Alternative Spirituality and Religion Review

Volume 3, Issue 2, 2012

Cognitive Narratology and the Study of New Religions

J. Gordon Melton has opined that in the 1960s scholars were trying to explain why new religious movements existed, and ‘what was wrong that people were turning to new religions?’ (Melton 2007). He suggests that in the twenty-first century the mood has changed, and now ‘the emergence of new religions seems to be one sign of a healthy and free society’ (Melton 2007). This article argues that this ‘normalisation’ of new religions should be extended to those religions that are explicitly based on fictional texts and include popular cultural phenomena and ludic elements. Employing the theory of cognitive narratology (Zunshine 2006), it will be demonstrated that a vocabulary of neologisms and a strong narrative thread are characteristic of both sf and new religions and spiritualities. Beings such as gods and ancestors, angels and demons (which belong to the domain of religion) are made real to humans through story (both written text and oral transmission) and thus Theory of Mind (as employed by cognitive narratologists to discuss the ways humans relate to fictional characters) is also a useful interpretative tool to analyse the relationships humans have with supernatural/supraempirical beings such as those found in religions. It is concluded that fiction-based religions (particularly those based on science fiction and fantasy) are actually logical, because Theory of Mind leads readers to invest in the worlds created in the books and to attribute to the characters inner lives and motivations so that they are made more real and meaningful (and thus likely to occupy the place of gods/angels/etc). For a certain number of readers (or viewers of filmic texts), it is logical to elect to derive ethics and other meaningful principles for their lives from such narratives, which may take on the status of religion.