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Jung and Freud loved to speculate on the origins of religious ideas. Two of Freud's major books, Totem and Taboo and Moses and Monotheism explored the origins of religious beliefs and
practices. Religious and mythological speculations were central to the entire corpus of Jung's work, as he examined the archetypal images that, in his view, welled up from the collective unconscious to populate dreams, myths, and religious experiences. We are more circumspect now, more secular and more suspicious of big ideas and big theories, especially about religion.
In medical research, religion has enjoyed a modest revival as a surprising number of studies have attempted to examine the physiological correlates of religious experiences and the efficacy of prayer. Ironically, religion has re-emerged as a subject worthy of study under the broad umbrella of alternative medicine, as another quaint and curious belief system worthy of study in that isolated context, like acupuncture or Ayurvedic medicine. Psychoanalysis has been less eager to re-embrace religion. Freudian and Jungian theories about the nature of religion are at their best, brilliant and illuminating. To the postmodern reader however, they can seem Eurocentric and biased and project modern Western issues onto the experience of “primitive” man.
In this context it is refreshing to read Robert Bellah's definitive work, Religion in Human Evolution. Bellah, who died in August of 2014, was a pre-eminent scholar in the field of religious anthropology. Decades in the writing, The Evolution of Religion is his magnum opus. In it he traces the development of religion from the origins of the human species to the Axial Age. In the Axial Age, Greek, Hebrew, Chinese, and Indian cultures developed religions which were modern in form, with a universal theological message.
While it is difficult to convey the true depth and richness of a 600-page work with 40 pages of footnotes, some examples of key concepts will help. Bellah describes in