Synopses & Reviews
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.
Synopsis
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.
About the Author
Mircea Eliade (1907-1986) was the Sewell L. Avery Distinguished Service Professor at the Divinity School and professor in the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago. He was one of the most influential scholars of religion of the 20th century and one of the worlds foremost interpreters of religious symbolism and myth. Eliade was the author of many works of scholarship and fiction, including A History of Religious Ideas and ten novels.
Table of Contents
Preface
16. The Religions of Ancient China
17. Brahmanism and Hinduism: The First Philosophies and Techniques of Salvation
18. The Buddha and His Contemporaries
19. The Message of the Buddha: From the Terror of the Eternal Return to the Bliss of the Inexpressible
20. Roman Religion: From Its Origin to the Prosecution of the Bacchanals (ca. 186)
21. Celts, Germans, Thracians, and Getae
22. Orpheus, Pythagoras, and the New Eschatology
23. The History of Buddhism from Mahakasyapa to Nagarjuna. Jainism after Mahavira
24. The Hindu Synthesis: The Mahabharata and the Bhagavad Gita
25. The Ordeals of Judaism: From Apocalypse to Exaltation of the Torah
26. Syncretism and Creativity in the Hellenistic Period: The Promise of Salvation
27. New Iranian Syntheses
28. The Birth of Christianity
29. Paganism, Christianity, and Gnosis in the Imperial Period
30. The Twilight of the Gods
List of Abbreviations
Present Position of Studies: Problems and Progress. Critical Bibliographies
Index