Religion as We Know It

In his new book, acclaimed scholar Jack Miles poses a question: How did our forebears begin to think about religion as a distinct domain, separate from other activities that were once inseparable from it?

Starting at the birth of Christianity--a religion inextricably bound to Western thought--Miles reveals how we in the West have come to isolate religion as an object of study, and how drastically our perception has changed over time and across societies. Through the break between the Christian and Jewish communities, the fall of the Roman Empire, the rise of Islam, and the growth of Western empires, Miles reveals how Western religious thought has always been based on comparison of the known with the emergent unknown. Religion as We Know It challenges readers to unmoor themselves from traditional thinking and observe how the events of the still-unfolding past continue to shape how we think of religion today.

In his new book, acclaimed scholar Jack Miles poses a question: How did our forebears begin to think about religion as a distinct domain, separate from other activities that were once inseparable from it?

Starting at the birth of Christianity--a religion inextricably bound to Western thought--Miles reveals how we in the West have come to isolate religion as an object of study, and how drastically our perception has changed over time and across societies. Through the break between the Christian and Jewish communities, the fall of the Roman Empire, the rise of Islam, and the growth of Western empires, Miles reveals how Western religious thought has always been based on comparison of the known with the emergent unknown. Religion as We Know It challenges readers to unmoor themselves from traditional thinking and observe how the events of the still-unfolding past continue to shape how we think of religion today.