Title: Drudgery divine
Description: 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. The result is a devastating critique of traditional New Testament scholarship, a redescription of early Christianities as religious traditions amenable to comparison, and a milestone in Smith's controversial approach to comparative religious studies.
Subjects: Origin, Religious Mysteries, Judaism, Greek, Relations, Christianity, Religion, Roman, Study and teaching, Apologetics, Christianity and other religions, History, Roman religion, Nichtchristliche Religion, Étude et enseignement, Apologétique, 11.01 systematic religious studies: general, Mystères religieux, Mysteriegodsdiensten, Vroege kerk, Histoire, Judaïsme, Christentum, Religion grecque, Religion romaine, Christianisme, Origines, Church history, primitive and early church, ca. 30-600, Christianity, origin
Places: Rome, Greece