|
|
Books > Reference & Interdisciplinary > Encyclopaedias & reference works > Reference works > General
From a decree of Charlemagne in 789 A.C. we see that human
sacrifices were still common in his barbarous empire. especially
among pagan Saxons. They did not begin to die out till the 9th
century. Unable to prevent the sacrifice of cattle at ancient
shrines, Gregory I (600 A.C.) instructed his missionaries that
these were to be offered up to God and to Christ, at the new
churches which often were the old sacred circles... -from
"sacrifice" This 1906 classic of comparative literature, hard to
find in print today, was the first English-language project to
approach the world's religions from an anthropological perspective.
The work of thirty years for Scottish author JAMES G. R. FORLONG
(1824-1904), it was originally published under the now-antiquated
title A Cyclopedia of Religions and produced at the author's own
expense, so strongly did he feel about the need for it despite the
reluctance of the publishing houses of the day to produce it. A
road engineer by trade, Forlong traveled the world, learning seven
languages and becoming an avid amateur student of native
culture-his labor of love was gathering, in this three-volume set,
a comprehensive, academic knowledge of the totality of human
religious belief. Volume III: N-Z includes entries on such gods,
peoples, places, practices, symbols, and concepts as: Na'aman,
naga, oaths, and Odin pagoda, Pantheism, and Quakers Ra, runes,
Shin-to, and Sophists talisman, Tertullian, unicorn, and Upanishads
vana, wells, Yggdrasil, and Zeus and much more.
|
|