Most Helpful Customer Reviews
|
|
6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The Big Picture of Faith in Our Time and Times Before, April 14, 2006
Wow. An insightful volume that is ABSOLUTELY worth obtaining and reading. It explains the HOW and WHY of religious development in and around the fertile crescent region to as far out as Europe and the outer reaches of India. This sheds new light on the relations between belief systems from just about as far back as we can know to the modern age.
In these 711 pages author Martin A. Larson shows us how the early Egyptian religion of Osiris, Babylonian-Assyrian religion, Greek & Semitic beliefs influenced one another and altered the course of the history of belief. He does a terrific job of outlining each religion, from its claimed origins, myths, theology, ceremonies, prayers, historic events, etc. What Larson's overview style does is allow the reader to consider not only the context, but the impact one religion or school of though may have had upon those that developed later.
There is also what I consider vital information on earlier religions which many people today have little or no knowledge of (they aren't exactly common!), such as the cults of Osiris and Dionysius, Ishtar and Zorastrianism, and possible influences from Hindu and Buddhist belief. Larson offers a stimulating if not convincing theory for the development of later Semitic beliefs, Essene religion, Hellenistic and other Paganism and the advent of Christianity. He explains how early Christianity developed and rose to power, recounting important councils that dictated the future and passed rulings deciding what was Official Christianity(TM) and what was heresy (a veritable encyclopedia on verious early herasies, indeed!). We learn how canonical law was displaced by civil law, and how Islam came to displace Paganism and seriously threaten Christianity, spread like wildfire across Africa and the East. I found Larson's work to be written from more of a humanistic perspective, and not biased from a personal religious perspective. He isn't trying to "sell" any one belief.
Larson includes a bibliography of all cited religious material, a glossary and an index. An excellent overview of a wide varity of beliefs in their historical contexts. Also published under the title, "The Religion of the Occident: The Origin and Development of the Essene-Chrisyian Faith". This is NOT the same book as Larson's "The Essene-Christian Faith".
|
|
|
8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent Book, but why no longer available from publisher??, February 18, 1999
By A Customer
This book was hard to put down, with well-researched, relevant, interesting information. The book was so good, in fact, that I wanted to own my own copy. It is also cited in other similar studies, so why is it no longer available from the publisher? When a publisher sells out of a title, don't they normally re-print?
|
|
|
|
by Acharya S
by Timothy Freke
See all 7 books citing this book
