Paracosm and religious sensibility

 A paracosm is a detailed, imaginary world. The term is usually used in the psychological descriptions of children. But T.M. Luhrmann, an anthropologist who is interested in religious sensibilities, uses the term to describe how people build a sense of reality about their religious beliefs.

In her view, it’s a natural process. People who are religious in that way work at it. They spend time in prayer and study. They get into the details.

Luhrmann uses music as an analogy. A beginner plays scales on the piano and eventually performs Mozart. A level of creative detail slowly builds up. And of course the 21^st Piano Concert is real, beautiful, sublime.

Similarly, a Christian mystic might begin by reciting the Lord’s Prayer and will spend hours in contemplative prayer.

Tolkien created a paracosm. St. Augustine did too, I think.