Religion and Art Behavior—A Theory and an Example: The Biblical Prophets as Postcolonial Street Theater

Enough has been written on the cognitive and evolutionary bases of both art and religion to permit a theoretical understanding of these closely related behaviors. My argument is that religion and art are descendants of a common ancestral behavior that cannot be identified as either one or the other but has identifying features of both. It is my contention that such an understanding facilitates an improved comprehension of the history of religion as well as a coherent theoretical explanation of religious pluralism. As an example of the application and implication of this theory I will undertake a brief analysis of Biblical Prophecy as a complex of art forms bearing significant similarities to contemporary postcolonial literature and street theater. Both complexes communicate individual emotional responses to the environment in such that they are transmitted and retained in the local culture and contributory to assured and persistent behavior.