The axial age and its consequences book description this book makes the bold claim that intellectual sophistication was born worldwide during the middle centuries of the first millennium bce. In the axial age and its consequences robert bellah and hans joas make the bold claim that intellectual sophistication itself was born worldwide during this critical time across eurasia a new self reflective attitude toward human existence emerged and with it an awakening to the concept of transcendence. In the axial age and its consequences robert bellah and hans joas make the bold claim that intellectual sophistication itself was born worldwide during this critical time across eurasia a new self reflective attitude toward human existence emerged and with it an awakening to the concept of transcendence. One of the striking features of the axial age and its consequences is the diversity of its contributions more is drawn from sociology than from other scholarly disciplines but this circumstance is somewhat misleading because the essays are rich in history philosophy and religion