Religious Studies

Comparative Religions

Adoration of the Magi (Yale Center for British Art)

1. Western Religions

The ancient civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt left behind documents that represent the earliest known dawning of a religious consciousness, growing out of these civilizations’ culture and interaction with their physical world and influencing the emergence of Judaism. Later, the Greeks and Romans adhered to “pagan” religious beliefs that would in time succumb to the impact of Christianity but that continue to intrigue readers for their insights into the human condition.

Documents

• Pyramid Texts (ca. 2494–2193 BCE)
• Enheduanna: Hymns to Inana (ca. 2250 BCE)
• “Instructions of Ptahhotep” (ca. 2200 BCE)
• “Hymn to the Nile” (ca. 1990–1950 BCE)
• Hymn of the Righteous Sufferer (ca. 1770–600 BCE)
• Egyptian Book of the Dead (ca. 1569–1315 BCE)
• Enuma Elish (ca. 1500 BCE)
• Bible: Exodus (ca. 1446 BCE)
• Bible: Genesis (ca. 1400–400 BCE)
• “Great Hymn to the Aten” (ca. 1348 BCE)
• Epic of Gilgamesh (ca. 1300 BCE)
• Orphic Tablets and Hymns (ca. 400 BCE – 300 CE)
• Book of Enoch (ca. 300–100 BCE)
• Cleanthes: "Hymn to Zeus" (ca. 280–276 BCE)
• Pseudo-Sibylline Oracles (ca. 150 BCE–700 CE)
• Lucretius: On the Nature of Things (ca. 59–55 BCE)
• Gospel of Thomas (ca. 50–180)
• Bible: Revelation (94 CE)
• Gospel According to Mary Magdalene (ca. 120–180)
• Ptolemy: “Letter to Flora” (ca. 150)
• Sefer Yetzirah (ca. 200)
• Pirke Avot (ca. 200)
• Nicene Creed (325)
• Augustine of Hippo: City of God (413–426)
• Book of the Cave of Treasures (ca. 500–600)
• Dionysius the Areopagite: The Celestial Hierarchy (ca. 500)
• Holy Rule of Saint Benedict (ca. 525)
• Mishneh Torah (1170–1180)
• Bishop Solomon: The Book of the Bee (ca. 1200–1300)
• Canticle of the Creatures (1224–1225)
• Thomas Aquinas: Summa Theologiae (1266–1273)
• Martin Luther: Ninety-five Theses (1517)
• Canons and Decrees of the Council of Trent (1564)
• The Life of St. Teresa of Jesus (1565)
• Shulchan Arukh (ca. 1570)
• John Winthrop: “A Model of Christian Charity” (1630)
• Westminster Confession (1646)
• John Bunyan: Pilgrim's Progress (1678)
• George Whitefield: “The Great Duty of Family-Religion” (1738)
• Jonathan Edwards: “Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God” (1741)
• Ba’al Shem Tov: “The Holy Epistle” (1752)
• Emanuel Swedenborg: Invitation to the New Church (ca. 1760–1772)
• Doctrine and Covenants of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (1835)
• Mary Baker Eddy: Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures (1875)
• Pittsburgh Platform (1885)
• Rufus M. Jones: "Essential Truths" (1900)
• Rudolf Steiner: Theosophy (1904)
• Vatican II (1962–1965)
• Ismar Schorsch: The Sacred Cluster (1995)