This is a major contribution to the evolutionary study of religion. Sanderson masterfully engages both the rich historical scholarship on religion and the contemporary theoretical work on the evolution of religion, offering a novel and insightful analysis. The evolutionary study of religion is fortunate to have a scholar of such breadth, proficiency, and dedication wrestle with the most pressing questions in the field.

Richard Sosis, James Barnett Professor of Humanistic Anthropology, University of Connecticut, USA

Sanderson makes an important contribution to the question of diversity, arguing that religions are essentially biosocial adaptations to changing environments. This bold new theory deserves serious attention from, and systematic testing by, a wide range of scholars and scientists.

Harvey Whitehouse, Director of the Institute of Cognitive and Evolutionary Anthropology, University of Oxford, UK

Sanderson argues persuasively that such movements as the transcendental “world” religions of the Axial and subsequent ages reflect changing social conditions. These religions were responses, he holds, to increasing population pressures, political and ethnic alienation, and warfare, from which their adherents sought salvation.

Stewart Elliott Guthrie, Professor Emeritus of Anthropology, Fordham University, USA