7 Religious Leaders

It may be impossible to tell when and where religious behavior began in our species (Homo sapiens sapiens) and potentially other hominin species like Homo sapiens neanderthalensis and Homo erectus.  But, it may be even more difficult to pinpoint when and where religious leadership began.  What can be said of religious leadership is that its prevalence in all corners of the world, in societies big and small, speaks to its immensely positive effect on the descendant-leaving success of those early humans that implemented traditions to create and maintain positions of religious leadership.

What unites all positions of religious leadership be they a Tuvan shaman in Siberia, the Bishop of an LDS church in Tonga, a tarot card reader at your local renaissance fair, or an exorcist called to a small village in India, is that they are all religious specialists who claim or are claimed to have supernatural powers to whom others go to to be influenced supernaturally or naturally.  They are also claimed to have the ability to commune with the dead, ancestors, and/or other ethereal beings (Steadman and Palmer 2007).

The late Dr. Myles Munroe (Transcript Here) is a perfect representation of this definition.  In the video he claims that he has the supernatural power to open a direct conduit to God, the creator of all things.  The people that attended his sermon very likely have their own copy of the Bible from which they can read the exact same passages he does in his sermon and make up their own minds.  But, the people go to him to hear him interpret the myths.  They purposely sought out Dr. Myles Munroe’s influence.

Much like with myth, without religious leaders, the influence of ancestors on their descendants would dwindle.  In fact, two functions of religious leaders are maintaining and interpreting myths in the light of current circumstances.  Take for instance Dr. Myles Munroe taking a 1000+ year old Christian myth and using it to teach the importance of self-sacrifice in the modern age.  He used the example of “Drano” which did not exist when these myths were created.

These religious specialists are also, importantly, the facilitators of religious communication.  The example in the video shows a medium encouraging the participant to engage in safe social behaviors in front of the participant’s mother.  With the help of the medium and his mother, the participant is warned not to behave antisocially like his grandfather did.

In the following section you will see religious leaders as being the “voices of the ancestor(s).”  They encourage the religious co-descendants they are tasked with influencing to continue cooperating and behaving prosocially with one another.  One of the ways they can do this is through the supernatural ability to speak with and for the ancestors, allowing the ancestors to positively affect their descendants across generations.

Religious leaders have many responsibilities, but their importance to the descendant-leaving success of people that engage in religious behavior is immense.