Meet the Author
Robert Bellah is “a sociologist and a sermonizer, a believer in God and in reason . . His books and essays over five decades have provoked the ire of the Christian right (for economic views some find heretical).” Bellah taught sociology at Harvard University for a decade, then for three decades at the University of California – Berkeley, where he has served as Elliott Professor of Sociology, Emeritus since retiring. Bellah’s recent books include Imagining Japan: The Japanese Tradition and its Modern Interpretation (2003), The Robert Bellah Reader (2006), and Religion in Human Evolution: From the Paleolithic to the Axial Age (2011).
Book Basics
Religion in Human Evolution is a meticulously constructed academic tome (700+ pages) that effectively explores Bellah’s understanding of how religion developed within the larger framework of human evolution from the paleolithic to the axial age. The account of religious beginnings and formation is interdisciplinary and comparative, displaying the author’s incredible knowledge of the subject matter. Finally, the extended treatment of four axial cases (Israel, Greece, China, and India) provides a solid summary of recent scholarship while also displaying the author’s humility (e.g., his appraisal of his own limited knowledge about ancient India prior to his research for this book – p. 481).
So What?
In Bellah’s concluding remarks he writes
I have tried to show that the evolution of life and culture gives no ground for any kind of triumphalism. I do believe we need to speak of evolution, which is the only shared metanarrative among educated people of all cultures that we have, but in a way that shows the dangers as well as the success in evolution and that is not afraid to make distinctions between good and evil (p. 600).
What is your understanding of the role of evolution within your own religious tradition? If you are familiar with the story of religion before the axial age, how does that perspective enhance your appreciation of the role of evolution within the religious realm?
Robert N. Bellah. Religion in Human Evolution: From the Paleolithic to the Axial Age (Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2011). ISBN: 9780674061439.