; McNamara, Patrick. “Evaluating Reliance on Narratives in the Scientific Study of Religious Experiences.” International Journal of Psychology of Religion (20/4): 223-254.

[2010] Wildman, Wesley J. “Distributed Identity: Human Beings as Walking, Thinking Ecologies in a Microbial World,” in Nancey Murphy and Christopher C. Knight, eds., Human Identity at the Intersection of Science, Technology and Religion (Farnham, UK: Ashgate Publishing, 2010): 165-178.

[2009] Wildman, Wesley J. Science and Religious Anthropology: A Spiritually Evocative Naturalist Interpretation of Human Life. Aldershot, UK: Ashgate.

[2009] Wildman, Wesley J. “The Inevitability of Religion and the Wisdom of Cooperation with Science,” in Liu Xiaoting, ed., Values and Culture (in Chinese). Beijing: Beijing Normal University Press: 345-359.

[2009] Wildman, Wesley J. “Cognitive Error and Contemplative Practices: The Cultivation of Discernment in Mind and Heart.” Buddhist-Christian Studies 29: 59-79. Translated into Chinese as “Cognitive Error and Contemplative Practices,” Journal of Nanjing University of Science and Technology, Social Sciences Edition (2012).

[2009] Barrett, Nathaniel F.; Wildman, Wesley J. “Seeing is Believing? How Reinterpreting the Direct Realism of Perception as Dynamic Engagement Alters the Justificatory Force of Religious Experience.” International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 66/2: 71-86.

[2008] Wildman, Wesley J.; McNamara, Patrick. “Challenges Facing the Neurological Study of Religious Belief, Behavior and Experience,” Method and Theory in the Study of Religion 20/3: 212-242.

[2008] Wildman, Wesley J. “The Import of Physical Cosmology for Philosophical Cosmology,” Theology and Science 6/2: 197-212.

[2008] Wildman, Wesley J. “From Law and Chance in Nature to Ultimate Reality,” in Fraser Watts, ed. Creation, Law, and Probability (Aldershot, UK: Ashgate Publishing, 2008): 155-179.

[2008] Sosis, Richard; Bulbulia, Joseph. Religion in Eden, In: The Evolution of Religion: Studies, Theories, and Critiques, eds. J. Bulbulia, R. Sosis, E. Harris, C. Genet, R. Genet, K. Wyman, pp. 15-19, Santa Margarita, CA: Collins Foundation Press.

[2008] Sosis, Richard; Alcorta, Candace. Militants and Martyrs: Evolutionary Perspectives on Religion and Terrorism, In Natural Security: A Darwinian Approach to a Dangerous World, eds. R. Sagarin and T. Taylor, pp. 105-24, Berkeley: University of California Press.

[2008] Sosis, Richard. Pigeons, Foxholes, and the Book of Psalms: Evolved Superstitious Responses to Cope with Stress and Uncertainty. In: The Evolution of Religion: Studies, Theories, and Critiques, eds. J. Bulbulia, R. Sosis, E. Harris, C. Genet, R. Genet, K. Wyman, pp. 103-9, Santa Margarita, CA: Collins Foundation Press.

[2008] Bulbulia, Joseph; Sosis, Richard; Genet, C.; Genet, R.; Harris, Erica; Wyman, K., eds. The Evolution of Religion: Studies, Theories, and Critiques. Santa Margarita, CA: Collins Foundation Press.

[2007] Wildman, Wesley J. “The Use and Meaning of the Word ‘Suffering’ in Relation to Nature,” in Robert J. Russell, Nancey Murphy, and William R. Stoeger, eds., Suffering and Cosmology: Scientific Perspectives on Suffering in Nature (Vatican City State: Vatican Observatory and Berkeley: Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences).

[2007] Wildman, Wesley J. “Radical Embodiment and Theological Anthropology,” in American Journal of Theology and Philosophy 28/3: 346-363.

