Get Free Shipping on orders over $79
Evolving God : A Provocative View on the Origins of Religion, Expanded Edition - Barbara J. King
eTextbook alternate format product

Instant online reading.
Don't wait for delivery!

Go digital and save!

Evolving God

A Provocative View on the Origins of Religion, Expanded Edition

By: Barbara J. King

Paperback | 21 April 2017 | Edition Number 1

At a Glance

Paperback


$62.75

or 4 interest-free payments of $15.69 with

 or 

Ships in 5 to 10 business days

 
Religion has been a central part of human experience since at least the dawn of recorded history. The gods change, as do the rituals, but the underlying desire remainsâ"a desire to belong to something larger, greater, most lasting than our mortal, finite selves.
 
But where did that desire come from? Can we explain its emergence through evolution? Yes, says biological anthropologist Barbara J. Kingâ"and doing so not only helps us to understand the religious imagination, but also reveals fascinating links to the lives and minds of our primate cousins. Evolving God draws on Kingâs own fieldwork among primates in Africa and paleoanthropology of our extinct ancestors to offer a new way of thinking about the origins of religion, one that situates it in a deep need for emotional connection with others, a need we share with apes and monkeys. Though her thesis is provocative, and sheâs not above thoughtful speculation, Kingâs argument is strongly rooted in close observation and analysis. She traces an evolutionary path that connects us to other primates, who, like us, display empathy, make meanings through interaction, create social rules, and display imaginationâ"the basic building blocks of the religious imagination. With fresh insights, she responds to recent suggestions that chimpanzees are spiritualâ"or  even religiousâ"beings, and that our ancient humanlike cousins carefully disposed of their dead well before the time of Neandertals.
 
King writes with a scientistâs appreciation for evidence and argument, leavened with a deep empathy and admiration for the powerful desire to belong, a desire that not only brings us together with other humans, but with our closest animal relations as well.
 
Industry Reviews

"King draws on cutting-edge research in primatology to demonstrate that once animals are capable of emotional attachments and cognitive empathy, they are ready for--and even appear to require--certain intangibles like a belief in something greater than themselves. . . . Fresh insights . . . lucid writing."

-- "Publishers Weekly"
"King . . . questions the compulsion to choose either evolution or belief. Anyone who recognizes that compulsion, internal or external, may profit from reading this brilliant book."-- "Booklist"
"With [her] opening paragraph, Barbara K. King hooks readers. . . . Once engaged, few will set the book aside."
-- "Dallas Morning News"

More in Archaeology

Discovering Hitler's Fuhrerbunker : Secrets Beneath Berlin - David W. Cameron
The Dawn of Everything : A New History of Humanity - David Graeber
1177 B.C. : The Year Civilization Collapsed: Revised and Updated - Eric H. Cline
Treasures of the Viking Age : The Galloway Hoard - Martin Goldberg
Urbanism and Empire in Roman Sicily - Laura Pfuntner

RRP $92.99

$85.99

Palestine : A Four Thousand Year History - Nur  Masalha
Domination - Alice Roberts

Paperback

RRP $36.99

$29.75

20%
OFF
Istanbul : A Tale of Three Cities - Bettany Hughes

RRP $29.99

$24.99

17%
OFF