CONTENTS

Chapters in this book

1. Frontmatter i
2. CONTENTS vii
3. Image x
4. PREFACE. A MODERN EVOLUTIONARY APPROACH TO HISTORY OF RELIGION STUDIES xi
5. INTRODUCTORY SECTION. APPLYING EVOLUTIONARY THEORY AND PHILOSOPHY TO ASPECTS OF HUMAN CULTURE
6. Image 1
7. 1 Religions, Classification, and Phylogenetic Pattern 3
8. 2 Explaining Hypothetical Patterns with Evolutionary Process Theory 23
9. MAIN SECTION. THE HISTORICAL DIVERSIFICATION (EVOLUTION) OF RELIGIONS
10. Image 44
11. 3 Early Supernaturalism and the Development of Organized Religion 45
12. 4 Indigenous Eastern Organized Religion and Asian Cyclicism 71
13. 5 Afro-Euro-Mediterranean Organized Religion, Beginning with Old World Hard Polytheism 159
14. 6 Linear Monotheism 261
15. 7 The Early Diversification of Abrahamic Monotheism 287
16. 8 Traditional Christianity 323
17. 9 Reformation Christianity 367
18. 10 Biblical Demiurgism: A Subgroup of “Gnosticism” 415
19. 11 Islam 439
20. CONCLUDING SECTION. FOUR HISTORICAL TRENDS IN THE EVOLUTION OF RELIGIONS AND CONSIDERATIONS FOR THE FUTURE OF HUMANITY
21. Image 486
22. 12 Organized Religions and the Evolution of Human Society 487
23. END MATERIALS
24. Acknowledgments 515
25. Glossary of Select Terms 517
26. Notes 529
27. Chapter Citations 595
28. References 603
29. Figure Credits 643
30. Subject Index 651