Friedrich Max Muller and the Sacred Books of the East

Arie L. Molendijk

Offers the first ever work on Friedrich Max Muller's edition of the Sacred Books of the East (SBE).
Considers the influence of SBE on the development of what would become the discipline of Religious Studies.
Analyzes conceptions of world religions, sacred texts, the Orient, and comparison in the context of late Nineteenth-century Victorian and European intellectual history.

Friedrich Max Muller and the Sacred Books of the East

Arie L. Molendijk

Description

This volume offers a critical analysis of one the most ambitious editorial projects of late Victorian Britain: the edition of the fifty substantial volumes of the Sacred Books of the East (1879-1910). The series was edited and conceptualized by Friedrich Max Muller (1823-1900), a world-famous German-born philologist, orientalist, and religious scholar. Muller and his influential Oxford colleagues secured financial support from the India Office of the British Empire and from Oxford University Press. Arie L. Molendijk documents how the series has become a landmark in the development of the humanities-especially the study of religion and language-in the second half of the nineteenth century. The edition also contributed significantly to the Western perception of the "religious" or even "mystic" East, which was textually represented in English translations. The series was a token of the rise of 'big science' and textualized the East, by selecting their 'sacred books' and bringing them under the power of western scholarship.

Friedrich Max Muller and the Sacred Books of the East

Arie L. Molendijk

Friedrich Max Muller and the Sacred Books of the East

Arie L. Molendijk

Author Information

Arie L. Molendijk is Professor of History of Christianity and Philosophy at the University of Groningen. He studied Theology, Philosophy, and Drama at the University of Leiden. Molendijk has extensively published in the history of ideas, in particular Nineteenth- and Twentieth-century Theology, Religious studies, and Philosophy.

Friedrich Max Muller and the Sacred Books of the East

Arie L. Molendijk

Reviews and Awards

"This is an important and eminently readable book." -- Lukas Pokorny, University of Vienna, Religious Studies Review

"This book is primarily useful in providing some of the background that informed the making of the SBE series." --Reading Religion

"[T]here are real rewards to be found in [Molendijk's book] Above all, it is good to see an entire volume dedicated to Müller, who, although a frequent guest star in studies of Victorian literature, rarely receives sustained attention himself."--Sebastian LeCourt, Victorian Studies

"Arie Molendijk's history of that vast publishing project offers a fascinating glimpse of an emerging academic field, as well as a startling portrait of a truly transdisciplinary scholar intent on proving that Eastern religions were essential for an understanding of Western culture."--Janet M. Powers, Religion

"Since the series as such has rarely been the object of close historical research ... Molendijk's monograph is an original and very welcome contribution. ... the first part of the book is largely narrative and full of interesting observations and anecdotes, while the second is more analytical and reflective and has shorter chapters. Altogether this makes reading the book as a whole an easy, but reflective and rewarding experience."--Christoph Uehlinger, Religion

Friedrich Max Muller and the Sacred Books of the East

Arie L. Molendijk

From Our Blog

What do we talk about when we talk about 'religion'?

Let us start at the Vatican in Rome. St. Peter's Basilica has a strict dress code: no skirts above the knee, no shorts, no bare shoulders, and you must wear shoes. At the entrance there are signs picturing these instructions. To some visitors this comes somewhat as a surprise. Becky Haskin, age 44, from Fort Worth, Texas, said: 'The information we got was that the dress code only applied when the pope was there.'

Posted on September 9, 2016

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