Articles
in fieri
“Monarch to God to Devil: The Many Lives of King Faunus Through the Ages.”
2023
“Zombies Roaming Around the Pantheon: Reconsidering Ancient Roman Belief.” Implicit Religion 25 (1-2): 33–75. https://doi.org/10.1558/imre.24338
“The Eclipse of Morality: A Riposte to Lane, Wildman, & Shults’ ‘Paying the Piper’ Commentary.” Method & Theory in the Study of Religion. https://doi.org/10.1163/15700682-bja10082 ePublication (ahead of print)
“Homo anxius, or How Fear and Anxiety Conquered the Social World.” Journal of Cognitive Historiography 6(1-2): 130-156. https://doi.org/10.1558/jch.19349
“Shamanism Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow: Notes on Sidky’s The Origins of Shamanism, Spirit Beliefs, and Religiosity (2017) and Botta’s Dagli sciamani allo sciamanesimo (2018).” Journal of Cognitive Historiography 6(1-2): 194-216. https://doi.org/10.1558/jch.21151
“He Who Pays the Piper Calls the Tune: Big Data, Philanthrocapitalism, and the Demise of the Historical Study of Religions.” Method & Theory in the Study of Religion 34(1): 182-209. https://doi.org/10.1163/15700682-12341527
2022
2021
“The Trials and Tribulations of Luke Skywalker: How The Walt Disney Co. and Lucasfilm Have Failed to Confront Joseph Campbell’s Troublesome Legacy.” Implicit Religion 23(3): 251-276. https://doi.org/10.1558/imre.43229
“An Evolutionary Cognitive Approach to Comparative Fascist Studies: Hypermasculinization, Supernormal Stimuli, and Conspirational Beliefs.” Evolutionary Studies in Imaginative Culture 5(1): 23-39. https://doi.org/10.26613/esic.5.1.208
2020
“Memoirs of an Academic Rōnin: Religious Studies and Mentorship in the Age of Post-Truth.” Method & Theory in the Study of Religion 33(1): 1-20. https://doi.org/10.1163/15700682-12341495
“The Sisyphean Discipline: A Précis of An Unnatural History of Religions.” Religio. Revue Pro Religionistiku 28(1): 3-20. http://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/142823 [PDF]. Expanded version published in D. Wiebe (2021), An Argument in Defence of a Strictly Scientific Study of Religion: The Controversy at Delphi, 75-101. Toronto, ON: Institute for the Advanced Study of Religion. [PDF]
“From Gnosticism to Agnotology: A Reply to Robertson and Talmont-Kaminski.” Religio. Revue Pro Religionistiku 28(1): 37-44. http://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/142826 [PDF]
2019
Co-authored with T. J. Coleman, III. “History as a Canceled Problem? Hilbert’s List, du Bois-Reymond’s Enigmas, and the Scientific Study of Religion.” Journal of the American Academy of Religion 87(2): 366-400. https://doi.org/10.1093/jaarel/lfz001
2018
“Comparative Religion as a Life Science: William E. Paden’s Neo-Plinian New Naturalism.” Method & Theory in the Study of Religion 30(2): 141-149. https://doi.org/10.1163/15700682-12341414
“The Goddess Who Failed? Competitive Networks (or the Lack Thereof), Gender Politics, and the Diffusion of the Roman Cult of Bona Dea.” Religio. Revue Pro Religionistiku 24(2): 111-165. Stable URL: http://hdl.handle.net/11222.digilib/136399 [PDF]
2017
2016
“Wine, Brains, and Snakes: An Ancient Roman Cult Between Gendered Contaminants, Sexuality, and Pollution Beliefs.” Journal for the Cognitive Science of Religion 4(2): 123-164 https://doi.org/10.1558/jcsr.30673
“Mind the (Unbridgeable) Gaps: A Cautionary Tale about Pseudoscientific Distortions and Scientific Misconceptions in the Study of Religion.” Method & Theory in the Study of Religion (28)2: 141-225. https://doi.org/10.1163/15700682-12341372
“(Pseudo)science, Religious Beliefs, and Historiography: Assessing The Scientification of Religion’s Method and Theory.” Zygon: Journal of Religion and Science 51(4): 1062-1066. https://doi.org/10.1111/zygo.12303
“The Fate of a Healing Goddess: Ocular Pathologies, the Antonine Plague, and the Ancient Roman Cult of Bona Dea.” Open Library of Humanities 1(1): 1-34. p.e13. https://doi.org/10.16995/olh.42 [PDF]
“The Gendered Deep History of the Bona Dea Cult.” Journal of Cognitive Historiography 3(1-2): 134-156. https://doi.org/10.1558/jch.30172
“Achilles’ Historiographical Heel, or the Infelicitous Predominance of Experimental Presentism in Ara Norenzayan’s Big Gods.” Studi e Materiali di Storia delle Religioni 82(2): 1045-1068. [PDF]
“Mapping Pluto’s Republic: Cognitive and Epistemological Reflections on Philosophy of Pseudoscience: Reconsidering the Demarcation Problem.” Journal for the Cognitive Science of Religion 3(2): 183-205. https://doi.org/10.1558/jcsr.27091
“Homo mendax, Fictional Heroes and Self-Deception: A Brief Commentary on The Storytelling Animal: How Stories Make Us Human.” Studi e Materiali di Storia delle Religioni (81)1: 239-247. [PDF]
2015
“Do Not Judge a Book (Solely) by Its Cover: An Overview and Some Reflections about Origins of Religion, Cognition and Culture.” Journal of Cognitive Historiography (1)2: 201-209. https://doi.org/10.1558/jch.v1i2.21567
2014
“Tempi profondi. Geomitologia, storia della natura e studio della religione.” Studi e Materiali di Storia delle Religioni (79)1: 152-214. [PDF]
2013
“Un modello di rinnovamento nel tardoantico ligure: Albingaunum,V secolo d.C.” Collana di Studi Valbormidesi (13): 9-52.