Bilde av Czachesz, Istvan
Bilde av Czachesz, Istvan
Arkeologiija, historjjá, oskkoldatdiehtaga ja teologiija instituhtta istvan.czachesz@uit.no +4777646760 You can find me here

Istvan Czachesz


Professor

Virgečilgehus

In my teaching and research, I combine the historical study of religion with insights from the natural sciences, including cognitive neuroscience, evolutionary theory, and computer modeling. I lecture and supervise theses in the cognitive science of religion, early Christianity, and the religious history of the ancient Mediterranean world, which often brings to my courses students from various programs. One of my passions is to introduce scientific approaches into historical research. The big question I would like to answer is whether religion has increased human wellbeing in history.


  • Istvan Czachesz :
    The New Testament as a Model: Reading the Bible with Richard Dawkins
    Gütersloher Verlagshaus 2023 ARKIV
  • Istvan Czachesz :
    Network Science in Biblical Studies: Introduction
    Annali di Storia dell'Esegesi 2022 ARKIV
  • Istvan Czachesz :
    The Bible as a Network of Memes: Analyzing a Database of Cross-References
    Annali di Storia dell'Esegesi 2022 FULLTEKST
  • Istvan Czachesz :
    Tours of Heaven in Light of the Neuroscientific Study of Religious Experience
    Equinox Publishing 2022 DOI
  • Istvan Czachesz :
    Religious Experience in Mediterranean Antiquity
    Equinox Publishing 2022 DOI
  • Istvan Czachesz :
    Magical Minds: Why We Need to Study Magic and Why It is Relevant to Biblical Studies
    Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 2021 DOI
  • Istvan Czachesz :
    Approaches to Ancient Religions
    Oxford Research Encyclopedias 2021 DOI
  • Istvan Czachesz :
    Toward a Unified Theory of Magic and Divination
    Humanitas (Berlin) 2021
  • Istvan Czachesz :
    The Bible As a Product of Cultural Evolution
    Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 2020
  • Istvan Czachesz :
    The Acts of Peter and the Twelve Apostles
    Brill Encyclopedia of Early Christianity Online 2020 DOI
  • Istvan Czachesz :
    The Bible As a Product of Cultural Evolution
    Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht 2020 DOI
  • Istvan Czachesz :
    Introduction: Cognition, Evolution, and Biblical Exegesis
    Bloomsbury Academic 2019 DOI
  • Istvan Czachesz :
    Visions with Authority: Reconsidering the Origins and Transmission of Apocalyptic Visions, with Special Attention to Jewish and Christian Pseudepigrapha
    Mohr Siebeck 2019
  • Istvan Czachesz :
    Christian Beginnings and Cultural Evolution
    Bloomsbury Academic 2019 DOI
  • Istvan Czachesz, Gerd Theissen :
    Cognitive Science in Biblical Interpretation
    Bloomsbury Academic 2019 DOI
  • Ismael Apud, Istvan Czachesz :
    The neuropsychology of religious experience. A review of different scientific approaches to the phenomenon / Neuropsicologia de la experiencia religiosa. Una revision de distintas aproximaciones cientificas al fenomeno
    Estudios de Psicología 2019 ARKIV / DOI
  • Ismael Apud Pelaez, Istvan Czachesz :
    Creencias, Rituales y Memoria. Una introducción a la Ciencia Cognitiva de la Religión
