The Evolution of Religions: A History of Related Traditions

About the Book

Thousands of religions have adherents today, and countless more have existed throughout history. What accounts for this astonishing diversity?

This extraordinarily ambitious and comprehensive book demonstrates how evolutionary systematics and philosophy can yield new insight into the development of organized religion. Lance Grande-a leading evolutionary systematist-examines the growth and diversification of hundreds of religions over time, highlighting their historical interrelationships. Combining evolutionary theory with a wealth of cultural records, he explores the formation, extinction, and diversification of different world religions, including the many branches of Asian cyclicism, polytheism, and monotheism.

Grande deploys an illuminating graphic system of evolutionary trees to illustrate historical interrelationships among the world's major religious traditions, rejecting colonialist and hierarchical "ladder of progress" views of evolution. Extensive and informative illustrations clearly and vividly indicate complex historical developments and help readers grasp the breadth of interconnections across eras and cultures.

The Evolution of Religions marshals compelling evidence, starting far back in time, that all major belief systems are related, despite the many conflicts that have taken place among them. By emphasizing these broad historical interconnections, this book promotes the need for greater tolerance and deeper, unbiased understanding of cultural diversity. Such traits may be necessary for the future survival of humanity.

Table of Contents:
Preface: A Modern Evolutionary Approach to History of Religion Studies
Introductory Section: Applying Evolutionary Theory and Philosophy to Aspects of Human Culture
1. Religions, Classification, and Phylogenetic Pattern
2. Explaining Hypothetical Patterns with Evolutionary Process Theory
Main Section: The Historical Diversification (Evolution) of Religions
3. 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 Humanity
12. Organized Religions and the Evolution of Human Society
Acknowledgments
Glossary of Select Terms
Notes
Chapter Citations
References
Figure Credits
Subject Index

About the Author :
Lance Grande is the Negaunee Distinguished Service Curator, Emeritus, of the Field Museum of Natural and Cultural History in Chicago. He is a specialist in evolutionary systematics, paleontology, and biology who has a deep interest in the interdisciplinary applications of scientific method and philosophy. His many books include Curators: Behind the Scenes of Natural History Museums (2017) and The Lost World of Fossil Lake: Snapshots from Deep Time (2013).

Review :
Grande’s big, bold book will test many readers [… ] But it should be given serious attention by anyone interested in fresh approaches to the study of religion. Valuable to social scientists and cultural historians in general as well as to denominational historians...Recommended. [The Evolution of Religions] is a work of significant scholarship as a shorter description and history of the cultural evolution of major religions. Comparative religion books are often written by religious scholars or historians. But this one has a twist: It’s written by a scientist—an evolutionary biologist and systematist to be exact. There’s beauty in having a scientist write such a book. Evolution of Religions is a big book, but it’s written in such a methodical way that you’ll understand the broad concepts behind many organized religions around the world. Religion 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. An 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. 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. The 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.