Religion is a multi-faceted and complex human phenomenon, combining many different mental and social characteristics. Among these, language plays a crucial though often neglected role. This volume brings together groundbreaking work from linguistics, cognitive science and neuroscience, as well as from religious studies, in order to illuminate the origins and centrality of religion in human life.

PREFACE ACKNOWLEDGMENTS CONTRIBUTORS INTRODUCTION Religion as a Cognitive and Linguistic Phenomenon Paul Chilton and Monika Kopytowska PART I RELIGIOUS LANGUAGE, MIND AND BRAIN CHAPTER 1 Whatever Happened to Theolinguistics? David Crystal CHAPTER 2 Speaking about God in Universal Words, Thinking about God outside English Anna Wierzbicka CHAPTER 3 Religious Metaphors at the Crossroads between Apophatical Theology and Cognitive Linguistics: an Interdisciplinary Study Kurt Feyaerts and Lieven Boeve CHAPTER 4 Linguistics and the Scientific Study of Religion: Prayer as a Cognitive Register William Downes CHAPTER 5 Cognitive Neuroscience and Religious Language: A Working Hypothesis Patrick McNamara and Magda Giordano CHAPTER 6 God, Metaphor and the Language of the Hemispheres Iain McGilchrist PART II INVESTIGATING METAPHOR IN RELIGIOUS TEXTS CHAPTER 7 A Composite Countenance: The Divine Face as Mixed Metaphor in Jewish Mysticism Ellen Haskell CHAPTER 8 The Guru's Tongue: Metaphor, Imagery, and Vernacular Language in Vai??ava Sahajiy? Hindu Traditions Glen Alexander Hayes CHAPTER 9 Snakes, Leaves and Poisoned Arrows: Metaphors of Emotion in Early Buddhism Hubert Kowalewski CHAPTER 10 Buddhist Metaphors in the Diamond Sutra and the Heart Sutra: A Cognitive Perspective Xiuping Gao and Chun Lan CHAPTER 11 The Muslim Prophetic Tradition: Spatial Source Domains for Metaphorical Expressions Ahmad El-Sharif CHAPTER 12 Metaphor in Religious Transformation: 'Circumcision of the Heart' in Paul of Tarsus Ralph Bisschops PART III NEW PERSPECTIVES CHAPTER 13 Cognitive Pragmatics and Multi-layered Communication: Allegory in Christian Religious Discourse Christoph Unger CHAPTER 14 Metaphor and Metonymy in Language and Art: the Dogma of the Holy Trinity and its Artistic Representation Antonio Barcelona CHAPTER 15 Waging a War against Oneself: a Conceptual Blend at the Heart of Christian Ascetic Practice Mihailo Antovi? CHAPTER 16 Hoc est corpus: Deixis and the Integration of Ritual Space Paul Chilton and David Cram CHAPTER 17 The Televisualization of Ritual: Spirituality, Spatiality and Co-presence in Religious Broadcasting Monika Kopytowska

This is a book highly recommended to researchers from various disciplinary backgrounds, theologians and priests but also lay people from different cultural and religious backgrounds. Most chapters can be consid-ered independently. But in any case, do not miss the splendid and informative introduction and overview.

"This is a book highly recommended to researchers from various disciplinary backgrounds, theologians and priests but also lay people from different cultural and religious backgrounds. Most chapters can be consid-ered independently. But in any case, do not miss the splendid and informative introduction and overview." -- Pn. Dr. Sybille C. Fritsch-Oppermann, ESSSAT News & Reviews "Religion, Language, and the Human Mind is a superb snapshot about what is going on in cognitive linguistics, religious studies, neuroscience, and everything in between. Readers will find something to their liking either for the enjoyment of learning, being intellectually challenged, or for the refinement of their own discipline. Highly recommended." -- Reading Religion

Selling point: Offers a new approach for investigating human religion in which language is crucial Selling point: Brings together findings from linguistics, cognitive science, neuroscience, and religious studies Selling point: Presents studies of Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Islamic, and Judaic texts and/or rituals Selling point: Throws light on the interface between the cognitive and the social aspects of religion

Paul Chilton received his doctorate from the University of Oxford. His research and writing have spanned several fields, including linguistics, discourse analysis, politics, international relations, and religious literature. He has worked in several universities, including Warwick, Lancaster, and Stanford, and has also lectured widely in China. His current research is in cognitive linguistics, discourse analysis, and their links with neuroscience. Monika Kopytowska received her Ph.D. from the University of Lodz, Poland, where she is currently affiliated with the Department of Pragmatics. Her research interests revolve around the interface of language and cognition, identity, media discourse and the pragma-rhetorical aspects of the mass-mediated representation of religion, ethnicity, and conflict/terrorism. She is co-editor of and contributor to Languages, Cultures, Media (2016) and Why Discourse matters: Negotiating Identity in the Mediatized World (2014), editor-in-chief of Lodz Papers in Pragmatics, and associate editor of Moral Cognition and Communication.

Selling point: Offers a new approach for investigating human religion in which language is crucial Selling point: Brings together findings from linguistics, cognitive science, neuroscience, and religious studies Selling point: Presents studies of Buddhist, Christian, Hindu, Islamic, and Judaic texts and/or rituals Selling point: Throws light on the interface between the cognitive and the social aspects of religion