When ancient humans cried out for answers in a chaotic world filled with volcanic eruptions, tornadoes, meteor strikes and other calamitous events, they often looked for supernatural explanations.

When you think of religion, you probably think of a god who rewards the good and punishes the wicked. But the idea of morally concerned gods is by no means universal. Social scientists have long known ...

[Vienna, July 21, 2025] –The book Seshat History of Moralizing Religion explores how societies across the world have answered some of the oldest human questions: What do the gods want from us? Will we ...

Harvey Whitehouse’s work on this project was supported by an Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Large Grant, an Advanced grant from the European Research Council, a grant from the European ...