New Science

Guy G. Stroumsa is Martin Buber Professor Emeritus of Comparative Religion at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and Professor Emeritus of the Study of the Abrahamic Religions at the University of Oxford.

• * Preface Introduction: The Study of Religion as Cultural Criticism I. Paradigm Shift: Exploring the World's Religions * A New World: Religions Unthinkable * A New Science: Explorers of Religions II. Respublica Hebraeorum: Biblical Religion and European Culture *Antiquitates Judaicae: The Early Modern Study of Israelite Religion *Homeros Hebraios: Homer and the Bible at the Origins of European Culture III. From Biblical Philology to the Study of Judaism IV. Biblical Myth, Religious History, and Idolatry * Noah's Sons and the Religious Conquest of the Earth * Idolatry and Its Roots V. Iranian Religions and the Idea of Dualism * The Prophet of Iran and Zoroastrianism * The Birth of Manichaean Studies VI. From Mohammedis Imposturae to the Three Impostors: The Study of Islam and the Enlightenment VII. From China to Rome: The Discovery of Civil Religion * Chinese Atheism and the Querelle des Rites * Enlightenment Perceptions of Roman Religion * Epilogue: From Ritual to Myth * Notes * Acknowledgments * Index of Names * Index of Subjects

An erudite and enormously informative work. This book will be a useful guide to the hitherto neglected area of the earlier history of European religious discourse. It also can be an enjoyable reading in its own right for those with an appetite for a rich historical overview.