Emotions and Religious Dynamics

We all feel emotions and are moved to action by them. Religious communities often select and foster certain emotions over others. Without understanding this it is hard to grasp the way groups view the world and each other. Often it is the underlying emotional pattern of a group rather than its doctrines that either divides it from or attracts it to others. These issues so important in today's world are explored in this book in a genuinely interdisciplinary way by anthropologists psychologists theologians and historians of religion and in some detailed studies of well and less well known religious traditions from across the world.