The Evolution of God »

Robert Wright is the author of Three Scientists and Their Gods and The Moral Animal, which was named by the New York Times Book Review as one of the twelve best books of the year and has been published in nine languages. A recipient of the National Magazine Award for Essay and Criticism, Wright has published in The Atlantic, The New Yorker, the New York Times Magazine, Time, and Slate. He was previously a senior editor at The New Republic and The Sciences and now runs the Web site nonzero.org.

The prize-winning author of The Moral Animal and Nonzero presents a groundbreaking examination of religion through the ages.

The New York Times - Paul Bloom

In his brilliant new book, The Evolution of God, Robert Wright tells the story of how God grew up. … Wright's tone is reasoned and careful, even hesitant, throughout, and it is nice to read about issues like the morality of Christ and the meaning of jihad without getting the feeling that you are being shouted at. His views, though, are provocative and controversial. There is something here to annoy almost everyone.

Introduction 3

I The Birth and Growth of Gods

1 The Primordial Faith 9

2 The Shaman 29

3 Religion in the Age of Chiefdoms 46

4 Gods of the Ancient States 70

II The Emergence of Abrahamic Monotheism

5 Polytheism, the Religion of Ancient Israel 99

6 From Polytheism to Monolatry 131

7 From Monolatry to Monotheism 165

8 Philo Story 188

9 Logos: The Divine Algorithm 216

III The Invention of Christianity

10 What Did Jesus Do? 245

11 The Apostle of Love 264

12 Survival of the Fittest Christianity 288

13 How Jesus Became Savior 303

IV The Triumph of Islam

14 The Koran 329

15 Mecca 344

16 Medina 355

17 Jihad 375

18 Muhammad 389

V God Goes Global (or Doesn't)

19 The Moral Imagination 409

20 Well, Aren't We Special? 431

Afterword: By the Way, What Is God? 444

Appendix How Human Nature Gave Birth to Religion 460

A Note on Translations 484

Acknowledgments 486

Notes 489

Bibliography 542

Index 555