In July 2024 Thomas Hughson SJ published Neanderthal Religion? Theology in Dialogue with Archaeology, with Foreword by Neil Ormerod, available on Amazon and from Wipf and Stock. The back cover states, "Neanderthals are the most-researched extinct members of genus Homo. They have been gone for somewhere between 28 and 40,000 years, far beyond the reach of cultural memories. An expanding number of archaeologists follow physical evidence to conclude that Neanderthals are, and genetics confirms, co-human with us whose lineage emerged in Africa about 300,000 years ago. Are they are the same as us? No. " Ormerod comments that this "thought-provoking book on what it means to be human," appeals to archaeological evidence. The book discusses religion as spirituality realized in common and early revelation as animist experience of being-alive. The last chapter addresses "Neanderthals and Theological Tradition."