[2007] Wildman, Wesley J. “Incongruous Goodness, Perilous Beauty, Disconcerting Truth: Ultimate Reality and Suffering In Nature,” in Robert J. Russell, Nancey Murphy, and William R. Stoeger, eds., Suffering and Cosmology: Scientific Perspectives on Suffering in Nature (Vatican City State: Vatican Observatory and Berkeley: Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences).

[2007] Wildman, Wesley J. “From Law and Chance in Nature to Ultimate Reality,” in Fraser Watts, ed. Creation, Law, and Probability (Aldershot, UK: Ashgate Publishing).

[2007] Sosis, Richard; Kress, Howard; Boster, James. Scars for War: Evaluating Alternative Signaling Explanations for Cross-Cultural Variance in Ritual Costs. Evolution and Human Behavior 28:234-247.

[2007] Sosis, Richard. Psalms for Safety: Magico-Religious Responses to Threats of Terror.Current Anthropology 48:903-911.

[2007] Sosis, Richard. Breaking the Wrong Spell: Review of "Breaking the Spell" by Daniel Dennett. Free Inquiry 27:59-60.

[2007] Ruffle, Bradley; Sosis, Richard. Does it Pay to Pray? Costly Ritual and Cooperation. The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis and Policy 7:1-35 (Article 18).

[2007] Harris, Erica; McNamara, Patrick. Is religiousness a biocultural adaptation? In R. Genet, C. Genet, J. Bulbulia, E. Harris, R. Sosis, & K. Wyman (Eds.), The evolution of religion: Studies, theories, and critiques. Collins Family Foundation.

[2007] Alcorta, Candace; Sosis, Richard. Rituals of Humans and Animals. In: Encyclopedia of Human-Animal Relationships, vol. 2, ed. Marc Bekoff, pp. 599-605, Westport, CT: Greenwood Publishers.

[2006] Wildman, Wesley J. “The Significance of the Evolution of Religious Belief and Behavior for Religious Studies and Theology,” commentary and analysis essay for Patrick McNamara, ed., Evolution, Genes, and the Religious Brain, vol. 1 of Where God and Science Meet: How Brain and Evolutionary Studies Alter Our Understanding of Religion, 3 vols. (Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers).

[2006] Sosis, Richard. Religious Behaviors, Badges, and Bans: Signaling Theory and the Evolution of Religion. In: Where God and Science Meet: How Brain and Evolutionary Studies Alter Our Understanding of Religion, Volume 1: Evolution, Genes, and the Religious Brain, ed. Patrick McNamara, pp. 61-86, Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers.

[2006] Ruffle, Bradley; Sosis, Richard. Cooperation and the In-Group-Out-Group Bias: A Field Test on Israeli Kibbutz Members and City Residents. Journal of Economic Behavior and Organization 60:147-163.

[2006] Park, Crystal; McNamara, Patrick. Religion, meaning, and the brain. In P. McNamara (Ed.), Where God and science meet: How brain and evolutionary studies alter our understanding of religion: Volume III: The psychology of religious experience (pp. 67-89). Westport, CT: Praeger Perspectives.

[2006] Paloutzian, R.; Swenson, E.; McNamara, Patrick. Religious conversion, spiritual transformation, and the neurocognition of meaning making. In P. McNamara (Ed.), Where God and science meet: How brain and evolutionary studies alter our understanding of religion: Volume II: The neurology of religious experience (pp. 151-169). Westport, CT: Praeger Perspectives.

[2006] McNamara, Patrick; Durso, Raymon; Brown, A. Religiosity in patients with Parkinson’s disease. Neuropsychiatric Disease & Treatment, 2(3), 341-348.

[2006] McNamara, Patrick; Durso, R.; Brown, A.; Harris, E. The chemistry of religiosity: Evidence from patients with Parkinson’s disease. In P. McNamara (Ed.), Where God and science meet: How brain and evolutionary studies alter our understanding of religion: Volume II: The neurology of religious experience (pp. 1-14). Westport, CT: Praeger Perspectives.

