Religion: What It Has Been And What It Is

Book Summary

Religion: What It Has Been Beginning with a review of the human needs that all religions seek to fulfill, Dr. Williams traces the world's religions as they evolved through four cultural channels: China, India and South Asia, the Near East, and Europe. The histories of all the great religious traditions-Confucianism, the Greek and Roman pantheons, Judaism and Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Taoism, Islam -- evolved through the four great world cultures and often followed empires as they conquered and expanded. Religion: What It Is The various religious traditions are followed down all four cultural streams to contemporary time -- through their confrontations with the Enlightenment, Nietszche ("God is dead "), Freud, and perhaps most profoundly with Darwin. The fundamentalist and moderate threads of both the Islamic and the Judaeo-Christian fabrics are thoughtfully examined. About the author Jay G. Williams is Walcott Bartlett Professor of Religious Studies and past chair of the departments of religious studies and Asian studies at Hamilton College. He is the author of more than fifteen books and monographs and of many articles in comparative religion.

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