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Libra Esoterica

The Making of Religion

New Edition

Also known as Custom and myth; Lectures on the religion of the Semites

by Andrew Lang & W. Robertson Smith

  • First published:
  • 19th century
  • Languages: English, German
  • Content type: Primary source
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Description

Description from Project Gutenberg (opens in a new tab)

"The Making of Religion" by Andrew Lang is a scholarly exploration on the origins of religious belief, produced during the late 19th century. The text critically examines the anthropological theories regarding the emergence of spirit belief and the evolution of the concept of a Supreme Being, aiming to reevaluate previously held notions in light of newer psychological and anthropological findings. Lang's work engages with a variety of scholarly perspectives, suggesting that understanding the early history of religion necessitates a comprehensive approach, drawing insights from both anthropology and psychology. The opening of the work presents Lang's intent and rationale behind his exploration into the history of religion. He introduces the commonly accepted view that spirit beliefs arose from human experiences of dreams, shadows, and death—asserting a process of evolution from ancestral spirits to a singular God. However, Lang challenges these ideas, proposing that we must investigate other aspects of human experience, especially those linked to visions and hallucinations, as possible influences on religious belief. He suggests that examining savage beliefs and comparing them to modern psychological phenomena could yield deep insights into the nature of spirituality and the development of religious concepts throughout history. Additionally, Lang discusses the division within academic studies related to anthropology and psychology, highlighting the need for interdisciplinary approaches to better understand these fundamental questions in the history of religion. (This is an automatically generated summary.)

Provenance

Why this book is in the catalog

Included because retained bibliographic metadata links this work to Ancient religions, animism, and ritual, Demonology, angelology, and possession, Mythology, folklore, and sacred legends, and Spiritualism, mediumship, and channeling.

  • Demonology, angelology, and possession

    Controlled discovery queries from internet-archive, openlibrary, and openlibrary-historical matched “Demoniac possession”. Retained metadata contains “Demoniac possession” in the subject metadata and “possession” in the subject metadata.

    • “Demoniac possession”· via Internet Archive
    • “Demoniac possession”· via Open Library
    • “Demoniac possession”· in subject
    • “possession”· in subject
  • Spiritualism, mediumship, and channeling

    Controlled discovery queries from internet-archive, national-library-of-scotland, online-books-page, openlibrary-historical, and project-gutenberg matched “Spiritualism” and “spiritualism”. Retained metadata contains “Spiritualism” in the subject metadata.

    • “Spiritualism”· via Internet Archive
    • “spiritualism”· via National Library of Scotland
    • “Spiritualism”· via The Online Books Page
    • “Spiritualism”· via Open Library
    • “spiritualism”· via Project Gutenberg
    • “Spiritualism”· in subject
  • Mythology, folklore, and sacred legends

    Controlled discovery queries from online-books-page, openlibrary-historical, and project-gutenberg matched “Folklore”, “folklore”, “Mythology”, and 1 additional term(s). Retained metadata contains “Folklore” in the subject metadata and “Mythology” in the subject metadata.

    • “Folklore”· via The Online Books Page
    • “Mythology”· via The Online Books Page
    • “Folklore”· via Open Library
    • “Mythology”· via Open Library
    • “folklore”· via Project Gutenberg
    • “mythology”· via Project Gutenberg
  • Ancient religions, animism, and ritual

    Controlled discovery queries from internet-archive, openlibrary, and openlibrary-historical matched “Cults”, “Fetishism”, “Gods”, and 1 additional term(s). Retained metadata contains “Cults” in the subject metadata, “Fetishism” in the subject metadata, and “Paganism” in the subject metadata.

    • “Cults”· via Internet Archive
    • “Fetishism”· via Internet Archive
    • “Fetishism”· via Open Library
    • “Paganism”· via Open Library
    • “Cults”· via Open Library
    • “Gods”· via Open Library

Membership records how this book met the catalog’s discovery criteria — relevance to a tradition, not a judgment of the book’s claims.

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Editions

Open Library reports 131 editions; 15 cataloged here.

Lectures on the religion of the Semites

Internet Archive unrestricted pre-1900 PDF scan

1894-01-01T00:00:00ZLondon, A. & C. BlackEnglish—Public digitized item

Lectures on the religion of the Semites

Internet Archive unrestricted pre-1900 PDF scan

1889-01-01T00:00:00ZNew York : D. AppletonEnglish—Public digitized item

Internet Archive institutional pre-1900 scan

1898-01-01T00:00:00ZLondon : LongmansEnglish—Public digitized item

Subjects

42 subject headings

Identifiers & provenance

How this record was assembled, and the authority identifiers it carries.

Identifiers

ISBN-13
ISBN-10
LCCN
OCLC
Open Library work
Project Gutenberg
Internet Archive
National Library of Scotland
  • 99116558168304341
Open Library work (alias)

Cataloged from

Cataloging notes

  • Contributing institution: Cornell University Library
  • Contributing institution: Getty Research Institute
  • Contributing institution: Princeton Theological Seminary Library
  • Contributing institution: Robarts - University of Toronto
  • Contributing institution: University of California Libraries
  • Digitization sponsor: Getty Research Institute
  • Digitization sponsor: MSN
  • Discovery required Internet Archive search metadata to report a PDF format; the exact direct-file URL is added only after the item's file listing confirms an unrestricted PDF filename.
  • Internet Archive institutional collection: americana
  • Internet Archive institutional collection: toronto
  • Open Library reports 131 editions; this snapshot catalogs one representative edition and preserves work-level ISBN, date, and publisher aggregates.
  • Open Library reports 17 editions; this snapshot catalogs one representative edition and preserves work-level ISBN, date, and publisher aggregates.
  • Open Library reports 3 editions; this snapshot catalogs one representative edition and preserves work-level ISBN, date, and publisher aggregates.
  • Open Library reports 40 editions; this snapshot catalogs one representative edition and preserves work-level ISBN, date, and publisher aggregates.
  • Original print publication date and source edition are absent from Project Gutenberg metadata.
  • Scanner: iala9
  • Scanner: Kirtas APT 2400
  • Scanner: scribe1.nj.archive.org
  • Scanner: scribe1.valencia.archive.org
  • Scanner: scribe3.nj.archive.org
  • Scanner: scribe5.nj.archive.org
  • Scanner: uoft2
  • Scanner: uoft7
  • Source-listed Library of Congress call number(s): BL310 .L3 1884
  • Source-listed Library of Congress call number(s): BL310 .L3 1893
  • Source-listed Library of Congress call number(s): BL430 .L3 1900
  • Source-listed Library of Congress call number(s): BL430 .L3 1909
  • The Online Books Page bibliographic note: 1884
  • The Online Books Page bibliographic note: new edition; London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1893
  • The Online Books Page bibliographic note: second edition, 1900
  • The Online Books Page bibliographic note: third edition; London: Longmans, Green and Co., 1909
Catalog id
openlibrary-work:OL1088906W
Edition coverage
Multi source partial
Retrieved