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.
Competencies
Research
Publications
2024
-
Zickfeld, Janis H.;
Ścigała, Karolina A.;
Elbæk, Christian T.;
Michael, John;
Tønnesen, Mathilde;
Levy, Gabriel.
(2024)
Effectiveness of ex ante honesty oaths in reducing dishonesty depends on content.
Nature Human Behaviour
Academic article
2023
-
Levy, Gabriel John.
(2023)
Teaching J. Z. Smith in Scandinavia.
Equinox Publishing
Academic chapter/article/Conference paper
-
Levy, Gabriel John.
(2023)
Taking “Religion” Seriously: Essays on the Discursive Study of Religion, By Teemu Taira.
Journal of the American Academy of Religion
Book review
-
Levy, Gabriel John.
(2023)
Thinking about John Thinking about Cognitive Scientists Thinking about Religion.
Religious Studies Review
Academic literature review
2022
-
Levy, Gabriel.
(2022)
Beyond Heaven and Earth: A Cognitive Theory of Religion.
MIT Press
MIT Press
Academic monograph
2021
-
Levy, Gabriel.
(2021)
Blasphemy as transgressive speech, a natural history.
Routledge
Academic chapter/article/Conference paper
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
Academic literature review
2019
-
Kvandal, Halvor;
Knowles, Jonathan;
Levy, Gabriel.
(2019)
Prone to Believe in God.The Cognitive Science of Religion and its Normative Implications for Theist Religion.
Doktoravhandlinger ved NTNU (2019/7)
Doctoral dissertation
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
Popular scientific article
2017
-
Levy, Gabriel;
Kyselo, Miriam.
(2017)
Dynamic Perspectives on Defamation of Religion among Jewish NGOs.
Routledge
Academic chapter/article/Conference paper
-
Mitkidis, Panagiotis;
Ayal, Shahar;
Shalvi, Shaul;
Heimann, Katrin;
Levy, Gabriel;
Kyselo, Miriam.
(2017)
The effects of extreme rituals on moral behavior: The performers-observers gap hypothesis.
Journal of Economic Psychology
Academic article
-
Levy, Gabriel.
(2017)
Can Fictional Superhuman Agents have Mental States?.
Method & Theory in the Study of Religion
Academic article
2016
-
Levy, Gabriel.
(2016)
Cognitive Linguistics and Religion: Surveying the Field.
Macmillan Publishers Ltd.
Academic chapter/article/Conference paper
2015
-
Martin, Laura;
Adams, Rachel;
Bateman, Ashley;
Bik, Holly;
Hawks, John;
Hird, Sarah.
(2015)
Evolution of the indoor biome.
Trends in Ecology & Evolution
Academic literature review
-
Levy, Gabriel;
Mitkidis, Panagiotis.
(2015)
Religion and Marketing: The Attractiveness of Religion as a Moral Brand.
Bloomsbury Academic
Chapter
2014
-
Levy, Gabriel.
(2014)
The Implications of Anomalous Monism for Intimate Selves.
Academic chapter/article/Conference paper
-
Levy, Gabriel.
(2014)
Judaic Technologies of the Word: A Cognitive Analysis of Jewish Cultural Formation.
Routledge
Routledge
Academic monograph
2013
-
Levy, Gabriel;
Ross, Sarah;
Al-Saudi, Soham.
(2013)
Judaism and Emotion: Texts, Performance, Experience.
Peter Lang Publishing Group
Peter Lang Publishing Group
Academic anthology/Conference proceedings
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
Academic article
2010
-
Levy, Gabriel.
(2010)
"Rabbinic Philosophy of Language: Not in Heaven".
The Journal of Jewish thought & philosophy
Academic article
-
Levy, Gabriel.
(2010)
Review Essay: “Contemporary Theories of Religion, A Critical Companion”.
Numen
Academic literature review
Journal publications
-
Zickfeld, Janis H.;
Ścigała, Karolina A.;
Elbæk, Christian T.;
Michael, John;
Tønnesen, Mathilde;
Levy, Gabriel.
(2024)
Effectiveness of ex ante honesty oaths in reducing dishonesty depends on content.
Nature Human Behaviour
Academic article
-
Levy, Gabriel John.
(2023)
Taking “Religion” Seriously: Essays on the Discursive Study of Religion, By Teemu Taira.
Journal of the American Academy of Religion
Book review
-
Levy, Gabriel John.
(2023)
Thinking about John Thinking about Cognitive Scientists Thinking about Religion.
Religious Studies Review
Academic literature review
-
Levy, Gabriel.
(2020)
You Can Lead a Horse to Water, But You Can’t Make It Drink.
Method & Theory in the Study of Religion
Academic literature 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
Popular scientific article
-
Mitkidis, Panagiotis;
Ayal, Shahar;
Shalvi, Shaul;
Heimann, Katrin;
Levy, Gabriel;
Kyselo, Miriam.
(2017)
The effects of extreme rituals on moral behavior: The performers-observers gap hypothesis.
Journal of Economic Psychology
Academic article
-
Levy, Gabriel.
(2017)
Can Fictional Superhuman Agents have Mental States?.
Method & Theory in the Study of Religion
Academic article
-
Martin, Laura;
Adams, Rachel;
Bateman, Ashley;
Bik, Holly;
Hawks, John;
Hird, Sarah.
(2015)
Evolution of the indoor biome.
Trends in Ecology & Evolution
Academic literature review
-
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
Academic article
-
Levy, Gabriel.
(2010)
"Rabbinic Philosophy of Language: Not in Heaven".
The Journal of Jewish thought & philosophy
Academic article
-
Levy, Gabriel.
(2010)
Review Essay: “Contemporary Theories of Religion, A Critical Companion”.
Numen
Academic literature review
Books
-
Levy, Gabriel.
(2022)
Beyond Heaven and Earth: A Cognitive Theory of Religion.
MIT Press
MIT Press
Academic monograph
-
Levy, Gabriel.
(2014)
Judaic Technologies of the Word: A Cognitive Analysis of Jewish Cultural Formation.
Routledge
Routledge
Academic monograph
-
Levy, Gabriel;
Ross, Sarah;
Al-Saudi, Soham.
(2013)
Judaism and Emotion: Texts, Performance, Experience.
Peter Lang Publishing Group
Peter Lang Publishing Group
Academic anthology/Conference proceedings
Part of book/report
-
Levy, Gabriel John.
(2023)
Teaching J. Z. Smith in Scandinavia.
Equinox Publishing
Academic chapter/article/Conference paper
-
Levy, Gabriel.
(2021)
Blasphemy as transgressive speech, a natural history.
Routledge
Academic chapter/article/Conference paper
-
Levy, Gabriel;
Kyselo, Miriam.
(2017)
Dynamic Perspectives on Defamation of Religion among Jewish NGOs.
Routledge
Academic chapter/article/Conference paper
-
Levy, Gabriel.
(2016)
Cognitive Linguistics and Religion: Surveying the Field.
Macmillan Publishers Ltd.
Academic chapter/article/Conference paper
-
Levy, Gabriel;
Mitkidis, Panagiotis.
(2015)
Religion and Marketing: The Attractiveness of Religion as a Moral Brand.
Bloomsbury Academic
Chapter
-
Levy, Gabriel.
(2014)
The Implications of Anomalous Monism for Intimate Selves.
Academic chapter/article/Conference paper
Report
-
Kvandal, Halvor;
Knowles, Jonathan;
Levy, Gabriel.
(2019)
Prone to Believe in God.The Cognitive Science of Religion and its Normative Implications for Theist Religion.
Doktoravhandlinger ved NTNU (2019/7)
Doctoral dissertation