The Evolution of Religions

This extraordinarily ambitious and comprehensive book demonstrates how evolutionary theory can yield new insight into the development of organized religion. Lance Grande examines the growth and diversification of hundreds of religions over time, highlighting their historical interrelationships.

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).

E. Fuller Torrey, author of Evolving Brains, Emerging Gods: Early Humans and the Origins of Religion:
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.

Charles Stanish, author of The Evolution of Human Co-operation: Ritual and Social Complexity in Stateless Societies:
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.

Gary M. Feinman, MacArthur Curator of Anthropology, Field Museum of Natural History:
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.

Niles Eldredge, author of Eternal Ephemera: Adaptation and the Origin of Species from the Nineteenth Century Through Punctuated Equilibria and Beyond:
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.

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.