Religion in World History
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loginThis book inquires into the relationship between religion and history. Itgrapples with the manifestations of religion in the cultural and political realmsof the human experience. We approach the subject as historians, but not in theway that Arnold Toynbee did in his An Historian’s Approach to Religion(1956).We are less concerned with religion and the theological and philosophical problems associated with it than with the easily observable expressions ofreligion in history. Religion is much like a sailboat, tacking back and forthacross the pages of the past. The keel and ballast are hidden, the rigging andsails visible. All are important, but our concern is with the rigging and thetrim of the sails, and the way that the boat moves back and forth.By its nature the book is a synthesis, and its intellectual debt is vast. Thebibliography only hints at the number of works available for studying the waythat religion influences the past and present. More specifically, we wish to thankPeter Stearns for recommendations on the design and scope of the book. Wealso wish to thank Gerald McDermott and Tibor Porció for their valuablecomments on the entire manuscript, Bernard Schultz for his suggestions on the chapter on art, and Ann Turley for her editorial assistance. For the ideaof “Imperial Communion” we thank a group of West Virginia University Lawstudents who spent a long evening in a pub in Havana, Cuba, discussing thethemes and arguments of the book. “Imperial” connotes something far-reaching, powerful, and all-encompassing with accompanying hierarchies andstructures. “Communion” tells of sacred relationships between people and thatwhich ultimately drives them. The persistence of imperial communion is whatreligion and history are about.
