Features
- Cover Type: Paperback with 580 pages
- Published by: University Of Chicago Press January 15, 1985
- Written in: English
- ISBN 10 Number: 0226204030
- ISBN 13 Number: 978-0226204031
-
Book Dimensions:
9 x 5.9 x 1.4 inches
- Weighs: 1.7 pounds
Product Description
In volume 2 of this monumental work, Mircea Eliade continues his magisterial progress through the history of religious ideas. The religions of ancient China, Brahmanism and Hinduism, Buddha and his contemporaries, Roman religion, Celtic and German religions, Judaism, the Hellenistic period, the Iranian syntheses, and the birth of Christianity—all are encompassed in this volume.
Language Notes
Text: English, French (translation)
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Reader Reviews
This review is from: History of Religious Ideas, Volume 1: From the Stone Age to the Eleusinian Mysteries (History of Religious Ideas) (Paperback)
I like to say that Eliade's work is the first--but not the last--word in comparative religion. The best introduction to his thought is "Patterns in Comparative Religion." The greatness of this history is that Eliade actually writes about almost everything, ever. So these three volumes are a solid introduction to the totality of religion. Since all of us lack familiarity with something, we can all fill in some significant gaps in our knowledge with these books. But unfortunately, it's not the best introduction to any specific thing that it covers. If you already know about some subject, then Eliade's coverage of it proves completely useless and superficial. It seems that Eliade's purpose was to show how every important religious phenomenon in history relates to his pet theories. In his defense, perhaps this is simply inevitable when one person tries to write about all of religion in 1000 pages. Certainly, there is nothing else like this out there because the task is enormous. If nothing else, the fact that Eliade researched and wrote this is amazing.
Search for books at