    Psicología, Conocimiento y Sociedad 2019 FULLTEKST / ARKIV
  • Istvan Czachesz :
    Visionary Practices in the Fourth Book of Ezra
    Peeters Publishers 2018
  • Istvan Czachesz :
    Evolutionary theory on the move: New perspectives on evolution in the cognitive science of religion
    Filosofia Unisinos 2018 ARKIV / DOI
  • Istvan Czachesz :
    Armaments and ornaments: mate-guarding and the evolutionary roots of religion
    Religion, Brain and Behavior 2018 ARKIV / DOI
  • Istvan Czachesz :
    Magic
    Oxford University Press 2018 DOI
  • Istvan Czachesz :
    Ritual and Transmission
    Oxford University Press 2018 DOI
  • Istvan Czachesz :
    Die Wundergerzählungen in den Philippusakten: Hinführung
    Gütersloher Verlagshaus 2017
  • Istvan Czachesz :
    Hinführung zu den Wundererzählungen in den Andreasakten
    Gütersloher Verlagshaus 2017
  • Istvan Czachesz :
    Die unbeholfenen Zauberlehrlinge in Ephesus (Die Söhne des Skevas): Apg. 19.11-17
    Gütersloher Verlagshaus 2017
  • Istvan Czachesz :
    "Unser Sohn ist Magier geworden!" (Wunderbare Brandlöschung in Philippi): ActAndr(Greg) 12
    Gütersloher Verlagshaus 2017
  • Istvan Czachesz :
    Morality, Networks, and Cultural Evolution: A Short Commentary
    Brill Academic Publishers 2017 DOI
  • Istvan Czachesz :
    "Selbstwachsende Saat" vorgeführt (Gesätes Korn wächst und reift in wenigen Stunden): ActPetrAndr 3-5
    Gütersloher Verlagshaus 2017
  • Istvan Czachesz, Gerd Theissen :
    Kognitive Ansätze in der Exegese. Ihr Beitrag zur methodischen Erforschung der Bibel
    LIT Verlag 2017
  • Istvan Czachesz :
    Cultural Evolution and Biblical Studies
    2017
  • Istvan Czachesz :
    Kontraintuitive Ideen im urcristlichen Denken. Welche Überzeugungen haben sich im frühen Christentum durchgesetzt?
    LIT Verlag 2017
  • Istvan Czachesz :
    God in the Fractals. Recursiveness as a Key to Religious Behavior
    LIT Verlag 2017 DOI
  • Istvan Czachesz :
    Theologische Innovation und Sozialstruktur im Urchristentums. Eine kognitive Analyse seiner Ausbreitungsdynamik
    LIT Verlag 2017 DOI
  • Istvan Czachesz :
    Cognition, Culture, and Religion: Surveying the Field
    Macmillan Publishers Ltd. 2016
  • Ronit Nikolsky, Istvan Czachesz, Frederick S. Tappenden, Tamas Biro :
    Language, Cognition, and Biblical Exegesis: Interpreting Minds
    Bloomsbury Academic 2019
  • Ruben Zimmermann, Istvan Czachesz, Bernd Kollmann, Susanne Luther, Annette Merz, Tobias Nicklas :
    Die Wunder der Apostel. Kompendium der frühchristlichen Wundererzählungen, Band 2
    Gütersloher Verlagshaus 2017
  • Istvan Czachesz :
    Cognitive Science and the New Testament: A New Approach to early Christian Research
    Oxford University Press 2017
  • Gerd Theissen, Chan Common, Istvan Czachesz :
    Kontraintuitivität und Paradoxie. Zur kognitiven Analyse des urchristlichen Glaubens
    LIT Verlag 2017
  • Istvan Czachesz :
    Onko Raamattu memi?
    Teologia.fi 28. Sep 2021
  • Istvan Czachesz :
    Cognitive Science and the New Testament
    The Bible and Interpretation 2017
  • Istvan Czachesz :
    Cognitive Science Approaches in Biblical Studies
    Oxford University Press 2017 DOI

