Religious Denominations Of The World Comprising A General View Of The Origin History And Condition Of The Various Sects Of Christians The Jews And Mahometans As Well As The Pagan Forms Of Religion Existing In The Different Countries Of The Earth With Sketches Of The Founders Of Various Religious Sects From The Best Authorities

Author : Tomoko Masuzawa
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
ISBN 13 : 9780226509884
Total Pages : 384 pages
Book Rating : 4.5/5 (98 download)

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Download or read book The Invention of World Religions written by Tomoko Masuzawa and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2005-05-15 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The idea of "world religions" expresses a vague commitment to multiculturalism. Not merely a descriptive concept, "world religions" is actually a particular ethos, a pluralist ideology, a logic of classification, and a form of knowledge that has shaped the study of religion and infiltrated ordinary language. In this ambitious study, Tomoko Masuzawa examines the emergence of "world religions" in modern European thought. Devoting particular attention to the relation between the comparative study of language and the nascent science of religion, she demonstrates how new classifications of language and race caused Buddhism and Islam to gain special significance, as these religions came to be seen in opposing terms-Aryan on one hand and Semitic on the other. Masuzawa also explores the complex relation of "world religions" to Protestant theology, from the hierarchical ordering of religions typical of the Christian supremacists of the nineteenth century to the aspirations of early twentieth-century theologian Ernst Troeltsch, who embraced the pluralist logic of "world religions" and by so doing sought to reclaim the universalist destiny of European modernity.