Gabriel Levy
About
Gabriel Levy is a comparative historian of religion. He is Professor in the Science of Religion at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, Norway, where he teaches on method and theory in the scientific study of religion, middle-eastern religious history, and the relation between religion, science, and technology. Gabriel studies religions from a holistic perspective and looks for ways to integrate the harder sciences into scholarship in the humanities. He studies the ways religious individuals and groups imagine their communicative relations with superhuman agents, and particularly how various technologies of mediation, such as divination and literacy, change the way this relation is organized and embodied. To do this he draws on anthropology, philosophy, and the mind sciences. His first book Judaic Technologies of the Word (Routledge 2014) took insights from biology and the mind sciences to explore the effects of literacy on religious cognition and the origins of Judaism. Gabriel's most recent book Beyond Heaven and Earth: A Cognitive Theory of Religion (MIT Press) develops the groundwork for an anomolous monist (D. Davidson) approach to religion and apply it to specific real world examples, including fictionality, the concept of life, kabbalistic information, animal agency, and intimacy. Get it here.
Research
Publications
2022
-
Levy, Gabriel.
(2022)
Beyond Heaven and Earth: A Cognitive Theory of Religion.
MIT Press. 2022. ISBN 9780262543248.
Scientific monography
2021
-
Levy, Gabriel.
(2021)
Blasphemy as transgressive speech, a natural history.
Blasphemies compared : Transgressive speech in a globalised world.
Academic chapter/article
2020
-
Levy, Gabriel.
(2020)
You Can Lead a Horse to Water, But You Can’t Make It Drink.
Method & Theory in the Study of Religion.
volum 32.
Scientific translation/review
2018
-
Levy, Gabriel.
(2018)
Let There Be Light: The Word of God in the Jewish Tradition, Past, Present, and Future.
AJS Perspectives: The Magazine of the Association for Jewish Studies.
volum Spring.
Popular scientific article
2017
-
Levy, Gabriel.
(2017)
Can Fictional Superhuman Agents have Mental States?.
Method & Theory in the Study of Religion.
volum 30 (4-5).
Academic article
-
Levy, Gabriel;
Kyselo, Miriam.
(2017)
Dynamic Perspectives on Defamation of Religion among Jewish NGOs.
Religion, State and the United Nations: Value Politics.
Academic chapter/article
-
Mitkidis, Panagiotis;
Ayal, Shahar;
Shalvi, Shaul;
Heimann, Katrin;
Levy, Gabriel;
Kyselo, Miriam;
Wallot, Sebastian;
Ariely, Dan;
Roepstorff, Andreas.
(2017)
The effects of extreme rituals on moral behavior: The performers-observers gap hypothesis.
Journal of Economic Psychology.
volum 59.
Academic article
2016
-
Levy, Gabriel.
(2016)
Cognitive Linguistics and Religion: Surveying the Field.
Religion: Mental Religion.
Academic chapter/article
2015
-
Levy, Gabriel;
Mitkidis, Panagiotis.
(2015)
Religion and Marketing: The Attractiveness of Religion as a Moral Brand.
The Attraction of Religion A New Evolutionary Psychology of Religion.
Chapter
-
Martin, Laura;
Adams, Rachel;
Bateman, Ashley;
Bik, Holly;
Hawks, John;
Hird, Sarah;
Hughes, David;
Kembel, Steven;
Kinney, Kerry;
Kolokotronis, Sergios-Orestis;
Levy, Gabriel;
McClain, Craig;
Meadow, James;
Medina, Raul;
Mhuireach, Gwynhwyfer;
Moreau, Corrie S;
Munshi-South, Jason;
Nichols, Lauren;
Palmer, Claire;
Popova, Laura;
Schal, Coby;
Täubel, Martin;
Trautwein, Michelle;
Ugalde, Juan;
Dunn, Robert R..
(2015)
Evolution of the indoor biome.
Trends in Ecology & Evolution.
volum 30 (4).
Scientific translation/review
2014
-
Levy, Gabriel.
(2014)
Judaic Technologies of the Word: A Cognitive Analysis of Jewish Cultural Formation.
Routledge. 2014. ISBN 978-1-13-885612-7.
Scientific monography
-
Levy, Gabriel.
(2014)
The Implications of Anomalous Monism for Intimate Selves.
Altered Self and Altered Self-Experience.
Academic chapter/article
2013
-
Levy, Gabriel;
Ross, Sarah;
Al-Saudi, Soham.
(2013)
Judaism and Emotion: Texts, Performance, Experience.
Peter Lang Publishing Group. 2013. ISBN 978-1-4331-1872-2.
Scientific anthology
2012
-
Levy, Gabriel.
