Religion in Human Evolution

Robert N. Bellah

Published by Harvard University Press 2011

Religion in Human Evolution

From the Paleolithic to the Axial Age

Robert N. Bellah

https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674063099

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About this book

Religion in Human Evolution is a work of extraordinary ambition—a wide-ranging, nuanced probing of our biological past to discover the kinds of lives that human beings have most often imagined were worth living. It offers what is frequently seen as a forbidden theory of the origin of religion that goes deep into evolution, especially but not exclusively cultural evolution.

How did our early ancestors transcend the quotidian demands of everyday existence to embrace an alternative reality that called into question the very meaning of their daily struggle? Robert Bellah, one of the leading sociologists of our time, identifies a range of cultural capacities, such as communal dancing, storytelling, and theorizing, whose emergence made this religious development possible. Deploying the latest findings in biology, cognitive science, and evolutionary psychology, he traces the expansion of these cultural capacities from the Paleolithic to the Axial Age (roughly, the first millennium BCE), when individuals and groups in the Old World challenged the norms and beliefs of class societies ruled by kings and aristocracies. These religious prophets and renouncers never succeeded in founding their alternative utopias, but they left a heritage of criticism that would not be quenched.

Bellah’s treatment of the four great civilizations of the Axial Age—in ancient Israel, Greece, China, and India—shows all existing religions, both prophetic and mystic, to be rooted in the evolutionary story he tells. Religion in Human Evolution answers the call for a critical history of religion grounded in the full range of human constraints and possibilities.

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Bellah Robert N. :

Robert N. Bellah is Elliott Professor of Sociology Emeritus at the University of California, Berkeley.

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Frontmatter Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	i
Contents Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	vii
Preface Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	ix
Acknowledgments Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	xxv
1. Religion and Reality Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	1
2. Religion and Evolution Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	44
3. Tribal Religion: The Production of Meaning Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	117
4. From Tribal to Archaic Religion: Meaning and Power Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	175
5. Archaic Religion: God and King Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	210
6. The Axial Age I: Introduction and Ancient Israel Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	265
7. The Axial Age II: Ancient Greece Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	324
8. The Axial Age III: China in the Late First Millennium BCE Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	399
9. The Axial Age IV: Ancient India Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	481
10. Conclusion Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	567
Notes Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	609
Index Requires Authentication Unlicensed Licensed Download PDF	715

Language: English
Publisher: Harvard University Press
Audience: General/trade;
Pages
- Main content: 784

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Published: September 15, 2011
ISBN: 9780674063099

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Religion in Human Evolution

From the Paleolithic to the Axial Age