Translated by Alf Hiltebeitel, Diane Apostolos-Cappadona
This volume completes the immensely learned three-volume A History of Religious Ideas. Eliade examines the movement of Jewish thought out of ancient Eurasia, the Christian transformation of the Mediterranean area and Europe, and the rise and diffusion of Islam from approximately the sixth through the seventeenth centuries. Eliade's vast knowledge of past and present scholarship provides a synthesis that is unparalleled. In addition to reviewing recent interpretations of the individual traditions, he explores the interactions of the three religions and shows their continuing mutual influence to be subtle but unmistakable.
As in his previous work, Eliade pays particular attention to heresies, folk beliefs, and cults of secret wisdom, such as alchemy and sorcery, and continues the discussion, begun in earlier volumes, of pre-Christian shamanistic practices in northern Europe and the syncretistic tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. These subcultures, he maintains, are as important as the better-known orthodoxies to a full understanding of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
Author(s): Mircea Eliade
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Year: 1988
Language: English
Pages: 367
Tags: Christianity;Religious;World;History;General;Religious;World;History;Comparative Religion;Religious Studies;Religion & Spirituality;History;Religious Studies;Religion & Spirituality;Theology;Christian;Hinduism;Islam;Judaism;Religious Studies;Religion & Spirituality
Contents
Preface
31. The Religions of Ancient Eurasia: Turko-Mongols, Finno-Ugrians, Balto-Slavs
241. Hunters, nomads, warriors
242. Tängri, the “Celestial God”
243. The structure of the world
244. The vicissitudes of creation
245. The shaman and shamanic initiation
246. Shamanic myths and rituals
247. The meaning and importance of shamanism
248. The religions of the northern Asians and the Finno-Ugrians
249. The religion of the Balts
250. Slavic paganism
251. Rites, myths, and beliefs of the Old Slavs
32. The Christian Churches up to the Iconoclastic Crisis (Eighth to Ninth Centuries)
252. Roma non pereat …
253. Augustine: From Tagaste to Hippo
254. The great predecessor of Augustine: Origen
255. The polemical positions of Augustine: His doctrine of Grace and Predestination
256. The cult of the saints: Martyria, relics, and pilgrimages
257. The Eastern Church and the flowering of Byzantine theology
258. The veneration of icons and iconoclasm
33. Muhammad and the Unfolding of Islam
259. Allah, deus otiosus of the Arabs
260. Muhammad, the “Apostle of God”
261. The ecstatic voyage to Heaven and the Holy Book
262. The Emigration to Medina
263. From exile to triumph
264. The message of the Quran
265. The irruption of Islam into the Mediterranean and the Near East
34. Western Catholicism from Charlemagne to Joachim of Floris
266. Christianity during the High Middle Ages
267. The assimilation and reinterpretation of pre-Christian traditions: Sacred kingship and chivalry
268. The Crusades: Eschatology and politics
269. The religious significance of Romanesque art and courtly romance
270. Esotericism and literary creations: Troubadours, Fedeli d’Amore, and the Grail cycle
271. Joachim of Floris: A new theology of history
35. Muslim Theologies and Mystical Traditions
272. The fundamentals of the mainstream theology
273. Shî’ism and the esoteric hermeneutic
274. Ismailism and the exaltation of the Imâm; the Great Resurrection; the Mahdî
275. Sufism, esoterism, and mystical experiences
276. Several Sufi masters, from Dhû’l-Nûn to Tirmidhî
277. Al-Hallâj, mystic and martyr
278. Al-Ghazzâlî and the reconciliation between Kalâm and Sufism
279. The first metaphysicians. Avicenna. Philosophy in Muslim Spain
280. The last and greatest thinkers of Andalusia: Averroës and Ibn Arabî
281. Sohrawardî and the mysticism of Light
282. Jalâl al-Dîn Rûmî: Sacred music, poetry, and dance
283. The triumph of Sufism and the reaction of the theologians. Alchemy
36. Judaism from the Bar Kokhba Revolt to Hasidism
284. The compilation of the Mishnah
285. The Talmud. The anti-Rabbinic reaction: The Karaites
286. Jewish theologians and philosophers of the Middle Ages
287. Maimonides between Aristotle and the Torah
288. The first expressions of Jewish mysticism
289. The medieval Kabbalah
290. Isaac Luria and the new Kabbalah
291. The Apostate Redeemer
292. Hasidism
37. Religious Movements in Europe: From the Late Middle Ages to the Eve of the Reformation
293. The dualistic heresy in the Byzantine Empire: The Bogomils
294. The Bogomils in the West: The Cathars
295. Saint Francis of Assisi
296. Saint Bonaventure and mystical theology
297. Saint Thomas Aquinas and scholasticism
298. Meister Eckhart: From God to the Deity
299. Popular piety and the risks of devotion
300. Disasters and hopes: From the flagellants to the devotio moderna
301. Nicholas of Cusa and the twilight of the Middle Ages
302. Byzantium and Rome. The filioque problem
303. The Hesychast Monks. Saint Gregory Palamas
38. Religion, Magic, and Hermetic Traditions before and after the Reformation
304. The survival of pre-Christian religious traditions
305. Symbols and rituals of a cathartic dance
306. “Witch hunts” and the vicissitudes of popular religion
307. Martin Luther and the Reformation in Germany
308. Luther’s theology. The polemic with Erasmus
309. Zwingli, Calvin, and the Catholic Reformation
310. Humanism, Neoplatonism, and Hermeticism during the Renaissance
311. New valorizations of alchemy: From Paracelsus to Newton
39. Tibetan Religions
312. The “religion of men”
313. Traditional conceptions: Cosmos, men, gods
314. The Bon: Confrontations and syncretism
315. Formation and development of Lamaism
316. Lamaist doctrines and practices
317. The ontology and mystical physiology of Light
318. Current interest in Tibetan religious creations
Notes
List of Abbreviations
Present Position of Studies: Problems and Progress. Critical Bibliographies
Index
