The Anthropology of Western Religions: Ideas, Organizations, and Constituencies

Murray J. Leaf

doi:10.5771/9780739192399

Summary

The world’s “great” religions depend on traditions of serious scholarship, dedicated to preserving their key texts but also to understanding them and, therefore, to debating what understanding itself is and how best to do it. They also have important public missions of many kinds, and their ideas and organizations influence many other important institutions, including government, law, education, and kinship. The Anthropology of Western Religions: Ideas, Organizations, and Constituencies is a comparative survey of the world’s major religious traditions as professional enterprises and, often, as social movements. Documenting the principle ideas behind Western religious traditions from an anthropological perspective, Murray J. Leaf demonstrates how these ideas have been used in building internal organizations that mobilize or fail to mobilize external support.

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Bibliographic data

Edition: 1/2014
Copyright Year: 2014
ISBN-Print: 978-0-7391-9238-2
ISBN-Online: 978-0-7391-9239-9
Publisher: Lexington, Lanham
Language: English
Pages: 263
Product Type: Monograph

1. Contents No access
2. List of Illustrations No access
3. Preface No access
4. Acknowledgments No access
1. Other Approaches No access
2. “Higher” Traditions in General No access
3. Further Reading No access
4. Websites No access
1. Geopolitics No access
2. City Gods and Law No access
3. Gilgamesh Epic No access
4. Gods and Oaths No access
5. Family and Clan Gods No access
6. Mystery Cults No access
7. Zoroastrianism No access
8. Greek and Roman Philosophy No access
9. Conclusion No access
10. Further Reading No access
11. Notes No access
1. Central Ideas No access
2. Biblical History No access
3. Legal Content in the Tanakh No access
4. Subsequent Developments No access
5. Ceremonies No access
6. Recent Organizational Developments No access
7. Conclusion No access
8. Further Reading No access
9. Notes No access
1. Core Ideas No access
2. The Life of Christ No access
3. The Gospels in the Context of Judaism No access
4. Christianity beyond the Jewish Context No access
5. Formation of the Canon No access
6. Christianity’s Two Idea Systems No access
7. Conclusion: The End of Early Christianity No access
8. Further Reading No access
9. Notes No access
1. Foundation No access
2. The Division Between Sunni and Shia No access
3. Elements of Doctrine No access
4. Organizations No access
5. Constituency No access
6. Baha’i No access
7. Ahmadiyya movement No access
8. The Arab Spring No access
9. Conclusion No access
10. Further Reading No access
11. Notes No access
1. Roman Catholicism: Centralization No access
2. The Crusades and Inquisition No access
3. Pre-Reformation Heretical Movements No access
4. The Renaissance and the Reformation No access
5. The Counter-Reformation No access
6. The Radical Reformation No access
7. The Great Awakenings No access
8. United Church of Canada No access
9. “Marginal” Christians No access
10. Critical Scholarship and Public Theology No access
11. Conclusion No access
12. Further Reading No access
13. Notes No access
1. Religion and Social Development No access
2. Religion and Ethics No access
3. Final Thought No access
Bibliography No access Pages 253 - 256
Index No access Pages 257 - 262
About the Author No access Pages 263 - 263