A New Science: The Discovery of Religion in the Age of ReasonWe see the word “religion” everywhere, yet do we understand what it means, and is there a consistent worldwide understanding? Who discovered religion and in what context? In A New Science, Guy Stroumsa offers an innovative and powerful argument that the comparative study of religion finds its origin in early modern Europe. The world in which this new category emerged was marked by three major historical and intellectual phenomena: the rise of European empires, that gave birth to ethnological curiosity; the Reformation, which permanently altered Christianity; and the invention of philology, a discipline that transformed Western intellectual thought. Against this complex historical backdrop, Stroumsa guides us through the lives and writings of the men who came to define the word “religion.” As Stroumsa boldly argues, the modern study of religion, a new science, was made possible through a dialectical process between Catholic and Protestant scholars. Ancient Israelite religion, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Manichaeanism, Zoroastrianism, the sacred beliefs of the New World, and those of Greece, Rome, India, and China, composed the complex ground upon which “religion,” a most modern category, was discovered. |
Contents
The Study of Religion as Cultural Criticism | 1 |
Exploring the Worlds Religions | 14 |
Biblical Religion | 39 |
From Biblical Philology to the Study of Judaism | 62 |
Biblical Myth Religious History and Idolatry | 77 |
Iranian Religions and the Idea of Dualism | 101 |
The Discovery of Civil Religion | 145 |
From Ritual to Myth | 158 |
Notes | 169 |
Acknowledgments | 215 |
221 | |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
Acosta antiquity Arabic argued Bayle Beausobre beliefs Bible biblical Bochart Cambridge Catholic Cérémonies chapter Chinese Christian civil religion Claude Fleury concept cult cultures Dictionnaire divine early modern Eastern edition Egyptian eighteenth century Enlightenment Europe European French gion gious gods Greek Hebrew Histoire critique history of religions Homer Huet humankind Hyde Hyde's Ibid idea idolatry impostors Indians instance intellectual Isaac de Beausobre Islam Israel Jesuits Jesus Jewish Jews José de Acosta Judaism Latin Leiden literature London Maimonides Manichaean Manichaeism medieval missionaries modern study monotheism Moses Muhammad Muslims mythology myths natural religion Noahide Laws oriental orientalists original Oxford pagan Paris particular perception Persian philology philosophy polemical Protestant published referred reflected reli religious phenomena Renaissance Richard Simon rituals Roman religion Sabians Samuel Bochart scholarly scholars scholarship Selden seventeenth century siècle Spencer Stroumsa study of religion Testament theologians theology tion tradition translation understand University Press various Zoroaster Zoroastrianism