The Evolution of Religions: A History of Related Traditions

by Lance Grande

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.

688 pages, Hardcover

Published February 13, 2024

Reviews

[Kristjan · Rating 4 out of 5]

At just over 1000 pages, this is a pretty big book that attempts to tackle a big question … how religion fits into the human condition (as humans themselves continue to evolve). Even so, there was limited space to go into much detail and any examination of pre-literate religions remain in the realm of educated speculation … presumed to have started with spiritual/animistic beliefs and rituals. As a fan of comparative studies, this was extremely helpful, since the entire purpose of a taxonomy is to enable the reader/student to compare and contrast the subject matter … and how better than to propose such an evolutionary tree than an evolutionary biologist and systematist … still there were plenty of times where the author acknowledged that this categorization didn’t work well, however, Grande’s ability to call out similarities and differences with antecedents was extremely help in understanding the worldviews professed by the predominate, contemporary religions: Hindu, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam (which also tended to have the most detail). I particularly enjoyed the exploration of the heterodoxy that periodically springs up in each of these. Ultimately this is a fairly decent introduction to the religions of today and how they evolved into what they are … and hopefully enable a better toleration of each other along with that better understanding.

My primary complaint would be that some of the charts/illustrations were awkwardly formatted with the text alignment and orientation changing within the same illustration … making some of them hard to figure out … and the best part … of of these is well presented in easily accessible language that doesn’t require a background in any of the covered studies (although if you do, you may notice a few, small, nuance errors that don’t really detract much from the overall understanding).

The chapters and sections in this work are:

Preface: A Modern Evolutionary Approach to History of Religion Studies
Introductory Section
1. Religions, Classifications, and Phylogenetic Pattern
2. Explaining Hypothetical Patterns with Evolutionary Process Theory

Main Section
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

Concluding Section
12. Organized Religions and the Evolution of Human Society


Some of the other points that really got my attention are:

Moral and ethical behavior did not originate with religion; it was instead an independent product of evolution. It has been found to be present even in some of the great apes. However, religion, in its most positive form, helped establish certain codified rules of ethical human behavior that often aided in the development of large civilizations (as civilization is defined in Note 3C).

However, as certain supernatural beliefs were seen by later generations as worth preserving, they became institutionalized. They became preserved with narratives (written scripture or oral transmissions), practices (rituals), and often with objects of reverence (iconic objects and structures); and they developed into one of the most influential aspects of human culture: Organized Religion (discussed in chapters 4–11).

Eventually, synapomorphic elements of general importance to most Dharmic Religions came to include the following: (1) dharma (duty and maintaining order and balance in nature), (2) karma (the consequences of one’s actions and service to society), (3) samsara (reincarnation and the cycle of rebirth), and (4) yoga (as an aid to meditation).

The four basic goals of a person in Hinduism (called the Purusartha or Purusha-arthas) include the following: (1) dharma (righteous moral values and duty), (2) artha (prosperity and economic success), (3) kama (sensual pleasure, best known in the West by the ancient sex manual Kama Sutra), and ultimately (4) moksha (transcendental state attained because of being released from samsara and the cycle of rebirth).

Buddha’s beliefs can be summarized with three basic assumptions: First, no matter how many material comforts one has in life, they cannot protect one from the pain of suffering. Second, denial of all material comforts and living a life of asceticism (severe abstinence from any indulgence) also does not protect one from suffering. Third, each person needs to find a balance and moderately disciplined lifestyle that takes account of his or her individual circumstances.

Unlike Confucianism, Taoism focuses more on effortless natural order and the individual rather than on social order and a harmonious society. It emphasizes the “Three Jewels of the Tao”: Right belief, Right knowledge, Right conduct.

Unlike Taoism, which emphasizes natural order, Confucianism emphasizes social order. It promotes a harmonious system linking humankind to society and heaven.

I include Shintoism provisionally as a Taoic branch of Asian Cyclicism on my phylogenetic tree (page 000) because of the general characteristics that it shares with other Taoic schools (e.g., strong emphasis on ancestor veneration, historical veneration of emperors, prolific use of shrines, less concern with the afterlife than the present life). The name Shinto is a combination of the Chinese characters Shen (divine being) and Tao (way).

Ritualistic blood sacrifice was supposedly a cornerstone of Old Norse Polytheism. Animal sacrifice was the most common, although there were also examples of human sacrifice (or perhaps sacral death penalty is a better term). People convicted of certain crimes were sentenced to death and ritually sacrificed to the gods. Their execution was done by hanging or by ritualistic drowning in special temple wells.

