Encyclopedia of World Religions

Fülszöveg

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF WORLD G.T.BETIM The Encyclopedia of World Religions presents in one volume a comprehensive survey of the religious beliefs and praetices of humankind from the dawn of history to the elose of the 19th century. Defining religion "as man s attitűdé towards the unseen, and whatever consequences his belief or attitűdé produces on his conduct or on his relations to fellow men'' G.T. Bettany provides an unbiased aecount of all the major world religions as well as those whose influenee is limited to specific tribes or regions. His aim is to show the common impulses that inform not only the relatively more sophisticated religions such as Buddhism, Islam or Christianity, but alsó that ofthe "primitive" animistic and totemic beliefs ofthe aboriginal peoples of the world. Written in 1890, this remarkable book is an early and important contribution to the eomparative study of religion. Advanees made in the 19th century in the areas of linguistics, anthropology, archaeology and,... Tovább

Fülszöveg

ENCYCLOPEDIA OF WORLD G.T.BETIM The Encyclopedia of World Religions presents in one volume a comprehensive survey of the religious beliefs and praetices of humankind from the dawn of history to the elose of the 19th century. Defining religion "as man s attitűdé towards the unseen, and whatever consequences his belief or attitűdé produces on his conduct or on his relations to fellow men'' G.T. Bettany provides an unbiased aecount of all the major world religions as well as those whose influenee is limited to specific tribes or regions. His aim is to show the common impulses that inform not only the relatively more sophisticated religions such as Buddhism, Islam or Christianity, but alsó that ofthe "primitive" animistic and totemic beliefs ofthe aboriginal peoples of the world. Written in 1890, this remarkable book is an early and important contribution to the eomparative study of religion. Advanees made in the 19th century in the areas of linguistics, anthropology, archaeology and, towering above all, the influenee of Darwinian evolutionary thought, paved the way for a eomparative, non-judgmental approach to the study of religion. Bettany believes that a sober presentation of the facts will allow the reader to draw his own conclusions. His goal is to avoid the extremes, either of exclusive religious zealotry or the complete relativistic position that one belief is as good as another. Vissza