Description:

The intention of this book is to provide a simple and practical working instrument for teachers and students who must present or study an aspect of the religious history of humanity in keeping with the cursus of the National Education Board. But… Read more  this “textbook” also aims to reach a wider public of readers sufficiently motivated to search for definitions and other elucidating facts.
The authors have chosen a panorama presentation, like a guided tour.
The objective is to introduce the history of religions by inviting readers to discover, systematically, what this discipline is about; the vocabulary it uses and the questions it asks. What is the history of religions? Can we define what we call a religion? Can we explore the history of religions without losing ourselves in the maze of religious phenomena? How should we understand its sporadic, fragmentary inscription in the national curriculum of France, a secular country? This book gives indispensable information to understand words such as sacred, icon, divine, idol, soul, sacrifice, etc. It treats questions of belonging and belief with many concrete examples in religions of the whole world.
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