The volume represents a compilation of essays drawn first of all from two conferences related to the celebration of the work of Charles Darwin held at the University of Cambridge in 2009 and the assessment of those papers, subsequently leading to inviting additional contributors and substantial rewriting of those initial conference papers. Thus, the book aims to assess through this collection the current state of a discipline they call an evolutionary cognitive science of religion. The editors do not claim to support or oppose what this discipline has become or the claimed findings of what Turner calls a developed research program. Instead the aim is to produce a forum for assessing the field.

Part of the challenge in assembling this volume out of the beginnings in a conference is to create a sense of unity with the whole. The authors who have responded to the challenge to write for this text are certainly well respected and well known. Contributions by them are likely to be seen as worthwhile regardless of how cohesive the overall argument may seem to be. What makes the task even more of a challenge is the fact that the papers have various aims coming from quite distinct disciplines. Such is the problem with a field that demands interdisciplinary work. Thus, the book can be read for the value of each essay or for an overall impression of the growing work around this research program.

Calling this a research program may be an initial difficulty. The beginnings of thinking about evolutionary theory as a framework for understanding individual and social behavior mark some questions that are not yet fully resolved. Michael Ruse points to the work of E. O. Wilson as one of the pioneers of this field. Still, Wilson's initial claims now seem somewhat dubious even to Wilson. The notion that evolutionary theory can envelop discussions of social development is problematic. One problem noted by Ruse is the dichotomy between explanations that are individual‐centered and those that are group‐centered. In either case, the clear pattern among any of these authors is to work toward an expansion of Darwinian evolutionary theories into something like a defensible theory of social evolution such as we find in the essay by Newson and Richerson. This model also has certain challenges (such as the problem of identifying a means for evolutionary transmission other than the genes, as we know from Dawkins's work.)

Another critical issue clearly is the striking differences between the disciplines involved, especially as this includes not only social‐scientific disciplines but also work from the humanities, a theme that is of central concern for Turner in his essay. Part of the problem is whether the field aims for purely naturalistic explanations or can take seriously the actual content of the religions that assume a form of specific revelation. J. Wentzel van Huyssteen provides an essay attempting to deal with these sorts of questions. Naturally all of this depends a great deal on which direction the research leads us. The conclusions suggested by Pascal Boyer are certainly quite distinct from the work and intent of Daniel Dennett for example.

In the end, the conclusion must be that certain features of this research are promising, but this does not yet represent a clear field. There is little to suggest that there is a dominant paradigmatic theory that produces the basis for a program. It is at best an emerging field of work even as some of the thinking that laid the foundations is now more than a half century in developing. The essays in the volume are of high quality produced by some of the most significant voices in this arena. To assemble this group is an achievement to begin with. The end result is certainly a volume worth having and consuming in careful detail. This may well be an important initiating collection pushing the field toward a clear research program. Above all, the recognition that evolutionary theory is an important aspect of the work already developing around a cognitive science of religion is significant.

The text is well done, but we should also recognize that the essays are at a high level of discussion presuming some basic knowledge of the work already done. It is an important resource for anyone, but it is likely to be best suited for those at an advanced level of work in any of the disciplines involved in the field of evolutionary cognitive science of religion.