Contents
List of figures
List of tables
Preface
List of contributors
Introduction: A Multilevel and Multidisciplinary Approach to Understanding Religion and Its Evolution
LLUIS OVIEDO
PART 1
Evolutionary Biology
1 Cultural Evolution, Biology and the Case of Religion
HANSJÖRG HEMMINGER
2 The Evolutionary Biology of Religion-Specific Beliefs and Interreligious Conflict
JAY R FEIERMAN
3 Sex and the Evolution of Spirituality
DANIEL COHEN
4 The Biological Basis for Religion and Religion's Evolutionary Origins
DONALD M BROOM
PART 2
Philosophy of Language, Psychology and Neuroscience
5 A History of the Evolution of Religion: From Religion to Religiosity to the Processes of Believing
HANS-FERDINAND ANGEL
6 The Processes of Believing in Religion's Evolution: A Cognitive Neuroscience Hypothesis
RÜDIGER J SEITZ
7 Near-Death and Out-of-Body Experiences in Sensing the Divine: One Foundational Role in Religion's Evolution
MICHAEL N MARSH
8 Awe as a Meaning-Making Emotion: On the Evolution of Awe and the Origin of Religions
ELLIOTT D IHM, RAYMOND F PALOUTZIAN, MICHIEL VAN ELK AND JONATHAN W SCHOOLER
9 Whence This Need for Salvation?: Childhood Corporal Punishment and the Cultural Evolution of Religious Myth
BENJAMIN ABELOW
PART 3
Theology
10 What a Theological Appropriation of Cognitive Linguistics' Blending Theory Brings to a Scientific Understanding of the Evolution of Religion
ROBERT L MASSON
11 The Evolution of Religiosity: A Theologian's View
CHRISTOPHER C KNIGHT
12 Neoteny and Homo Religiosus: Brain Evolution and Emergence of the Capacity for Spirituality
WILLIAM ULWELLING
13 Emotions and the Evolution of the Belief in God
CHRISTIAN EARLY
PART 4
Anthropology
14 The Evolution of Hunter-Gatherer Religion: Issues and Debates among the San of Southern Africa
ROBERT K HITCHCOCK
15 Bones, Pigments, Art and Symbols: Archaeological Evidence for the Origins of Religion
ANNE SOLOMON
16 Every Kingdom Divided Against Itself: The Evolution of Christianity
LAURA BETZIG
Conclusion
