Anders Petersen (University of Aarhus) bridges evolutionary biology and New Testament studies to argue that religion functions as emotional investment in shared symbolic systems rather than abstract belief. We discuss why humans aren't naturally social (unlike bees or ants), how pistis means "faithfulness" not "faith," why the Gospel texts are myths rather than historical records, and what it means to embrace Christianity as a 21st-century tradition rather than returning to Jesus's original religion.

Links

- Prof. Petersen's Academia page

- The Emergence and Evolution of Religion (Edited Volume - Affiliate Link)

Anders Klostergaard Petersen is professor and chair of research at the Department for the Study of Religion at Aarhus University, Denmark. He has published extensively in the fields of Late Second Temple Judaism and Early Christianity, as well as on methodological and theoretical questions pertaining to the overall study of religion and culture. He is currently involved in a grand project on cultural evolution with a special focus on the history of religion.