Religious Evolution and the Axial Age (Scientific Studies of Religion: Inquiry and Explanation)

Stephen K. Sanderson

ISBN 10: 1350047422 / ISBN 13: 9781350047426

Published by Bloomsbury Academic, 2018

About this Item

2018. Hardcover. . . . . .

Seller Inventory # V9781350047426

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Religious Evolution and the Axial Age (Scientific Studies of Religion: Inquiry and Explanation)
• Publisher: Bloomsbury Academic
• Publication Date: 2018
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1350047422
• ISBN 13: 9781350047426
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: New

About this title

Synopsis

Religious Evolution and the Axial Age describes and explains the evolution of religion over the past ten millennia. It shows that an overall evolutionary sequence can be observed, running from the spirit and shaman dominated religions of small-scale societies, to the archaic religions of the ancient civilizations, and then to the salvation religions of the Axial Age.

Stephen K. Sanderson draws on ideas from new cognitive and evolutionary psychological theories, as well as comparative religion, anthropology, history, and sociology. He argues that religion is a biological adaptation that evolved in order to solve a number of human problems, especially those concerned with existential anxiety and ontological insecurity.

Much of the focus of the book is on the Axial Age, the period in the second half of the first millennium BCE that marked the greatest religious transformation in world history. The book demonstrates that, as a result of massive increases in the scale and scope of war and large-scale urbanization, the problems of existential anxiety and ontological insecurity became particularly acute. These changes evoked new religious needs, especially for salvation and release from suffering. As a result entirely new religions-Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Daoism-arose to help people cope with the demands of the new historical era.

About the Authors

Stephen K. Sanderson is a research fellow at the Institute for Research on World-Systems at the University of California at Riverside, USA.

Donald Wiebe is Professor of Philosophy of Religion at Trinity College, University of Toronto, Canada.

Luther H. Martin is Professor of Religion Emeritus at the University of Vermont, USA.

William W. McCorkle is Associate Professor and Research Specialist at the Laboratory for the Experimental Research of Religion and Ritual, Masaryk University, Czech Republic.

D. Jason Slone is Professor of Religious Studies in the Department of Philosophy and Religious Studies at Georgia Southern University, USA.