[2006] McNamara, Patrick (ed.). The frontal lobes, and the evolution of cooperation and religion. In Where God and science meet: How brain and evolutionary studies alter our understanding of religion: Volume II: The neurology of religious experience (pp. 189-204). Westport, CT: Praeger Perspectives.

[2006] Emmons, R.; McNamara, Patrick. Sacred emotions and affective neuroscience: Gratitude, costly-signaling, and the brain. In P. McNamara (Ed.), Where God and science meet: How brain and evolutionary studies alter our understanding of religion: Volume I: Evolution, genes, and the religious brain (pp. 11-30). Westport, CT: Praeger Perspectives.

[2006] Alcorta, Candace; Sosis, Richard. Why Ritual Works: A Rejection of the By-Product Hypothesis. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 29:613-614.

[2005] Wildman, Wesley J. “The Resilience of Religion in Secular Social Environments: A Pragmatic Analysis,” in Thomas M. Schmidt and Michael G. Parker, eds., Scientific Explanation and Religious Belief: Science and Religion in Philosophical and Public Discourse (Frankfurt: Mohr-Sieback): 58-80.

[2005] Wildman, Wesley J. “The Inevitability of Religion and the Wisdom of Cooperation with Science” (in Chinese), Scientific Culture Review.

[2005] Wildman, Wesley J. “Global Spiritual Confusion and the Neglected Problem of Excess ‘Spiritual Information’,” in Charles L. Harper, Jr., ed., Spiritual Information: 100 Perspectives (Philadelphia, PA: Templeton Foundation Press): 33-38.

[2005] Sosis, Richard; Alcorta, Candace, eds. Special issue of Human Nature on Evolution of Religion.

[2005] Sosis, Richard. Does Religion Promote Trust? The Role of Signaling, Reputation, and Punishment. Interdisciplinary Journal of Research on Religion 1:1-30 (Article 7).

[2005] Sosis, Richard. Methods do Matter: Variation in Experimental Methodologies and Results. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 28:834-835.

[2005] Alcorta, Candace; Sosis, Richard. Ritual, Emotion, and Sacred Symbols: The Evolution of Religion as an Adaptive Complex. Human Nature 16:323-359.

[2004] Wildman, Wesley J. “The Resilience of Religion in Secular Social Environments: A Pragmatic Philosophical Analysis Regarding Scientific and Religious Problems” (in Chinese), Studies in Dialectics of Nature 12/20: 79-84.

[2004] Sosis, Richard; Ruffle, Bradley. On Ritual and Cooperation Current Anthropology 45:529-531.

[2004] Sosis, Richard; Ruffle, Bradley. Ideology, Religion, and the Evolution of Cooperation: Field Tests on Israeli Kibbutzim. Research in Economic Anthropology 23:89-117.

[2004] Sosis, Richard; Alcorta, Candace. Is Religion Adaptive? Behavioral and Brain Sciences 27:749-750.

[2004] Sosis, Richard. The Adaptive Value of Religious Ritual. American Scientist 92:166-172.

[2004] Sosis, Richard. Preaching Morality and Metaphysics: Review of The Evolution of Morality and Religion by Donald M. Broom. Trends in Ecology and Evolution 19:566-567.

[2004] Sosis, Richard. Insights from Ifaluk: Food Sharing Among Cooperative Fishers. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 27:568-569.

[2003] Van Huyssteen, Wentzel; Gregersen, Niels; Howell, Nancy; Wildman, Wesley J. Encyclopedia of Science and Religion, 2 vols. New York: Macmillan Reference.

[2003] Sosis, Richard; Ruffle, Bradley. Religious Ritual and Cooperation: Testing for a Relationship on Israeli Religious and Secular Kibbutzim. Current Anthropology 44:713-722

[2003] Sosis, Richard; Bressler, Eric. Cooperation and commune longevity: A test of the costly signaling theory of religion. Cross-Cultural Research 37:211-239

[2003] Sosis, Richard; Alcorta, Candace. Signaling, Solidarity, and the Sacred: The Evolution of Religious Behavior. Evolutionary Anthropology 12:264-274

[2003] Sosis, Richard. Why aren't we all Hutterites? Costly signaling theory and religious behavior. Human Nature 14:91-127.

