Book Review
DAVID LEWIS-WILLIAMS. Conceiving God: the cognitive origin and evolution of religion. 320 pages, 50 illustrations. 2010. London: Thames & Hudson; 978-0-500-051641 hardback £18.95.
Review by Timothy Insoll
School of Arts, Histories and Cultures, University of Manchester
(Email: Tim.Insoll@manchester.ac.uk)
This is a well-written book that draws on some, but not a great deal of archaeological evidence. The contents are well summarised in the preface and unfold thus: following three 'vignettes' on Blombos Cave, the Maya and Sodom and Gomorrah, Chapter 1 considers 'the history of scientific thought from ancient Greece to the Roman Emperor Constantine' (p. 8). Chapter 2 continues the same theme from St Augustine of Hippo to Galileo. Chapter 3 looks at the lives of Charles Darwin and Alfred Russel Wallace and Chapter 4 provides a discussion of 'the ideas that have been advanced to explain how human activities that are readily identifiable as religious have been understood' (p. 9). Chapters 5, 6, and 7 examine religious experience, belief and practice, and chapter 8 analyses Upper Palaeolithic religion. Chapter 9 discusses how religious belief, practice and experience work in medieval Europe (through a case study focused on Hildegard of Bingen) and South Africa (San rock paintings) and the similarities evident in religious visions. Finally Chapter 10 looks at how people are achieving 'freedom of thought' (p. 9) by turning away from religion as manifest through the 'secularization of western civilization' (p. 9).
Some reasonable points are made and it is an interesting read. This reviewer certainly does not want to live in a theocracy and Lewis-William places great emphasis upon science having demonstrated that religion is the result of universal cognitive processes rather than attesting to a supernatural or spiritual realm. Overall, though, the thesis is unconvincing primarily because the empirical basis for the argument is highly selective, with comparisons made between unconnected pieces of evidence in proving the universality of these cognitive experiences. Perhaps more fundamentally it is the simplistic concept of 'religion' that is worrying. Upper Palaeolithic ritual, symbolic behaviours, whatever one's terms of choice, are referred to as 'religion' — which is a wholly inappropriate projection back in time of modern understandings of what 'religion' is. Even if 'religion' is accepted as a useful term to apply to the Upper Palaeolithic then it is probably better described in the plural 'religions' rather than the singular 'religion'. The use of 'religion' in this context is also setting up a simplistic juxtaposition between what are termed 'religious' behaviours, thoughts, etc. and those that are not. In reality it is unlikely such a neat division was made whereby 'religion' existed as a domain separate from thought, action etc. This is clearly evident in many contexts from both world and other religions even today.
The title of the book, especially the subtitle The cognitive origin and evolution of religion, suggests a universality of emphasis that is, unfortunately, not met by the contents. In reality it is a consideration, or rather an assault, on Christianity and Western thought. There is nothing wrong with this; Lewis-Williams provides a good summary of his thinking and recent research, but this is a well-trodden intellectual path and one feels that he should have expanded his thesis to include other religions. Christianity is a soft target, more muscular alternatives such as Islam tend to be avoided by those that do not like 'religion' and Lewis-Williams is no exception here. Hence the book would be better subtitled The cognitive origin and evolution of Christianity.
Even the perspective on Christianity is simplistic and narrow. The final chapter, the most interesting one as it explains Lewis-Williams personal philosophy and outlook on religion, focuses largely on the United Kingdom and the decline of the established Church. Whether this was because the marketing people said it would sell more copies as the audience would better identify with it is unknown. But the data even on the UK is flawed. Yes, the established church is declining, as is Roman Catholicism and Methodism, but Islam and new Christian churches are not, they are growing, so religion is flourishing in some areas and communities. Much of the Christian re-emergence is in immigrant communities, African ones in particular. In portraying the withering of Christianity one need only turn to Africa to witness the exact opposite. Lewis-Williams lives in South Africa; whether this is so there this reviewer does not know, but elsewhere on the African continent and in its Diaspora, Christianity is flourishing as the Ghanaian and Nigerian communities in both West Africa and the UK indicate. Engaging with this would have strengthened the argument, and rewording the title to reflect what the book is actually about would have significantly increased its value.
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