Drudgery Divine: On the Comparison of Early Christianities and the Religions of Late Antiquity

by Jonathan Z. Smith

Book Overview

In this major theoretical and methodological statement on the history of religions, Jonathan Z. Smith shows how convert apologetic agendas can dictate the course of comparative religious studies. As his example, Smith reviews four centuries of scholarship comparing early Christianities with religions of late Antiquity (especially the so-called mystery cults) and shows how this scholarship has been based upon an underlying Protestant-Catholic polemic...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0226763633
• ISBN13: 9780226763637
• Release Date: May 1994
• Publisher: University of Chicago Press
• Length: 160 Pages
• Weight: 0.85 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.5" x 5.6" x 8.6"