[2003] Sosis, Richard. Darwin's Cathedral: Evolution, Religion, and the Nature of Society by David Sloan Wilson. Evolution and Human Behavior 24:137-143.

[2003] McNamara, Patrick; Andresen, Jensine; Gellard, Judit. Relation of religiosity and scores on verbal and non-verbal fluency tests to subjective reports of health in the elderly. The International Journal for the Psychology of Religion, 13(4), 259-271.

[2002] Wildman, Wesley J. “Consciousness Expanded,” in B. V. Sreekantan and Sangeetha Menon, eds., Consciousness and Genetics: A Discussion (Bangalore, India: National Institute of Advanced Studies: 125-41.

[2002] Sosis, Richard. Comment for Rousseau's whale hunt? Coordination among big-game hunters. Current Anthropology: 43:553-554.

[2002] McNamara, Patrick. The frontal lobes, social intelligence, and religious worship. Ideas for Creative Research in Neurobiology. The John Templeton Foundation (pp. 50-59).

[2002] McNamara, Patrick.  The motivational origins of religious practices. Zygon: A Journal of Science and Religion, 37(1), 143-160.

[2001] McNamara, Patrick. Religion and the frontal lobes. In J. Andresen (Ed.), Religion in mind (pp. 237-256). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

[2000] Wildman, Wesley J. “The State of Science-and-Religion Research at the Turn of the Century,” The Journal of Faith and Science Exchange 4: 1-14.

[2000] Sosis, Richard. The emergence and stability of cooperative fishing on Ifaluk Atoll. In: Human Behavior and Adaptation: an Anthropological Perspective, eds. L. Cronk, N. Chagnon, and B. Irons, pp. 437-472, New York: Aldine de Gruyter.

[2000] Sosis, Richard. Review of Ever Since Adam and Eve: the Evolution of Human Sexuality by Malcolm Potts and Roger Short, Evolution and Human Behavior 21:291-294.

[2000] Sosis, Richard. Religion and intra-group cooperation: preliminary results of a comparative analysis of utopian communities. Cross-Cultural Research 34:70-87.

[2000] Sosis, Richard. Costly signaling and torch fishing on Ifaluk Atoll. Evolution and Human Behavior 21:223-244.

[1999] Wildman, Wesley J.; Brothers, Leslie A. “A Neuropsychological Semiotic Model of Religious Experiences,” in Robert John Russell, et al., eds., Neurosciences and the Person: Scientific Perspectives on Divine Action (Vatican City State: Vatican Observatory and Berkeley: Center for Theology and the Natural Sciences): 348-416.

[1999] Wildman, Wesley J. “The Use and Abuse of Biotechnology: A Modified Natural-Law Approach,” American Journal of Theology and Philosophy 20/2: 165-79.

[1998] Wildman, Wesley J. “A Theological Challenge: Coordinating Biological, Social, and Religious Visions of Humanity,” Zygon 33/4: 571-97.

[1998] Sosis, Richard; Feldstein, Sharon; Hill; Kim. Bargaining theory and cooperative fishing participation on Ifaluk Atoll. Human Nature 9:163-203.

[1997] Sosis, Richard; Hill, Kim. Comment for Delayed reciprocity and tolerated theft: the behavioral ecology of food-sharing strategies. Current Anthropology 38:73-74.

[1997] Sosis, Richard; Hill, Kim. Comment for Consumption and production: sharing and the social construction of use-value. Current Anthropology 38:42-43.

[1996] Wildman, Wesley J.; Richardson, W. Mark (eds.) Religion and Science: History, Method, Dialogue. New York: Routledge. Translated into Russian as РЕЛИГИЯ И НАУКА: История, Метод, Диалог (2001).

