CENTRAL EUROPEAN JOURNAL FOR CONTEMPORARY RELIGION
CENTRAL EUROPEAN JOURNAL FOR CONTEMPORARY RELIGION

Central European Journal for Contemporary Religion is a scholarly journal published both by the Hussite Theological Faculty of the Charles University and Karolinum Publishers, which aims to serve as a publication platform for Comparative Religion and related disciplines. It focuses mainly on contemporary religious phenomena with special (but not exclusive) focus on Central and Eastern Europe. It should serve both as a source of information on te religious life in the region and as a supply of scholarly studies focused on contemporary lived religion at large. It is published semi-annually both in print and online (free access). Its goal is to bring thought-provoking contributions related not only to current established religions and religious movements new and old, but also to contemporary spirituality in its wider context, including the New Age milieu, Neopaganism and pop-cultural spirituality. The journal also covers the latest theoretical and methodological trends in Comparative Religion, Ritual Studies and other disciplines. The editorial board consists of scholars from most Czech Comparative Religion departments, as well as experts on the most important religious traditions across the globe.

CENTRAL EUROPEAN JOURNAL FOR CONTEMPORARY RELIGION, Vol 5 No 1 (2021), 99–116

“Do I Believe?”: Three Aspects of “Belief” in Conspiracy Theories

Matyáš Lednický, Tereza Malá, Abraham Maurer, Jan A. Kozák

DOI: https://doi.org/10.14712/25704893.2023.5
published online: 14. 08. 2023

abstract

The following text aims to offer and illustrate a new concept for grasping the phenomenon of conspiracy theories. Based on field research in the form of semi-structured interviews and previous research, it provides a triadic schema for navigating the conspiracy landscape and understanding the transformations and functions that conspiracy theories provide to their adherents. After introducing the topic, the first part of the text briefly summarises previous research relevant to the article and describes the theoretical position on which it is based. Subsequently, it uses H. S. Versnel’s schema to introduce the three levels of meaning of conspiracy narratives: substantivist, functionalist, and cosmological. It then concludes by reflecting on the possible applications of this framework and its relevance for future research.

keywords: conspiracy theories; levels of meaning; function; cosmology; belief

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“Do I Believe?”: Three Aspects of “Belief” in Conspiracy Theories is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

157 x 230 mm
periodicity: 2 x per year
print price: 180 czk
ISSN: 2533-7955
E-ISSN: 2570-4893

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