St Andrews Encyclopaedia of Theology (May 2024)
Theology and Cultural Evolution
Abstract
Cultural evolution is a broad theoretical framework that is applied to several disciplinary fields to stress the role that non-genetic information plays in configuring processes of evolution and adaptation, for animals, humans, and societies. Given the interrelationship between genes and culture, the applicability of cultural evolution as a research field is wide ranging. This heuristic allows us to more fully understand the development of religion as well, as a manifestation of cultural evolution and co-evolution. This article analyses the specific features of such processes, and shows how the biological model is too simplistic and that it fails to accurately describe these forms of cultural evolution. First, this article will outline the factors and dynamics relevant to the evolution of religion, drawing on current research across biological and cultural evolution. Secondly, the article will discuss and analyse the theological implications of cultural evolution, some of which are less obvious than others. It will be seen that different lines of inquiry, methods, and theories pertaining to the cultural evolution of religion generate different results. Finally, it will consider how theology needs to reflect on and incorporate such studies, and how theologians can evaluate the theological adequacy of contemporary theories of cultural evolution.
