Collective Intentionality and the Study of Religion: Social Ontology and Empirical Research (Expanding Philosophy of Religion)

Collective Intentionality and the Study of Religion: Social Ontology and Empirical Research (Expanding Philosophy of Religion)

In this open access book, Andrea Rota makes the case for philosophical, theoretical, and empirical approaches to the study of religion, drawing on ongoing debates and challenging individualist perspectives. Rota begins with a survey of the work of Michael Bratman, John Searle, Raimo Tuomela, and Margaret Gilbert exploring the relevance of their insights for the study of religion. He sets out a theoretical framework to operationalize their philosophical ideas in an empirical research setting. Applying this framework in Part Two, Rota analyses the collective agency of Jehovah’s Witnesses, focusing on the roles that print and electronic media play in structuring communicative processes that conduce to collective intentions and commitments. He presents extensive fieldwork carried out in Switzerland and Germany, examining both qualitative and quantitative data. By demonstrating the fruitfulness of philosophical perspectives on collective intentionality and social ontology, Rota's study makes a timely contribution to our understanding of the beliefs, emotions, and aesthetic experiences of religious groups. The eBook editions of this book are available open access under a CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 licence on bloomsburycollections.com. Open access was funded by the Swiss National Science Foundation. “In this carefully researched book, Andrea Rota familiarizes scholars of religion with the group-making dynamics of collective intentionality. After reading this work, we can no longer afford to neglect the theoretical and analytical purchase of this framework.” ― Michael Stausberg, Professor of Religion, University of Bergen, Norway “Since Durkheim's focus on the collective effervescence of group rituals, the question of how churches and other religious groups differ from the sum of their individual members has been raised, but seldom answered. Andrea Rota has rendered an important service by demonstrating the necessity and possibility of applying insights derived from the philosophical analysis of collective intentionality to the study of religious groups.” ― Robert A. Yelle, Chair and Professor for the Theory and Method of Religious Studies, Ludwig Maximilian University, Germany “Rota's work is a significant scholarly intervention that compels readers to reconsider the nature of religious practice through the lens of collective intentionality ... The book serves as a crucial resource for scholars seeking to deepen their understanding of how collective practices and beliefs shape religious institutions and experiences across varying cultural contexts.” ― Reading Religion Andrea Rota is Associate Professor of the Study of Religion at the Department of Culture Studies and Oriental Languages (IKOS), University of Oslo, Norway. J. Aaron Simmons is Professor of Philosophy at Furman University, USA. Kevin Schilbrack is Professor and Chair of the Department of Philosophy and Religion at Appalachian State University, USA.