A History of Religious Ideas: From Muhammad to the Age of Reforms (History of Religious Ideas) Vol.3 (Paperback)

by Mircea Eliade (Author), Alf Hiltebeitel (Translator), Diane Apostolos-Cappadona (Translator)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

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.

Product Details

• Paperback: 367 pages
• Publisher: University Of Chicago Press (March 15, 1988)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0226204057
• ISBN-13: 978-0226204055
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #493,471 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Very good, just like the other parts of the series, August 15, 2000

By	Tomas Cvrcek "old_chig" (Central, SC, USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Mircea Eliade could be reasonably considered as one of the Re-founding Fathers of modern study of religion. His History of Religious Ideas is thus one of the corner stones of modern research in this field. This particular part of his history is as well written as the others. It deals very well with most of the improtant currents in mediaeval Christianity, including the spread of Christianity to Slav tribes, the Cluny rerform, the religious life associated with the rise of mendicant orders, Meister Eckhart, devotio moderna but he does not forget about the rise of neopaganism in Renaissance Italy, about the role of alchemy in religious feeling of the sixteenth century, he even ventures to say that modern physics was created almost unintentionally. This book is truly amazing.

There are also some down sides to the book. One, it cannot be taken as the "state-of-the-art" of religous study. Eliade has been surpassed by new research in the field. It is therefore better to use the book as a general background. Second, it has been shown that Eliade unfortunately developed the habit of sometimes stretching the truth to fit his analysis. He did not use this questionable method to such an extent as to render his whole analysis worthless but it does cast a shadow on his academic honesty.

BTW, I do not feel qualified to comment on his treatment of religious phenomena outside the Judeo-Christian cultural sphere.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Triumph of the Idea of Ideas, January 2, 2004

By	Avid Reader (Franklin, Tn) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

The final volume of the trilogy is the smallest, the most succinct and the most approachable of the three. After a brief review of the religions of Eurasia (from Turkey to Finland) we plunge in to the formative years of Christianity when the first step is taken toward ensuring an orthodoxy that would later be enforced with torture. Origen and Augusting, the two greatest writers of the church, are discussed in this context.

Next is the story of Islam - or rather Muhammed - and how he became a warrior-ruler, leading his tribe to ever larger victories over Christendom. The lonely years of Judaism (from the fall of the Roman Empire to late in the Middle Ages) is given a empathetic hearing before moving onto the church in the Middle Ages, the Reformation and Counter-Reformation. Finally, a last look at Buddhism, the Tibetan way. ALways informative and entertaining, provocative with his conclusions.

1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Magisterial, February 15, 2006

By	Francis McInerney (Katonah, NY United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This three volume series is an excellent overview of human thinking and aspiration. The accomplishment is magnificent, a life work.

Editing: Four Stars. Translations are always difficult.

Copy Editing: Five Stars. Very clean.