Evolutionary Theories of Religion

Bellah, Robert N. 2011. Religion in Human Evolution: From the Paleolithic to the Axial Age. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. https://doi.org/10.4159/harvard.9780674063099

Feierman, Jay R., ed. 2009. The Biology of Religious Behavior: The Evolutionary Origins of Faith and Religion. Santa Barbara, CA: Praeger.

Frey, Ulrich, ed. 2010. The Nature of God: Evolution and Religion. Marburg: Tectum Verlag.

Geertz, Armin W. 2013. “Introduction.” In Origins of Religion, Cognition and Culture, edited by Armin W. Geertz, 1–16. Durham: Acumen.

———. 2015. “Religious Belief, Evolution of.” International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences, 2nd Edition, volume 20, 384–395. Oxford: Elsevier. https://doi.org/10.1016/B978-0-08-097086-8.81055-7

Henrich, Joseph. 2016. The Secret of Our Success: How Culture Is Driving Human Evolution, Domesticating Our Species, and Making Us Smarter. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press. https://doi.org/10.1515/9781400873296

Hinde, Robert A. 2010. Why Gods Persist: A Scientific Approach to Religion. Second Edition. 2nd ed. Oxon: Routledge, 1999; London: Routledge, 2010.

Hodder, Ian, ed. 2010. Religion in the Emergence of Civilization: Catalhöyük As a Case Study. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511761416

Kundt, Radek. 2015. Contemporary Evolutionary Theories of Culture and the Study of Religion. London: Bloomsbury Academic.

Lewis-Williams, David. 2010. Conceiving God: The Cognitive Origin and Evolution of Religion. London: Thames and Hudson.

Norenzayan, Ara. 2013. Big Gods: How Religion Transformed Cooperation and Conflict. Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press.

Rue, Loyal. 2005. Religion Is Not about God: How Spiritual Traditions Nurture Our Biological Nature and What to Expect When They Fail. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press.

Schloss, Jeffrey and Michael J. Murray, eds. 2009. The Believing Primate: Scientific, Philosophical, and Theological Reflections on the Origin of Religion. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199557028.001.0001

Slone, D. Jason and James A. Van Slyke (eds.). 2015. The Attraction of Religion: A New Evolutionary Psychology of Religion. London: Bloomsbury Academic.

Stark, Rodney. 2007. Discovering God: The Origins of the Great Religions and the Evolution of Belief. New York: HarperOne.

Tremlin, Todd. 2006. Minds and Gods: The Cognitive Foundations of Religion. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/0195305345.001.0001

Turner, Jonathan H., Alexandra Maryanski, Anders Klostergaard Petersen and Armin W. Geertz. 2018. The Emergence and Evolution of Religion: By Means of Natural Selection. London: Routledge.

Watts, Fraser and Léon Turner, eds. 2014. Evolution, Religion, and Cognitive Science: Critical and Constructive Essays. Oxford: Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199688081.001.0001

Wright, Robert. 2009. The Evolution of God. Boston, MA: Back Bay Books/Little, Brown and Company.

Wunn, Ina and Davina Grojnowski. 2016. Ancestors, Territoriality, and Gods: A Natural History of Religion. Berlin: Springer-Verlag. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-662-52757-3