Articles

 
 

in fieri

  • “The Revolution Betrayed: How a Quantitative and Experimental Obsession Killed the Momentum of the Cognitive Turn in the Study of Religion(s).”


2023


  • “Shamanism Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow: Notes on Sidky’s The Origins of Shamanism, Spirit Beliefs, and Religiosity (2017) and Botta’s Dagli sciamani allo sciamanesimo (2018).” Journal of Cognitive Historiography 6(1-2): 194-216. https://doi.org/10.1558/jch.21151

  • “He Who Pays the Piper Calls the Tune: Big Data, Philanthrocapitalism, and the Demise of the Historical Study of Religions.” Method & Theory in the Study of Religion 34(1): 182-209. https://doi.org/10.1163/15700682-12341527

2022


2021

  • “The Trials and Tribulations of Luke Skywalker: How The Walt Disney Co. and Lucasfilm Have Failed to Confront Joseph Campbell’s Troublesome Legacy.” Implicit Religion 23(3): 251-276. https://doi.org/10.1558/imre.43229

  • “An Evolutionary Cognitive Approach to Comparative Fascist Studies: Hypermasculinization, Supernormal Stimuli, and Conspirational Beliefs.” Evolutionary Studies in Imaginative Culture 5(1): 23-39. https://doi.org/10.26613/esic.5.1.208


2020

  • “Memoirs of an Academic Rōnin: Religious Studies and Mentorship in the Age of Post-Truth.” Method & Theory in the Study of Religion 33(1): 1-20. https://doi.org/10.1163/15700682-12341495

  • “The Sisyphean Discipline: A Précis of An Unnatural History of Religions.Religio. Revue Pro Religionistiku 28(1): 3-20. http://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/142823 [PDF]. Expanded version published in D. Wiebe (2021), An Argument in Defence of a Strictly Scientific Study of Religion: The Controversy at Delphi, 75-101. Toronto, ON: Institute for the Advanced Study of Religion. [PDF]

  • “From Gnosticism to Agnotology: A Reply to Robertson and Talmont-Kaminski.” Religio. Revue Pro Religionistiku 28(1): 37-44. http://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/142826 [PDF]


2019

  • Co-authored with T. J. Coleman, III. “History as a Canceled Problem? Hilbert’s List, du Bois-Reymond’s Enigmas, and the Scientific Study of Religion.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 87(2): 366-400. https://doi.org/10.1093/jaarel/lfz001


2018


  • “The Goddess Who Failed? Competitive Networks (or the Lack Thereof), Gender Politics, and the Diffusion of the Roman Cult of Bona Dea.” Religio. Revue Pro Religionistiku 24(2): 111-165. Stable URL: http://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/136399 [PDF]

2017


2016

  • “Wine, Brains, and Snakes: An Ancient Roman Cult Between Gendered Contaminants, Sexuality, and Pollution Beliefs.” Journal for the Cognitive Science of Religion 4(2): 123-164 https://doi.org/10.1558/jcsr.30673

  • “Mind the (Unbridgeable) Gaps: A Cautionary Tale about Pseudoscientific Distortions and Scientific Misconceptions in the Study of Religion.” Method & Theory in the Study of Religion (28)2: 141-225. https://doi.org/10.1163/15700682-12341372

  • “(Pseudo)science, Religious Beliefs, and Historiography: Assessing The Scientification of Religion’s Method and Theory.” Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science 51(4): 1062-1066. https://doi.org/10.1111/zygo.12303

  • “The Fate of a Healing Goddess: Ocular Pathologies, the Antonine Plague, and the Ancient Roman Cult of Bona Dea.” Open Library of Humanities 1(1): 1-34. p.e13. https://doi.org/10.16995/olh.42 [PDF]

  • “The Gendered Deep History of the Bona Dea Cult.” Journal of Cognitive Historiography 3(1-2): 134-156. https://doi.org/10.1558/jch.30172

  • “Achilles’ Historiographical Heel, or the Infelicitous Predominance of Experimental Presentism in Ara Norenzayan’s Big Gods.” Studi e Materiali di Storia delle Religioni 82(2): 1045-1068. [PDF]


  • “Mapping Pluto’s Republic: Cognitive and Epistemological Reflections on Philosophy of Pseudoscience: Reconsidering the Demarcation Problem.” Journal for the Cognitive Science of Religion 3(2): 183-205. https://doi.org/10.1558/jcsr.27091

  • Homo mendax, Fictional Heroes and Self-Deception: A Brief Commentary on The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human.” Studi e Materiali di Storia delle Religioni (81)1: 239-247. [PDF]

2015


  • “Do Not Judge a Book (Solely) by Its Cover: An Overview and Some Reflections about Origins of Religion, Cognition and Culture.” Journal of Cognitive Historiography (1)2: 201-209. https://doi.org/10.1558/jch.v1i2.21567

2014


  • “Tempi profondi. Geomitologia, storia della natura e studio della religione.” Studi e Materiali di Storia delle Religioni (79)1: 152-214. [PDF]

2013


  • “Un modello di rinnovamento nel tardoantico ligure: Albingaunum,V secolo d.C.” Collana di Studi Valbormidesi (13): 9-52.

2009