Overview

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 Müller (1823-1900), a world-famous German-born philologist, orientalist, and religious scholar. Müller 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.

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9780198784234

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Reviews

Since the series as such has rarely been the object of close historical research ... Molendijks 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 * Arie Molendijks 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 ... Molendijks 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 * Arie Molendijks 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 * [T]here are real rewards to be found in [Molendijk's book]...Above all, it is good to see an entire volume dedicated to Muller, who, although a frequent guest star in studies of Victorian literature, rarely receives sustained attention himself. * Sebastian LeCourt, Victorian Studies * This book is primarily useful in providing some of the background that informed the making of the SBE series. * Reading Religion * This is an important and eminently readable book. * Lukas Pokorny, University of Vienna, Religious Studies Review *

Since the series as such has rarely been the object of close historical research ... Molendijks 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 * Arie Molendijks 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 * [T]here are real rewards to be found in [Molendijk's book]...Above all, it is good to see an entire volume dedicated to Muller, who, although a frequent guest star in studies of Victorian literature, rarely receives sustained attention himself. * Sebastian LeCourt, Victorian Studies *

Since the series as such has rarely been the object of close historical research ... Molendijks 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 * Arie Molendijks 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 * [T]here are real rewards to be found in [Molendijk's book]...Above all, it is good to see an entire volume dedicated to Muller, who, although a frequent guest star in studies of Victorian literature, rarely receives sustained attention himself. * Sebastian LeCourt, Victorian Studies * This book is primarily useful in providing some of the background that informed the making of the SBE series. * Reading Religion *

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. Professor Molendijk has extensively published in the history of ideas, in particular Nineteenth- and Twentieth-century Theology, Religious studies, and Philosophy.

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