The Cambridge History Of Religions In The Ancient World

This groundbreaking, first basic reference work on ancient religious beliefs collects and organizes available information on ten ancient cultures and traditions, including Greece, Rome, and Mesopotamia, and offers an expansive, comparative perspective on each one.

The Cambridge Illustrated History of Religions is a comprehensive survey of world religions from pre-history to the present day. Each religion is treated in depth, with text written by a recognized academic expert, and supported by extensive illustrations. The religions covered include Jainism, Chinese and Japanese religions, Hindu religions, Sikhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Buddhism, along with smaller sections on Zoroaster and Parsis, Greek and Rome, Egypt and Mesopotamia, aboriginal religions, Shamanism, and modern religions such as Bahai. The book includes a substantial bibliography, a full chronology for each section, a general chronology giving the most significant dates from all religions, and information on religious phenomena such as festivals and calendars. This is an authoritative reference book which will appeal equally to students of religion, teachers, and general interested readers. John Bowker is the author of The Concise Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (Oxford, 2000), The Complete Bible Handbook: An Illustrated Companion (DK Publishing, 1998) and and The Oxford Dictionary of World Religions (Oxford, 1997). He is Greshan Professor, Greshan College, London and Adjunct Professor at the University of Pennsylvania and North Carolina State University.

Religious beliefs and practices, which permeated all aspects of life in antiquity, traveled well-worn routes throughout the Mediterranean: itinerant charismatic practitioners peddled their skills as healers, purifiers, cursers, and initiators; and vessels decorated with illustrations of myths traveled with them. This collection of essays, drawn from the groundbreaking reference work Religion in the Ancient World, offers an expansive, comparative perspective on this complex spiritual world.

Provides an introduction to the major religions of the ancient Mediterranean and explores current research regarding the similarities and differences among them.

The Cambridge History of Religion in the Classical World provides a comprehensive and in-depth analysis of the religions of the ancient Near East and Mediterranean world. The nineteen essays in this volume begin with the Hellenistic age and extend to the late Roman period. Its contributors, all acknowledged experts in their fields, analyze a wide spectrum of textual and material evidence. An essay by the General Editor sets out the central questions, themes and historical trends considered in Volumes I and II. An essay by William Adler introduces the chapters of Volume II. The regional and historical orientations of the essays will enable readers to see how a religious tradition or movement assumed a distinctive local identity, and consider its development within a broader regional and Mediterranean context. Supplemented with maps, illustrations, and detailed indexes, the volume is an excellent reference tool for scholars of the ancient Near East and Mediterranean world.

A comparative examination and interpretation of religious violence in the Graeco-Roman world and Late Antiquity.