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    Dutkanberoštumit

    Cognitive Science of Religion, Early Christianity, Digital Humanities

    ORCID

    ResearchGate

    Selected books:

    Cognitive Science and the New Testament: A New Approach to Early Christian Research. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2017.

    The Grotesque Body in Early Christian Literature: Hell, Scatology and Metamorphosis. London and New York: Routledge, 2014.

    Commission Narratives: A Comparative Study of the Canonical and Apocryphal Acts, Leuven: Peeters. 2007.

    Selected articles:

    "Religious Experience in Mediterranean Antiquity," in A. W. Geertz et al. (eds), Studying the Religious Mind: Methodology in the Cognitive Science of Religion, Advances in the Cognitive Science of Religion, London: Equinox, 2022, pp. 167-176.

    "Tours of heaven in light of the neuroscientific study of religious experience," in A. W. Geertz et al. (eds), Studying the Religious Mind: Methodology in the Cognitive Science of Religion, Advances in the Cognitive Science of Religion, London: Equinox, 2022, 197-216.

    "Creencias, Rituales y Memoria. Una introducción a la Ciencia Cognitiva de la Religión" (With I. Apud: Beliefs, Rituals and Memory: An Introduction to the Cognitive Science of Religion), Psicología, Conocimiento y Sociedad 9(1), 229-257.

    "Evolutionary theory on the move: New perspectives on evolution in the cognitive science of religion," Unisinos Journal of Philosophy 19(3), 2018, pp. 263-271.

    "Visionary Practices in the Fourth Book of Ezra," in J.N. Bremmer, V. Hirschberger, and T. Nicklas (eds), Figures of Ezra, Leuven: Peeters, 2018, pp. 51-78.

    "Armaments and Ornaments: Mate-Guarding and the Origins of Religion," Religion, Brain & Behavior, 2018, doi:10.1080/2153599X.2018.1498014.

    "Cognition, Culture, and Religion: Surveying the Field," in N. Clements (ed), Religion: Mental Religion, Macmillan Interdisciplinary Handbook of Religion, Farmington Hills, MI: Macmillan Reference USA, 2017, pp. 197-217.

    "Die unbeholfenen Zauberlehrlinge in Ephesus (Die Söhne des Skevas): Apg. 19.11-17" (The Sorcerer’s Clumsy Apprentices; The Sons of Sceva; Acts 19:11-17) in R. Zimmermann et al. (eds), Kompendium der frühchristlichen Wundererzählungen. Band 2: Die Wunder der Apostel, Gütersloh: Gütersloher Verlagshaus, 2017, pp. 257-267.

    "'Unser Sohn ist Magier geworden!' (Wunderbare Brandlöschung in Philippi): ActAndr(Greg) 12" (Our Son has Become a Magician!: Miraculous Extinguishing of Fire, Acts of Andrew 12), in R. Zimmermann et al. (eds), Kompendium der frühchristlichen Wundererzählungen. Band 2: Die Wunder der Apostel, Gütersloh: Gütersloher Verlagshaus, 2017, pp. 801-806.

    "Cultural Evolution and Biblical Studies," in C. Gianotto and F. Sbardella (eds), Traiettorie antropologiche e storiche. Un omaggio ad Adriana Destro, Brescia: Morcelliana, 2017, pp. 239-255.

    "Religious Experience Behind the Account of Isaiah’s Ascent to Heaven: Insights from Cognitive Science," in J.N. Bremmer, T.R. Karmann and T. Nicklas (eds), The Ascension of Isaiah, Leuven: Peeters, 2016, pp. 235-257.

    "From Mirror Neurons to Morality: Cognitive and Evolutionary Foundations of Early Christian Ethics," in U. Volp, F.W. Horn, and R. Zimmermann (eds), Metapher – Narratio – Mimesis – Doxologie: Begründungsformen im frühchristlicher und antiker Ethik, Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2016, pp. 271-287.

    "Network Analysis of Biblical Texts," Journal of Cognitive Historiography 3, 2016, pp. 43-67.

    "Tours of heaven in light of the neuroscientific study of religious experience," Journal of Cognitive Historiography 2, 2015, pp. 34-54.

    "How Can Evolutionary Theory Contritute to Biblical Studies?," in D.J. Chalcraft, R. Watson and F. Uhlenbruch (eds), New Directions in Biblical Studies: Social Scientific and Cultural Approaches, Sheffield: Phoenix Press, 2014, pp. 16-38.

    "How to Read Miracle Stories with Cognitive Theory: On Harry Potter, Magic, and Miracle," in R. Zimmermann and B. Kollmann (eds), Hermeneutik der frühchristlichen Wundererzählungen, Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2014, pp. 391-404.

    "Jesus' Religious Experience in the Gospels: Toward a Cognitive Neuroscience Approach," in P. von Gemünden, D. G. Horrell and M. Küchler (eds), Jesus. Rezeptionen des Galiläers in Wissenschaft, Kirche und Gesellschaft. FS Gerd Theissen, Göttingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2013, pp. 553-580.

    "The Evolutionary Dynamics of Religious Systems: Laying the Foundations of a Network Model," in A.W. Geertz (ed), Origins of Religion, Cognition and Culture, Durham: Acumen, 2013, pp. 98-120.

    Undervisning

    Cognitive Science of Religion

    Biblical Studies


    Member of research group