Essential Sacred Writings

Paperback / softback

Main Details

Title Essential Sacred Writings
Authors and Contributors      By (author) Mircea Eliade
Physical Properties
Format:Paperback / softback
Pages:672
Dimensions(mm): Height 233,Width 156
Category/GenreReligion - general
Sacred texts
Spirituality and religious experience
ISBN/Barcode 9780062503046
ClassificationsDewey:291
Audience
General
Edition New edition
Illustrations indexes

Publishing Details

Publisher HarperCollins Publishers Inc
Imprint HarperOne
Publication Date 12 January 1991
Publication Country United States

Description

Formerly published as "From Primitives to Zen", this book is a collection of religious writings from traditions other than Christianity and Judaism. Selections are excerpted from texts such as the Quran, the Book of the Dead, the Rig Veda, the Bhagavad Gita, the Homeric Hymns and the Popul Vuh. The thematic arrangement allows readers to compare the essential structure and the divergent variety of religious expression throughout the ages and around the world. Descriptions of deities from various sources are arranged together as are myths of creation and of origin, understandings of death and depictions of the afterlife, teachings on the relationship between humanity and the sacred, various religious rituals and practices, prayers and hymns. Indexes allow the reader to substitute an ethnic or geographic arrangement for the thematic one.

Author Biography

Mircea Eliade founded the modern study of the history of religions and wrote many books, including Essential Sacred Writings from Around the World and The Sacred and the Profane. Ioan P. Couliano was the professional heir to Mircea Eliade and the author of Out of This World and The Tree of Gnosis.