LEADER 03744nam 22004935 450 001 9910736014403321 005 20230731075311.0 010 $a981-9947-01-4 024 7 $a10.1007/978-981-99-4701-0 035 $a(MiAaPQ)EBC30670609 035 $a(Au-PeEL)EBL30670609 035 $a(DE-He213)978-981-99-4701-0 035 $a(CKB)27899949800041 035 $a(EXLCZ)9927899949800041 100 $a20230731d2023 u| 0 101 0 $aeng 135 $aurcnu|||||||| 181 $ctxt$2rdacontent 182 $cc$2rdamedia 183 $acr$2rdacarrier 200 10$aComplexifying Religion /$fby Andrei-Razvan Coltea 205 $a1st ed. 2023. 210 1$aSingapore :$cSpringer Nature Singapore :$cImprint: Springer,$d2023. 215 $a1 online resource (335 pages) 311 08$aPrint version: Coltea, Andrei-Razvan Complexifying Religion Singapore : Springer,c2023 9789819947003 327 $a1 - Religions as Complex Adaptive Systems: Structure and F unction -- 2 ? Why Systems Collapse -- 3 ? The Fragility of Orthodox Church -- 4 ? The Attempted Murder of the Romanian Greek-Catholic Church -- CHAPTER 5 ? Spiritual Wanderers -- CHAPTER 6 ? Totalitarian Regimes as Religious CAS -- 6 ? Totalitarian Regimes as Religious CAS -- 7 ? Shamanism in Mongolia. 330 $aThis book provides an original and challenging perspective of religions as abstract complex adaptive systems, using an interdisciplinary approach to try to understand what religions are and how they function, two fundamental issues which, despite an intense struggle from several fields, have not yet been resolved. What is the source of religious belief? How do religions work and what are they made of? Why is religion so important for us that it has survived centuries of scientific progress and secularization? Why are people religious even outside religion? The book addresses these questions using an interdisciplinary approach that seeks to untangle the Gordian knot of defining religion. In short, they can be considered entropy-reducing technologies. What differentiates them from other meaning-producing systems is their configuration which employs specific building blocks as tools for mitigating entropy, which are also subsystems and combine in various ways to build a unique configuration: rituals, myths, taboos, supernatural agents, authority, identity, superstitions, moral obligations, afterlife beliefs and the sacred. As a reaction to perturbances or pressure, systems can collapse. Inspired by Nicholas Nassim Taleb, it is, in this book, referred to as fragility?the negative reaction of systems to random events, and four parameters can be used to evaluate it in religious systems: monotonicity (the inability to learn from past mistakes), coupling (linking with other systems: such as political or economic), centralization and stress starvation. Several case studies are provided in order to test the theoretical claims made in this book, based on the author's field research in Romania, Japan, North Korea and Mongolia, and offering details that could be of interest to casual readers, students and researchers of religion. 606 $aPhilosophy 606 $aReligion and science 606 $aIntercultural Philosophy and Religious Traditions 606 $aReligion and Sciences 615 0$aPhilosophy. 615 0$aReligion and science. 615 14$aIntercultural Philosophy and Religious Traditions. 615 24$aReligion and Sciences. 676 $a100 700 $aColtea$b Andrei-Razvan$01380189 801 0$bMiAaPQ 801 1$bMiAaPQ 801 2$bMiAaPQ 906 $aBOOK 912 $a9910736014403321 996 $aComplexifying Religion$93421468 997 $aUNINA