One of the best histories of religion I've ever read. Since it comes from an anthropological viewpoint, there is little of "this religion, good ... this religion, bad." It simply presents the data and allows the reader to form his or her own opinions. ( )

It is a wonderful book. It gives you a comprehensive and coherent story of religious ideas starting from the Stone Age and ending with Judaism, Greek methodology, and India before Buddha. Eliade is a passionate writer. Although sometimes the author expects the readers to know quite a lot about the history of the period (understandable for the work of that scope), he is very clear with his main ideas. I would recommend this book not only to academicians, but to all those who would like to reflect on what we usually take for granted, religious values. What we often consider to be adversarial and incompatible, is in fact much more interconnected and coalesced than we would expect... ( )