Bibliografisk note

Abstract
The article addresses controversial questions related to Robert N. Bellah’s Religion in Human Evolution: From the Paleolithic to the Axial Age (2011), and the sequel, The Axial Age and its Consequences (2012). Discussed is the difference between the macro-historical hypothesis of an axial age and more abstract aspects of axiality. Critical questions are raised about whether Bellah’s theory of the emergence of religion in play and ritual does not underestimate the
cognitive functions of pre-axial religion. Finally, Bellah’s project raises questions
as to the creative transitions taking place in post-axial epochs, not least due to the development of canonical traditions in the first centuries CE, and to the emergence of concepts of autonomous individuals in early modernity.