The Western construction of religion: myths, knowledge, and ideology

Contents:Introduction: Religion, the West, and the History of ReligionsI The West and Religion1. A Central Concept The Mirror of the West Singular Universes Religio and Religion Texts, Corpora, and Hypertext Cosmographical Issues2. A Paprdoxical Subject Religions or Religious Phenomena? History or Histories?3. An Uncertain Anthropological Calling A Nebula of Definitions An Absence of Criteria Imprecise and Shifting Boundaries Arbitrary Typologies A Scattering of Monographs Arbitrary, Narcissistic ObjectivizationII Order and History4. Christianity and the West A Unique History Interiorization and Universalization Autonomy and Imperialism5. Continuities A General Topic A Major Paradigm Exemplary ThesesIII The Genealogy of a Western Science6. The History of Religions in the Nineteenth Century Ubiquitous Prejudices Myths and Science A Science of Its Time7. Three Twentieth-Century Debates The Sociological Explanation Historians and Phenomenologists The Invention of Homo religiosusIV From Religions to Cosmographic Formations8. The West, Religion, and Science9. ProlegomenaNotes Index