Description
Book SynopsisThis extraordinarily ambitious and comprehensive book demonstrates how evolutionary theory can yield new insight into the development of organized religion. Lance Grande examines the growth and diversification of hundreds of religions over time, highlighting their historical interrelationships.
Trade ReviewReligion goes to the very heart of human cultural experience. Its oldest texts reveal what we were thinking about who we are, how we came to be, and how we fit into the world. In this well-written book, Lance Grande casts a dispassionate eye on the basic tenets of known religions—at once a good read and a valuable reference source. -- Niles Eldredge, author of
Eternal Ephemera: Adaptation and the Origin of Species from the Nineteenth Century Through Punctuated Equilibria and BeyondAn innovative, in-depth analysis—a renowned biologist applies a novel evolutionary conceptual lens to the diversity and history of human religion. The findings and implications are destined to provoke productive introspection and discussion. -- Gary M. Feinman, MacArthur Curator of Anthropology, Field Museum of Natural History
Grande, a noted paleontologist and evolutionary biologist, brings his analytical framework to the study of world religions. He offers an evolutionary history of religious traditions and cooperative norms from around the world. This fascinating approach is both provocative and illuminating, providing a very readable and important book. -- Charles Stanish, author of
The Evolution of Human Co-operation: Ritual and Social Complexity in Stateless SocietiesThe Evolution of Religions classifies virtually all known organized religions, past and present, into phylogenetic trees based on their shared characteristics and evolution. Grande provides an evolutionary framework so that lay readers can better understand the similarities of religions and thereby hopefully become more tolerant of religions other than their own. -- E. Fuller Torrey, author of
Evolving Brains, Emerging Gods: Early Humans and the Origins of ReligionTable of ContentsPreface: A Modern Evolutionary Approach to History of Religion Studies
Introductory Section: Applying Evolutionary Theory and Philosophy to Aspects of Human Culture1. Religions, Classification, and Phylogenetic Pattern
2. Explaining Hypothetical Patterns with Evolutionary Process Theory
Main Section: The Historical Diversification (Evolution) of Religions3. Early Supernaturalism and the Development of Organized Religion
4. Indigenous Eastern Organized Religion and Asian Cyclicism
5. Afro-Euro-Mediterranean Organized Religion, Beginning with Old World Hard Polytheism
6. Linear Monotheism
7. The Early Diversification of Abrahamic Monotheism
8. Traditional Christianity
9. Reformation Christianity
10. Biblical Demiurgism: A Subgroup of “Gnosticism”
11. Islam
Summary Section: Four Historical Trends in the Evolution of Religions and Considerations for the Future of Humanity12. Organized Religions and the Evolution of Human Society
Acknowledgments
Glossary of Select Terms
Notes
Chapter Citations
References
Figure Credits
Subject Index
