Encyclopedia of Religions

This 1906 classicthree volume setof comparative literature, hard to find inprinttoday, was the first English-language project to approach the world's religions from an anthropological perspective. The work of thirty years for Scottish authorJAMES 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 thepublishing housesof 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 set, a comprehensive, academic knowledge of the totality of human religious belief.