Ann Taves (born 1952) is Distinguished Professor of Religious Studies at the

University of California, Santa Barbara The University of California, Santa Barbara (UC Santa Barbara or UCSB) is a public land-grant research university in Santa Barbara, California with 23,196 undergraduates and 2,983 graduate students enrolled in 2021–2022. It is part of the U ...

. She is a former president of the

American Academy of Religion The American Academy of Religion (AAR) is the world's largest association of scholars in the field of religious studies and related topics. It is a nonprofit member association, serving as a professional and learned society for scholars involv ...

(2010).Past presidents of the AAR
(Accessed 4 July 2014) From July 2005–December 2017, she held the Cordana Chair in Catholic Studies at UC Santa Barbara. Taves is especially known for her work ''

Religious Experience Reconsidered ''Religious Experience Reconsidered'' (2009) is a book by Ann Taves on the study of religious experience. She proposes a new approach, which takes into account the attribution of religious meaning to specific events, using the term "specialness." " ...

'' (2009), stressing the importance of the findings and theoretical foundations of cognitive science for modern religionists.

Biography

Taves was born in 1952. She received her bachelor's degree in religion from

Pomona College Pomona College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Claremont, California. It was established in 1887 by a group of Congregationalists who wanted to recreate a "college of the New England type" in Southern California. In 1925, it became t ...

in June 1974. She went on to receive her master's and doctorate degrees from the

University of Chicago Divinity School The University of Chicago Divinity School is a private graduate institution at the University of Chicago dedicated to the training of academics and clergy across religious boundaries. Formed under Baptist auspices, the school today lacks any s ...

in June 1979 and December 1983, respectively. Taves married Raymond Paloutzian on 29 December 2007, in Santa Barbara. In 2013, Taves received a

Guggenheim Fellowship Guggenheim Fellowships are grants that have been awarded annually since by the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation to those "who have demonstrated exceptional capacity for productive scholarship or exceptional creative ability in the art ...

in the field of religion. In March 2018, she gave the Gunning lecture at

New College, Edinburgh New College is a historic building at the University of Edinburgh which houses the university's School of Divinity. It is one of the largest and most renowned centres for studies in Theology and Religious Studies in the United Kingdom. Students ...

on the topic "Religion as worldviews and as ways of life."

Works

''Fits, Trances, and Visions''

''Fits, Trances, and Visions'' (1999) charts the experience of Anglo-American Protestants and those who left the Protestant movement beginning with the transatlantic awakening in the early 18th century and ending with the rise of the

psychology of religion Psychology of religion consists of the application of psychological methods and interpretive frameworks to the diverse contents of religious traditions as well as to both religious and irreligious individuals. The various methods and frameworks c ...

and the birth of

Pentecostalism Pentecostalism or classical Pentecostalism is a Protestant Charismatic Christian movement

in the early 20th century. It charts the synonymic language of

trance Trance is a state of semi-consciousness in which a person is not self-aware and is either altogether unresponsive to external stimuli (but nevertheless capable of pursuing and realizing an aim) or is selectively responsive in following the dir ...

in the American Christian traditions: ''power'' or ''presence'' or ''indwelling'' of God, or Christ, or the Spirit, or spirits. Typical expressions include "the indwelling of the Spirit" ( Jonathan Edwards), "the witness of the Spirit" (

John Wesley John Wesley (; 2 March 1791) was an English cleric, theologian, and evangelist who was a leader of a revival movement within the Church of England known as Methodism. The societies he founded became the dominant form of the independent Meth ...

), "the power of God" (early American Methodists), being "filled with the Spirit of the Lord" (early

Adventists Adventism is a branch of Protestant Christianity that believes in the imminent Second Coming (or the "Second Advent") of Jesus Christ. It originated in the 1830s in the United States during the Second Great Awakening when Baptist preacher Wil ...

; see charismatic Adventism), "communing with spirits" (

Spiritualists Spiritualism is the metaphysics, metaphysical school of thought opposing physicalism and also is the category of all spiritual beliefs/views (in monism and Mind-body dualism, dualism) from ancient to modern. In the long nineteenth century, Spir ...

), "the Christ within" (

New Thought The New Thought movement (also Higher Thought) is a spiritual movement that coalesced in the United States in the early 19th century. New Thought was seen by its adherents as succeeding "ancient thought", accumulated wisdom and philosophy from ...

), "streams of holy fire and power" (Methodist

holiness Sacred describes something that is dedicated or set apart for the service or worship of a deity; is considered worthy of spiritual respect or devotion; or inspires awe or reverence among believers. The property is often ascribed to objects (a ...