(2012)
"False But Significant: The Development of Falsity in Religious Cognition in Light of the Holism of the Mental".
Method & Theory in the Study of Religion.
volum 24 (2).
Academic article
2010
-
Levy, Gabriel.
(2010)
"Rabbinic Philosophy of Language: Not in Heaven".
The Journal of Jewish thought & philosophy.
volum 18 (2).
Academic article
-
Levy, Gabriel.
(2010)
Review Essay: “Contemporary Theories of Religion, A Critical Companion”.
Numen.
volum 57 (2).
Scientific translation/review
Scientific articles
-
Levy, Gabriel.
(2017)
Can Fictional Superhuman Agents have Mental States?.
Method & Theory in the Study of Religion.
volum 30 (4-5).
Academic article
-
Mitkidis, Panagiotis;
Ayal, Shahar;
Shalvi, Shaul;
Heimann, Katrin;
Levy, Gabriel;
Kyselo, Miriam;
Wallot, Sebastian;
Ariely, Dan;
Roepstorff, Andreas.
(2017)
The effects of extreme rituals on moral behavior: The performers-observers gap hypothesis.
Journal of Economic Psychology.
volum 59.
Academic article
-
Levy, Gabriel.
(2012)
"False But Significant: The Development of Falsity in Religious Cognition in Light of the Holism of the Mental".
Method & Theory in the Study of Religion.
volum 24 (2).
Academic article
-
Levy, Gabriel.
(2010)
"Rabbinic Philosophy of Language: Not in Heaven".
The Journal of Jewish thought & philosophy.
volum 18 (2).
Academic article
Journal publications
-
Levy, Gabriel.
(2020)
You Can Lead a Horse to Water, But You Can’t Make It Drink.
Method & Theory in the Study of Religion.
volum 32.
Scientific translation/review
-
Levy, Gabriel.
(2018)
Let There Be Light: The Word of God in the Jewish Tradition, Past, Present, and Future.
AJS Perspectives: The Magazine of the Association for Jewish Studies.
volum Spring.
Popular scientific article
-
Martin, Laura;
Adams, Rachel;
Bateman, Ashley;
Bik, Holly;
Hawks, John;
Hird, Sarah;
Hughes, David;
Kembel, Steven;
Kinney, Kerry;
Kolokotronis, Sergios-Orestis;
Levy, Gabriel;
McClain, Craig;
Meadow, James;
Medina, Raul;
Mhuireach, Gwynhwyfer;
Moreau, Corrie S;
Munshi-South, Jason;
Nichols, Lauren;
Palmer, Claire;
Popova, Laura;
Schal, Coby;
Täubel, Martin;
Trautwein, Michelle;
Ugalde, Juan;
Dunn, Robert R..
(2015)
Evolution of the indoor biome.
Trends in Ecology & Evolution.
volum 30 (4).
Scientific translation/review
-
Levy, Gabriel.
(2010)
Review Essay: “Contemporary Theories of Religion, A Critical Companion”.
Numen.
volum 57 (2).
Scientific translation/review
Books
-
Levy, Gabriel.
(2022)
Beyond Heaven and Earth: A Cognitive Theory of Religion.
MIT Press. 2022. ISBN 9780262543248.
Scientific monography
-
Levy, Gabriel.
(2014)
Judaic Technologies of the Word: A Cognitive Analysis of Jewish Cultural Formation.
Routledge. 2014. ISBN 978-1-13-885612-7.
Scientific monography
-
Levy, Gabriel;
Ross, Sarah;
Al-Saudi, Soham.
(2013)
Judaism and Emotion: Texts, Performance, Experience.
Peter Lang Publishing Group. 2013. ISBN 978-1-4331-1872-2.
Scientific anthology
Part of book/report
-
Levy, Gabriel.
(2021)
Blasphemy as transgressive speech, a natural history.
Blasphemies compared : Transgressive speech in a globalised world.
Academic chapter/article
-
Levy, Gabriel;
Kyselo, Miriam.
(2017)
Dynamic Perspectives on Defamation of Religion among Jewish NGOs.
Religion, State and the United Nations: Value Politics.
Academic chapter/article
-
Levy, Gabriel.
(2016)
Cognitive Linguistics and Religion: Surveying the Field.
Religion: Mental Religion.
Academic chapter/article
-
Levy, Gabriel;
Mitkidis, Panagiotis.
(2015)
Religion and Marketing: The Attractiveness of Religion as a Moral Brand.
The Attraction of Religion A New Evolutionary Psychology of Religion.
Chapter
-
Levy, Gabriel.
(2014)
The Implications of Anomalous Monism for Intimate Selves.
Altered Self and Altered Self-Experience.
Academic chapter/article