In Search of Origins

Since at least the 19th century, the question of origins has occupied a leading position in the formulation of theories and models for understanding religion. When, where, how and with what motivations has the human species produced those various systems of practice and belief that we have come to label "religions"? Can one establish a beginning to a history of such efforts? In this book the attempt is made to distinguish carefully between origins and beginnings, to demonstrate the role of myth in the production of religion, and to advance in conclusion a "natural" history of religion based on human biology and environmental development. Several case studies, taken from some of the "usual suspects," help illustrate the emergence of both the problem and the proposed solution over the past century and more. For example, analyses of the psychological, ontological, sociological and psychoanalytic origins of religion provide a backdrop for the author's conclusion that religion is best viewed as an assembly of survival strategies found in the transition of the human species from being purely a prey species to its current status as both prey and predator.