The Origins of Religions

This attractively illustrated volume is the first comprehensive work for general readers on the origins of humankind's religious nature. By examining the footprints along the course of humanity's religious journey, Julien Ries is able to effectively counter attempts to root the origins of religion in evolutionary, ethnological, and sociological causes. His study uncovers the presence of a religious sense in humankind from our very first appearance on earth and shows that an inner religious structure is in fact an essential characteristic of our being human: homo religiosus.
The Origins of Religions opens with a look at prehistoric man's first steps on the planet, then moves on to examine the cultic rituals, artistic expression, and expanding mythology that developed throughout the Paleolithic and Neolithic epochs. In these simple yet immensely meaningful religious practices we find the precursors to the development of systematic religion in the cultures of Sumero-Babylonia, pharaonic Egypt, China, Indo-Europe, and India, which in turn culminates in the birth of the three great monotheistic religions - Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.

Julien Ries is professor emeritus at the University of Louvain-la-Neueve, Belgique, and is the founder and director of that school's Homo Religiosus Institute, an important center for congresses and seminars on the history of religions.