), "a religion of the Spirit and Power" (the Emmanuel Movement), and "the baptism of the Holy Spirit" (early

Pentecostal Pentecostalism or classical Pentecostalism is a Protestantism, Protestant Charismatic Christianity, Charismatic Christian movement religious Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatur ...

and

secular Secularity, also the secular or secularness (from Latin ''saeculum'', "worldly" or "of a generation"), is the state of being unrelated or neutral in regards to religion. Anything that does not have an explicit reference to religion, either negativ ...

terminology. These involuntary experiences include uncontrolled bodily movements (

fits Flexible Image Transport System (FITS) is an open standard defining a digital file format useful for storage, transmission and processing of data: formatted as multi-dimensional arrays (for example a 2D image), or tables. FITS is the most commo ...

, bodily exercises, falling as dead,

catalepsy Catalepsy (from Ancient Greek , , "seizing, grasping") is a nervous condition characterized by muscular rigidity and fixity of posture regardless of external stimuli, as well as decreased sensitivity to pain. Signs and symptoms Symptoms in ...

convulsions A convulsion is a medical condition where the body muscles contract and relax rapidly and repeatedly, resulting in uncontrolled shaking. Because epileptic seizures typically include convulsions, the term ''convulsion'' is sometimes used as a ...

); spontaneous vocalizations (crying out, shouting,

speaking in tongues Speaking in tongues, also known as glossolalia, is a practice in which people utter words or speech-like sounds, often thought by believers to be languages unknown to the speaker. One definition used by linguists is the fluid vocalizing of sp ...

); unusual sensory experiences (trances, visions, voices,

clairvoyance Clairvoyance (; ) is the magical ability to gain information about an object, person, location, or physical event through extrasensory perception. Any person who is claimed to have such ability is said to be a clairvoyant () ("one who sees cl ...

, out-of-body experiences); and alterations of

consciousness Consciousness, at its simplest, is sentience and awareness of internal and external existence. However, the lack of definitions has led to millennia of analyses, explanations and debates by philosophers, theologians, linguisticians, and scien ...

and/or

memory Memory is the faculty of the mind by which data or information is encoded, stored, and retrieved when needed. It is the retention of information over time for the purpose of influencing future action. If past events could not be remember ...

(

dreams A dream is a succession of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations that usually occur involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep. Humans spend about two hours dreaming per night, and each dream lasts around 5 to 20 minutes, althou ...

, somnium,

somnambulism Sleepwalking, also known as somnambulism or noctambulism, is a phenomenon of combined sleep and wakefulness. It is classified as a sleep disorder belonging to the parasomnia family. It occurs during slow wave stage of sleep, in a state of lo ...

, mesmeric trance, mediumistic trance,

hypnotism Hypnosis is a human condition involving focused attention (the selective attention/selective inattention hypothesis, SASI), reduced peripheral awareness, and an enhanced capacity to respond to suggestion.In 2015, the American Psychologi ...

, possession, alternating personality).

Other works

* ''The Household of Faith: Roman Catholic Devotions in Mid-Nineteenth Century America'' (Notre Dame, 1986 c 1990 b. * ''Religion and Domestic Violence: The Memoirs of Abigail Abbot Bailey'' (

Indiana University Press Indiana University Press, also known as IU Press, is an academic publisher founded in 1950 at Indiana University that specializes in the humanities and social sciences. Its headquarters are located in Bloomington, Indiana. IU Press publishes 140 ...

, 1989) * ''Fits, Trances and Visions: Experiencing Religion and Explaining Experience from Wesley to James'' (

Princeton University Press Princeton University Press is an independent publisher with close connections to Princeton University. Its mission is to disseminate scholarship within academia and society at large. The press was founded by Whitney Darrow, with the financial ...

, 1999) * '' Religious Experience Reconsidered: A Building Block Approach to the Study of Religion and Other Special Things'' (Princeton University Press, 2009) * ''What Matters: Ethnographies of Value in the (Not So) Secular Age'', co-edited with Courtney Bender (Columbia, 2012) *
Revelatory Events: Three Case Studies of the Emergence of New Spiritual Paths
' (Princeton University Press, 2016)

References

Citations

Works cited

External links

Faculty page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Taves, Ann University of California, Santa Barbara faculty Pomona College alumni Presidents of the American Academy of Religion 1952 births Living people Mysticism scholars Psychology of religion Cognitive science of religion Religious studies scholars