Religious Inventions: Four Essays - Hardcover

Charlesworth, Max

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0521590760 ISBN 13: 9780521590761

Publisher: Cambridge University Press, 1997

Synopsis

Many scholars assume that all genuine religions are basically similar and that it is possible to define the sphere of religion in terms of the 'sacred' or the 'holy'. In this book, Max Charlesworth argues that we must take the diversity of religions as a primary fact. Any religion is an active response to a revelation of the divine, and human beings receive these revelations, interpret them and develop them in a variety of ways. To illustrate his thesis, he considers a number of examples of the 'invention' of religion, ranging from Australian Aboriginal religions to the Rhineland mystical movement associated with Meister Eckhart in the early fourteenth century, from the seventeenth-century sects like the Muggletonians, to Roman Catholic attempts in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries to construct a theological account of doctrinal development and also to formulate a Christian ethic.

About this title

Review

'This elegantly slim volume approaches fat and unwieldy issues of religious creativity ... This is an intelligent, wide-ranging and interesting book.' The Times Literary Supplement

Book Description

In this book, Max Charlesworth argues that we must take the diversity of religions as a primary fact, and that we should take account of the human element in the development of religion. He illustrates his thesis with examples ranging from Australian Aboriginal religion, to twentieth-century Roman Catholicism.

Edition details

• Publisher: Cambridge University Press
• Publication date: 1997
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0521590760
• ISBN 13: 9780521590761
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 170