Evolving God : a provocative view of the origins of religion / Barbara J. King.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

King, Barbara J., 1956-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Religion, Prehistoric.

Anthropology of religion.

Physical Description:

viii, 262 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm

Edition:

First edition.

Place of Publication:

New York : Doubleday, [2007]

Summary:

In this compelling work, Barbara J. King offers a glimpse into the origins of religion in human prehistory, tracing developments from the earliest common relatives of humans and apes, through extinct relatives such as the Neandertals, into the Stone Age, and ending with the first definitive evidence of a human religion.

"We Humans crave emotional connection with others. This deep desire to connect can be explained by the long evolutionary history we shared with other primates, the monkeys and apes. At the same time, it explains why humans evolved to become the spiritual ape-the ape that grew a large brain, the ape that stood up, the ape that invented technology and art, but above all, the ape that evolved God."

Contents:

1 Apes to Angels 1

2 Imagining Apes 29

3 African Origins 61

4 Cave Stories: Neandertals 97

5 More Cave Stories: Homo Sapiens 127

6 Transformations in Time 155

7 Is God in the Genes? 191

8 God and Science in Twenty-first Century America 215.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [239]-249) and index.

ISBN:

0385511043

9780385511049

OCLC:

67405729