Abstract
The evolution of the Abrahamic religions begins with the proto-religion of Middle Palaeolithic interments in the Fertile Crescent, it continues in the two-phase funerals of Jericho, all the way to the veneration of local deities on the hilltop sanctuaries of Judah, then it passes through an early henotheism and monotheism in the kingdom of Judah, followed by the Babylonian exile with its various influences, develops into Second Temple Judaism with its different communities and also into the religion of Samaria. Two daughter religions emerge from Second Temple Judaism, rabbinic Judaism and Christianity, from which in turn the Karaites (eighth century) and the Mormons (nineteenth century) split off respectively. An ancient form of Judaism on the Arabian Peninsula or a secondary, simplified variety of rabbinic Judaism turns into Islam in the seventh century, from which in turn various daughter religions develop: Druse, Yezidi, Ahamadiyya-Islam, Baha’i, and Alevism.
This of course should not be misunderstood as a teleological development! We merely wish to trace retrospectively how the modern Abrahamic religions developed. It has hopefully become clear so far that numerous side-branches existed which have partially become extinct or which have developed into other religions (see Chap. 12).
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Notes
- 1.
“Nothing in Biology makes sense, except in the light of evolution”, Dobzhansky wrote in his seminal article published in 1973, and in fact it is the Theory of Evolution which allows us to organise the masses of species, the variety of life on earth, logically and also to explain their existence. This applies not only to all currently living species but also for those that are now extinct, which can all be incorporated into a genealogical tree of living nature based on the Theory of Evolution. Consequently, no animal, no plant can exist without its respective predecessors to whom it can be traced back. Each new species is based on its predecessor, whose inheritance it has taken on and adapted to its specific environment in the process of adaptation. This leads to the graded similarities of different groups of organisms which allow us to locate each animal or plant species in its place on a genealogical tree of living nature, which in turn reflects their line of descent. This also means that possible holes in the tree can be filled with the help of reconstruction: on the basis of their ancestors’ and descendants’ appearance, we can say what such a missing link would have looked like, and if we know where, in which environment and under what conditions the respective example had lived, we can even reconstruct its possible appearance.
- 2.
To reiterate: this stands in contrast to a development in which a predetermined program is followed. Thus, biology differs carefully between ontogenesis (individual development which adheres to a predetermined, largely genetically fixed program) and phylogenesis, which adheres to a mainly random program.
- 3.
- 4.
We have described the development of religion extensively using archaeological evidence in Wunn and Grojnowski 2016.
- 5.
The question of whether, how, and with what results, the Idumeans had been forcibly converted and how our sources present the issue, has been discussed frequently. See exemplary, and with further literature, Grojnowski 2014.
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Wunn, I., Grojnowski, D. (2018). Survival of the Fittest, or: Creation and Evolution of the Abrahamic Religions. In: Religious Speciation. New Approaches to the Scientific Study of Religion , vol 6. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-04435-0_14
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