A History of Religious Ideas, Volume 1: From the Stone Age to the Eleusinian Mysteries Paperback – April 15, 1981

Mircea Eliade was a genius, a polymath, and his three-volume history of religious ideas deserves to go on your bookshelf right next to Copleston's history of philosophy.I want this review to be brief, so I'll just point out that Page One is really worth the price of the entire book. On that page, Eliade simply reprints his earlier thoughts on religion in general, which strike me as absolutely true: around the world and throughout recorded time, we human beings have been religious.And this is something which really deserves serious thought and examination. I myself am about as religious as a pea, but I cannot help noticing that I am in a distinct minority. Then I look at Page One again, and think again about Eliade's statement that religion is a constant of human consciousness, NOT an historical stage which we have passed through.Well, the man who most fervently believed that religion was "only a phase" was Mr. Karl Marx, who nowadays looks to have been proven wrong about almost everything.As Eliade says, "it is difficult to imagine how the human mind could function without the conviction that there is something irreducibly *real* in the world; and it is impossible to imagine how consciousness could appear without conferring a *meaning* on man's impulses and experiences. Consciousness of a real and meaningful world is intimately connected with the discovery of the sacred.....Living, considered as being human, is in itself a *religious act*, for food-getting, sexual life, and work have a sacramental value. In other words, to be --- or, rather, to become --- *a man* signifies being 'religious.' "This might well be compared with Larkin's poem, "Church Going."Perhaps the question for us non-believers is not so much to "convert" others, as to try to define a religion that works for everyone. Just as an example, I cannot see any reason why a religious life should involve a conflict with science, or an easily-falsifiable belief that the Earth was created in 4,000 BC.In any case, Volume I begins with the Paleolithic -- the earliest hunter-gatherers. It continues through "the longest revolution" --- agriculture -- the Mesolithic and the Neolithic. The next stop is Mesopotamia and Sumer / Babylon, followed by the religious ideas of the Pharoahs. There is a "detour" into the mystery of the megaliths (Stonehenge etc.). There follows a discussion of the Hittites and the Canaanites, early Israel, and then a sudden shift to the Europeans and the Indian Vedic gods. The rest of the volume deals with the phases of Greek religion, Indian religion before Buddha, and Zarathustra.That's just Volume I of an extremely detailed and thorough history of our religious ideas.

I believe this book should be in fundamental history and anthropology courses, and I feel so bad I’m only picking it up now as a 30-year-old.I knew of Professor Eliade as my family is Romanian and I would hear him brought up in conversation and in media.My undergraduate thesis was dispelling the idea of vampires as a Transylvanian and discovering the matriarchal Paleolithic societies and goddess cultures that were hidden was eye opening. Eliade’s book brings the interdisciplinary approach to history, anthropology, philosophy, and religion. Within the first chapter I learned more than my graduate courses combined.A must read!

I recommend Eliade to anyone who is studying, or has an interest in, understanding real cultural understanding as it applies to the early Europeans. I bought this book used, and it arrived in good condition with clean text. This is a meaty book with loads of detail and comprehension. I would suggest pairing it with Eliade's Sacred and Profane for an even more in-depth analysis.

These compilations on the History of Religions around the world are great and very easy to read. They are a must for anyone interested in the subject of comparative religion and mythology and the discovery of the psychological archetypes that are universally found around the world and in all ages. A History of Religious Ideas is written in a very friendly manner and exposes the universal principles of religion in the history of humanity. We will add as a notice that we encountered the 4th volume to this set. The 3rd Volume of this series ends with section 318 which deals with Tibetan Religions. The 4th volume which is originally Geschite der religiosen Ideen, III/2 (and that we have the Spanish translation) goes from Chapter XL to L and continues the 3 Vol. series with the section number of 319. The 4th part of this series deals with religion in Center-America, Taoism, Indonesia, Oceania, Australia, West Africa, East and Central Africa, South American Shamanism, North American Sioux-Oglala religion, Japanese religion, and the secularization in Europe until our times. It seems the original work of Eliade was 440 sections of which the 3 volumes cover 318. There is also the work that is an extension of this compendium which is titled From Primitives to Zen: A Thematic Sourcebook on the History of Religions. These works revolutionize the way we see religion. Eliade, with a historical worldview of religion shows us the reality of "homo religiosus" as Eliade says.

One of the best books on History of Religions and one of the most fav ones from this author! Mircea Eliade is a must!

"Images & Symbols" has been a favorite of mine for years. I had assumed that "A History of Religious Ideas" would have become obsolete. I was delighted to find that it was not. For me, it is the best presentation of the materials that I have found. There are two types of writers: those who write to impress and those who write to express. I feel Eliade is of the second type. It left me feeling that I had a good grasp of the relationships beyween time and the appearances of the separate manifestations of man's religios search. I liked his interpretations of the facts, except for the cave bears. I'll go withe Joseph Campbell on that one. I've added it to my personal favorites list. I am not a scholar, just an avid fan of the subject. I would recomend it as a primer before tackling Campbell or Erich Neumann, both of whom I consider to be writers of the first kind, although both are on my faverate list also.

Wow. Detailed explanations and theories of religious ideas. Extremely enlightening and well worth the read. Interesting how this could form the basis of fantasy religions for fiction.

Eye opening, should be taught in schools!