Department of Philosophy and Religion

Dr. Thomas B. Ellis

  1. Home
  2. Dr. Thomas B. Ellis

Articles and Book Chapters

  • “Imagining a Theory: Questioning the Eschatological and Soteriological Motivations in Gananath Obeyesekere’s Imagining Karma,” Journal of Ritual Studies 19.2, 153-158.
  • “The Meta-ethics of Viraha Bhakti in the Philosophical Writings of J. L. Mehta,” Journal of Vaishnava Studies, 16:2, 71-91. 
  • “Of And and Of: The Politics of Grammar and the Study of Religion,” Method and Theory in the Study of Religion, 20:3, 270-290.
  • “On Spirituality: Natural and Non-natural,” Religion Compass 2:6, 1117-1138.
  • “I Love You, I Hate You: Toward a Psychology of the Hindu Deus Absconditus,” International Journal of Hindu Studies 13:1, 1-23.
  • “Natural Gazes, Non-natural Agents: The Biology of Religion’s Ocular Behaviors” in The Biology of Religious Behavior: The Evolutionary Origins of Faith and Religion, ed. by J. R. Feierman.  Westport, CT: Praeger.
  • "Teaching and Learning Guide for: On Spirituality: Natural and Non-natural," Religion Compass 3:6, 1042-1047.
  • “On the Death of the Pilgrim: The Postcolonial Hermeneutics of Jarava Lal Mehta” in Postcolonial Philosophy of Religion, ed. by P. Bilimoria & A. B. Irvine.  New York, NY: Springer.
  • "Disgusting Bodies, Disgusting Religion: The Biology of Tantra," Journal of the American Academy of Religion 79:4, 879-927.
  • "Chasing Cosmic Tennis Balls," Bulletin for the Study of Religion 40:4, 11-14. 
  • "Growing Up amid the Religion and Science Affair: A Perspective from Indology," Zygon 47:3, 589-607. 
  • On the Death of the Pilgrim: The Postcolonial Hermeneutics of Jarava Lal Mehta (Sophia Studies in Cross-cultural Philosophy of Traditions and Cultures). Springer 
  • "Evoked Puja: The Behavioral Ecology of an Equatorial Ritual," Journal of the American Academy of Religion 83:4, 1108-1156 
  • "Disgusting Bodies, Disgusting Religion: The Biology of Tantra" in Religion, Sexuality, and Spirituality, ed. by Carole M. Cusack and Jason H. Prior. New York, NY: Routledge. 
  • "Of Gods and Devils: Differential Cognition and the Adaptive Illusions of Control," Method and Theory in the Study of Religion 28, 479 – 511. DOI: 10.1163/15700682-12341377

  • “India and European Philosophy,” Routledge History of Indian Philosophy, ed. by P. Bilimoria, R. King, and G. Petterson.  New York: Routledge.

  • “Let's Get Physical: The Ethology of Religious Submissions and Intimidations,” Body and Religion 1:2, 148-168.

Book Reviews

  • Heidegger, Rorty, and the Eastern Thinkers, by Wei Zhang (Albany: SUNY Press, 2006) in Sophia 47, 253-255.

  • Death Anxiety and Religious Belief:  An Existential Psychology of Religion (Bloomsbury Academic, 2016) in Reading Religion.

  • Religious Evolution and the Axial Age: From Shamans to Priests to Prophets (Bloomsbury Academic, 2018) in Reading Religion.