The significance of twelve for the special deities of Olympia and the Dii Consentes also followed the Twelve Titan deities of earlier Greek Polytheism. Old Norse Polytheism had twelve special gods overseen by Odin. There were the twelve tribes of Israel, twelve apostles in Traditional Christianity, and twelve imams of Shia Islam. According to the Book of Revelations in the New Testament of the Christian Bible, twelve gates of heaven are guarded by twelve angels. There were twelve aspects of the god Shiva in Hindu Shaivism and twelve Divine Generals in some of the Buddhist denominations. Going back to the first millennium BCE, Mesopotamian astronomers of Babylon created the twelve signs of the Zodiac, which often were associated with Sumerian deities.

Historians estimate that in 1491 CE there were as many as between 75 and 145 million native inhabitants in the New World. By 1550, after fifty years of Spanish conquest and the spread of diseases from Europe that indigenous Americans had no immunity to, it is estimated that only about ten million natives remained.

Monotheistic Dualism may go back as far as the twelfth century BCE. It can be divided into two early patriarchal branches: Zoroastrianism (with the one God of Creation known as Ahura Mazda) and Abrahamic Monotheism (with the one God of Creation known as Yahweh, Jehovah, El, Yaldabaoth, Allah, El Shaddai, God, G_d, or even “he who should not be named”).

I was given this free advance reader copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

#TheEvolutionOfReligions #NetGalley

[Robin C · Rating 5 out of 5]

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. Lance Grande remains neutral, or agnostic if you will, to the different religions. His purpose is to analyze how organized religions came into being, how they change and evolve over time, and how they create new groups and subgroups—or become extinct.

Organized religions developed from early supernaturalism into Asian cyclicism, Old World polytheism, linear monotheism, traditional and reformation Christianity, gnosticism and Biblical demiurgism, and Islam. Grande focuses on each group’s origin and development, doctrines, rituals/practices, and supernatural beings/deities from prehistoric times to today.

From that evolutionary perspective, Grande discovers the history of related traditions (as in the title). He shows how, for example, the Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity, Islam) are historically and ideologically intertwined, but also how they diversified—by using historical and scriptural records. The amazingly detailed charts help us visualize the relationships between religions and the subgroups that grew out of them, while the sidebars, images, and glossary provide additional context.

It’s an imperfect science due to changing archaeological interpretations and new discoveries, variables in oral traditions and written transcriptions, and the physical destruction or recovery of scriptures. That's why Grande created the framework and then invites others to fill in the missing pieces and build upon his work.

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.

Prerelease book provided for review consideration.

[Jeff Rudisel · Rating 5 out of 5]

It would be highly beneficial, I think, if we could all learn more deeply about the evolution of our intellectual heritage.
The evolution of religion has been a prominent integral part of this heritage, and of the course of human progress and civilization.

The process of evolution results in the continual diversification of groups over time. This is true whether those groups are biological or cultural.

RELIGION: Belief systems with supernatural elements.

Religion has sometimes enhanced empathic and altruistic behavior in humans as well as aided in the growth of literacy, writing, and other beneficial aspects of human culture. It has inspired some of humanity’s greatest works of art, music, and literature.
It can also inculcate intolerant, uncompromising, dogmatic, and self-righteous modes of thought which are instrumental in much human strife, conflict, warfare, etc...

This book presents a fascinating study into a evolution and nature of religious thought and history. Such study is vital to understanding our existence.

[Andrea · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Evolution of Religions was a complex book that discussed numerous current,and extinct world religions, and like the title insinuates, also discusses the evolution of what are today's religions and then concludes with where the author believes today's religions are going.

The author goes into great detail about almost all religions presented, in fact, in some cases, maybe too much detail. With one religion - an existing religion - there is seemingly a lack of information. In general, as expected, the Abrahamic monotheistic religions were the most well-discussed. With the conclusion - may be surprising to some but not to others.

[LittleRead · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. I have often said that all religions have commonalities and I adore how the author took us on a journey that shows how religions have evolved and expanded overtime. It also addresses the need for acceptance across religions and I strongly agree with him. Whether you are a member of a more well know organized region, or even agnostic, this is such an interesting work that you will learn much about many practices across the world and over time.

[Jerry James · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant laying-out of the world’s religions into an evolutionary tree that explains religion more completely than ever before.

[D · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book more than I did. The basic idea is interesting, but I found Grande’s command of the content lacking. He isn’t a religion scholar, to be fair. I prefer something more nuanced, i.e. Marilynne Robinson.

I also found the writing style distracting. It would jumped from an impersonal, textbook tone to a personal one. Given the size of the book, I believe the more personal styled sections could have been cut.

All in all, not a terrible overview of world religion.