This book explores three critical questions that blend the functionalist aspects of religion with the evolution of human societies: Why and how did political power and organized religion become so swiftly and successfully intertwined? What has been the role of religion in conflict historically? And what were some of the sociopolitical, demographic as well as economic effects of religiously motivated conflicts? To that end, the book starts by documenting that Christianity and Islam, but to a lesser extent Judaism too, spread among the polities of the Old World within a relatively short course o ... More

This book explores three critical questions that blend the functionalist aspects of religion with the evolution of human societies: Why and how did political power and organized religion become so swiftly and successfully intertwined? What has been the role of religion in conflict historically? And what were some of the sociopolitical, demographic as well as economic effects of religiously motivated conflicts? To that end, the book starts by documenting that Christianity and Islam, but to a lesser extent Judaism too, spread among the polities of the Old World within a relatively short course of time. And those societies that adhered to an Abrahamic monotheism endured longer. The book argues that such facts could be manifestations of some of the sociopolitical comparative advantages inherent to monotheisms. Nonetheless, Abrahamic religions involve some degree of mutual exclusivity as they are all based on the duality of One True God and One True Religion. Taken in tandem with a potent and compelling creed, this meant that there were adherent masses and the faithful that had to, sooner or later, contend with each other. The book then documents that, once monotheisms were pitted against one another as a consequence, differences among them were strong enough to typically trump and relegate disagreements within them. And, in so far as Europe and the Middle East are concerned, the book culminates by documenting how such dynamics produced serious and long-lasting repercussions for the organization of societies as well as their polities.