Religion and the Human Prospect

Since September 11, 2001, religion has been at the center of debates about the global future. Religion and the Human Prospect relates these issues systematically to a path-breaking interpretation of the history of religion, its part in human development, and its potential role in preventing or enabling global catastrophe. Religion has made possible critical transitions in the emergence and development of human society. At the moment when our humanoid ancestors became aware of the inevitability of death, religion interposed the belief in spiritual beings who gave it new significance. When individual self-interest and collective survival conflicted, religion defended collective survival by codifying its requirements as morality. When inequalities of wealth and power developed, religion extended moral codes to include obligations of dominance and submission. Religion enabled a species facing constant hunger and scarcity to adapt and spread. Today, however, facing ecological disaster, exhaustion of essential natural resources, and the proliferation of nuclear, chemical and biological weapons, religion no longer provides a collective defense mechanism for the human species. Instead, the solutions it has provided have now become central to the problem of human survival.
This magisterial and compelling work weaves together evolutionary theory, anthropology, reflection on theological treatments of the problem of evil, and ideas from literature and philosophy into an account of the human prospect that is truly epic in its ambition and explanatory power.
Table of Contents

Acknowledgments
1. The Human Condition
PART ONE: Religion as an Object of Study
2. Homo Religiosus
3. Tylor´s Definition and the Social Science Stance
PART TWO: Religion and Cultural Evolution
4. The Crisis of Consciousness
5. Morality, Gender, and Class
6. The Evil Empire
7. The Problem of Evil
PART THREE: Religion and the Will to Believe
8. Promethean Readings
9. Theodicy
10. Empiricizing the Spiritual
11. Marxism and the Failed Critique of Religion 12. High Tide at Dover Beach
PART FOUR: Knowing and Believing
13. The Great Lizard Analogy
14. Jerusalem