[1996] Wildman, Wesley J. “But Consciousness Isn’t Everything,” CrossCurrents 46/2: 215-20.

[1992] McNamara, Patrick. A transpersonal approach to memory. Journal of Transpersonal Psychology, 24(1), 61-78.

Metrics for Religion, Brain & Behavior :

• Impact Factor: 3.6 (2023); Five-Year Impact Factor: 3.8 (2019-2023)

• Scimago Journal & Country Rank (SJR): 0.764 (2023; #7 out of 635 Religious Studies journals, 99th percentile)

• CiteSchore: 3.0 (2023; #10 out of 644 Religious Studies journals, 98th percentile)

Detailed journal information.

The aim of Religion, Brain & Behavior (RBB) is to provide a vehicle for the advancement of biological research approaches to  religion at every level, from brain to behavior. RBB unites multiple disciplinary perspectives that share these interests. The journal seeks empirical and theoretical studies that reflect rigorous scientific standards and a sophisticated appreciation of the academic study of religion. RBB welcomes contributions from a wide array of biological and related disciplines, including:

• Cognitive science

• Evolutionary psychology

• Social psychology

• Evolutionary anthropology

• Neurology

• Genetics

• Demography

• Neuroeconomics

• Physiology

• Developmental psychology

• Psychology of religion

• Moral psychology

• Archaeology

• Mimetics

• Behavioral ecology

• Epidemiology

• Public health

• Cultural evolution

• Religious studies

In summary, RBB considers high quality papers in any aspect of the brain-behavior nexus related to religion. RBB publishes high quality research articles, target articles with about ten solicited commentaries and an author response, case studies, and occasional review articles. Issues are published three times each year. For more information about the journal, as well as indexes of authors and articles, please review the relevant links in the Resources menu.

IBCSR Research Review (IRR) is a monthly publication that briefly annotates and furnishes online information about scientific research articles related to brain, behavior, culture, and religion published in leading journals. It also lists relevant books. Articles in press are listed without annotation. Annotations for articles aim to supply a preliminary understanding of the methods and results of a research study, or the argument of a paper. Annotations typically furnish more detail for articles in the scientific study of religion related to religion, brain, and behavior than for articles in the area of spirituality and health, in accordance with IBCSR research priorities.

Articles for each issue are located by searching a variety of databases, such as Applied Science and Technology, ASFA Biological Sciences, ATLA Religion Database, General Science, Medline (PubMed), Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection, PSYCinfo, ScienceDirect, and Web of Science. The search terms are similar to the following: ((religio* OR meditat* OR pray*) AND (psycholog* OR neurol* OR neuros* OR scien* OR cogniti* OR evolutio*)). Books are located on Amazon.com, Google Books, and Worldcat. Articles not directly relevant to the scientific study of religion or spirituality, medicine & health research are excluded, as is correspondence.

IRR is freely distributed via email to those who register here at IBCSR.org – see the "IBCSR Research Review" box at the upper right-hand corner of this page. The publisher is Wesley J. Wildman and the editor is Joel Daniels, a doctoral student in Religion and Science at Boston University. A searchable online database of everything ever published in the scientific study of religion is also avilable to Institute members. That database is updated monthly as each new issue of IBCSR Research Review appears.

Further information about IBCSR Research Review, as well as past issues, is available here.

The Instutute for the Bio-Cultural Study of Religion produces five type of publications.

• Religion, Brain & Behavior: a scientific research journal published by Taylor & Francis.
• IBCSR Research Review: a compendium of new research in the scientific study of religion, distributed freely to those who register for it, and compiled online for Institute members to review and search.
• Blbiographies: The Institute creates a variety of bibliographic resources of special interest to scholarly and scientific researchers, such as the enormous and famous Spirituality, Medicine & Health Bibliography.
• Research publications: these take the form of books and articles from the Institute's various research projects.
• Outreach publications: these are for the general educated public, including accessible presentations of scientific research at ScienceOnReligion.org.

More information about each of these types of publication is available on the main menu.