The anthropology of Western religions : ideas, organizations, and constituencies / Murray J. Leaf.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Leaf, Murray J., author.

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Religions.

Physical Description:

xii, 263 pages ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Lanham, Maryland : Lexington Books, [2014]

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 obtain 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. Book jacket.

Contents:

Introduction

Backgrounds to the West

Judaism

Early Christianity

Islam

Later Christianity

Conclusion.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

ISBN:

9780739192382

0739192388

OCLC:

870985489