Putting God on the Map

Theology and Conceptual Mapping

de Christopher M. Hadley, Kathryn Lilla Cox, Julia Feder, Erin Kidd, Adam M. Willows, Jakob Karl Rinderknecht

Since the middle of the last century, the emergence and development of fields as diverse as artificial intelligence, evolutionary science, cognitive linguistics, and neuroscience have led to a greater understanding of the ways in which humans think. One of the many discoveries involves what researchers refer to as conceptual mapping. According to theories of conceptual mapping, human thought is profoundly shaped by the ability to make connections. This insight has revolutionized the way in which scientists and philosophers think about the mid/body problem, the foramtion and function of language, and even the development of scientific progress itself. Until recently, however, this research has gone largely unnoticed within Christian theology. But this revolution in understanding human cognition calls for broader and richer engagement with theology and religious studies: How does this new insight into human meaning-making bear on our understanding of religious meaning-making? And how might Christian theology interpret and respond to this new understanding of the development of human thought?