As recent advances in the brain sciences have expanded their explanatory reach and aroused the public’s interest, some researchers have taken up a project that could transform debates about science and religion for good: the search for a scientific explanation of religious experience and belief. Taking a New York Times column by David Brooks as a starting point, this series brings history, philosophy, and literature to bear on the question of what such explanations really stand to offer as well as what they tend to exaggerate.