Description:
The past two decades have seen a growing interest in evolutionary and scientific approaches to religion. This is an outstanding reference source to these topics, debates and issues. This is essential reading for students and researchers in religious studies, anthropology and related fields.
Review Quotes:
"With more than thirty contributions spanning evolutionary psychology, cultural evolution, and synthetic approaches, the editors present a panoramic overview of how religion can be studied as a phenomenon shaped by both the brain and culture... The strengths of the volume lie in its breadth, its interdisciplinary ambition, and the quality of its case studies. It successfully illustrates how predictive processing theories, cultural macroevolution, and ecological approaches can enrich the cognitive science of religion... the handbook's greatest contribution is to underscore that evolutionary accounts of religion are themselves evolving, increasingly moving toward pluralism and synthesis. By juxtaposing detailed empirical studies with theoretical reflection, it situates religion within broader debates on cognition, cooperation, and cultural complexity."
- Tianji Ma, Research Foundation for Culture and Religion, Gießen in Religious Studies Review, Vol. 51 No. 4 (Dec 2025)