A History of Religious Ideas

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ISBN: 9780226204017 | 0226204014
Cover: Paperback
Copyright: 4/15/1981

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"No one has done so much as Mr. Eliade to inform literature students in the West about 'primitive' and Oriental religions. . . . Everyone who cares about the human adventure will find new information and new angles of vision."--Martin E. Marty, New York Times Book Review

Preface

xiii

In the Beginning...: Magico-Religious Behavior of the Paleanthropians

(26)

Orientatio. Tools to make tools. The ``domestication'' of fire

The ``opaqueness'' of prehistoric documents

Symbolic meanings of burials

The controversy concerning deposits of bones

Rock paintings: Images or symbols?

The presence of woman

Rites, thought, and imagination among the Paleolithic hunters

The Longest Revolution: The Discovery of Agriculture-Mesolithic and Neolithic

(27)

A lost paradise

Work, technology, and imaginary worlds

The heritage of the Paleolithic hunters

The domestication of food plants: Origin myths

Woman and vegetation. Sacred space and periodical renewal of the world

Neolithic religions of the Near East

The spiritual edifice of the Neolithic

Religious context of metallurgy: Mythology of the Iron Age

The Mesopotamian Religions

(29)

``History begins at Sumer.''

Man before his gods

The first myth of the flood

Descent to the underworld: Inanna and Dumuzi

The Sumero-Akkadian synthesis

Creation of the world

Sacrality of the Mesopotamian sovereign

Gilgamesh in quest of immortality

Destiny and the gods

Religious Ideas and Political Crises in Ancient Egypt

(29)

The unforgettable miracle: The ``First Time.''

Theogonies and cosmogonies

The responsibilities of an incarnate god

The pharaoh's ascent to heaven

Osiris, the murdered god

Syncope: Anarchy, despair, and ``democratization'' of the afterlife

Theology and politics of ``solarization.''

Akh-en-Aton, or the unsuccessful reform

Final synthesis: The association Re-Osiris

Megaliths, Temples, Ceremonial Centers: Occident, Mediterranean, Indus Valley

114

(25)

Stone and banana

Ceremonial centers and megalithic constructions

The ``enigma of the megaliths.''

Ethnography and prehistory

The first cities of India

Protohistorical religious concepts and their parallels in Hinduism

Crete: Sacred caves, labyrinths, goddesses

Characteristic features of Minoan religion

Continuity of the pre-Hellenic religious structures

The Religions of the Hittites and the Canaanites

139

(23)

Anatolian symbiosis and Hittite syncretism

The ``god who disappears.''

Conquering the Dragon

Kumarbi and sovereignty

Conflicts between divine generations

A Canaanite pantheon: Ugarit

Baal conquers the sovereignty and triumphs over the Dragon

The palace of Baal

Baal confronts Mot: Death and return to life

Canaanite religious vision

``When Israel Was a Child''

162

(25)

The first two chapters of Genesis

Paradise lost. Cain and Abel

Before and after the flood

The religion of the patriarchs

Abraham, ``Father of the Faith''

Moses and the departure from Egypt

``I Am Who I Am''

Religion under the judges: The first phase of syncretism

The Religion of the Indo-Europeans. The Vedic Gods

187

(28)

Protohistory of the Indo-Europeans

The first pantheon and the common religious vocabulary

The Indo-European tripartite ideology

The Aryans in India

Varuna, primordial divinity: Devas and Asuras

Varuna, universal king and magician: rta and maya

Serpents and gods

Mitra, Aryaman, Aditi

Indra, champion and demiurge

Agni, chaplain of the gods: Sacrificial fire, light, and intelligence

The god Soma and the drink of ``non-death''

Two Great Gods in the Vedic period: Rudra-Siva and Visnu

India before Gautama Buddha: From the Cosmic Sacrifice to the Supreme Identity Atman-Brahman

215

(32)

Morphology of the Vedic rituals

The supreme sacrifices: asvamedha and purusamedha

Initiatory structure of rituals: Initiation (diksa), royal consecration (rajasuya)

Cosmogonies and metaphysics

The doctrine of sacrifice in the Brahmanas

Eschatology: Identification with Prajapati through sacrifice

Tapas: Technique and dialectic of austerities

Ascetics and ecstatics: Muni, vratya

The Upanishads and the quest of the rsis: How can deliverance from the ``fruits'' of one's own acts be obtained?

The identity atman-Brahman and the experience of ``inner light''

The two modalities of the Brahman and the mystery of the atman captive in matter

Zeus and the Greek Religion

247

(17)

Theogony and struggles between divine generations

Triumph and sovereignty of Zeus

The myth of the first races: Prometheus, Pandora

The consequences of the primordial sacrifice

Man and destiny: The meaning of the ``joy of life''

The Olympians and the Heroes

264

(26)

The fallen great god and the smith-magician: Poseidon and Hephaestus

Apollo: Contradictions reconciled

Oracles and purification

From ``vision'' to knowledge

Hermes, ``the companion of man.''

The goddesses. I: Hera, Artemis

The goddesses. II: Athena, Aphrodite

The heroes

The Eleusinian Mysteries

290

(12)

The myth: Persephone in Hades

The initiations: Public ceremonies and secret rituals

Can the Mysteries be known?

``Secrets'' and ``Mysteries''

Zarathustra and the Iranian Religion

302

(32)

The enigmas

The life of Zarathustra: History and myth

Shamanic ecstasy?

The revelation of Ahura Mazda: Man is free to choose good or evil

``Transfiguration'' of the world

The religion of the Achaemenids

The Iranian king and the New Year festival

The problem of the Magi. The Scythians

New aspects of Mazdaism: The cult of Haoma

Exaltation of the god Mithra

Ahura Mazda and the eschatological sacrifice

The soul's journey after death

The resurrection of the body

The Religion of Israel in the Period of the Kings and the Prophets

334

(23)

Kingship and the monarchy: The apogee of syncretism

Yahweh and the creature

Job, the just man tried

The time of the prophets

Amos the shepherd

Hosea the ill-loved

Isaiah: ``A remnant of Israel'' will return

The promise made to Jeremiah

The fall of Jerusalem. The mission of Ezekiel

Religious valorization of the ``terror of history''

Dionysus, or Bliss Recovered

357

(17)

Epiphanies and occultations of a ``twice-born'' god

The archaism of some public festivals

Euripides and Dionysiac orgiasm

When the Greeks rediscover the presence of the God

List of Abbreviations

374

(2)

Present Position of Studies: Problems and Progress. Critical Bibliographies

376

(104)

Index

480

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A History of Religious Ideas

Summary

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials