Essay
Plon, October 2008
Presentation
What was humanity's very first religion? How did the concepts of God, sacrifice, salvation, deliverance, prayer, and clergy emerge? Why did the worship of female deities shift to that of male deities? From belief in multiple gods to faith in one God? Why is violence often linked to the sacred? Why are there multiple religions? Who were the founders of the major traditions, and what was their message? What are the fundamental similarities and differences between religions?
From the earliest funeral rituals of prehistoric humans to the major religions of today, Frédéric Lenoir explores the rich and complex world of the sacred. One question runs through this book: what purpose do religions serve, and why have they accompanied humankind since the dawn of time?
Translations
Italy: GARZANTI LIBRI Srl
Japan: TRANSVIEW
Netherlands: UITGEVERIJ TEN HAVE
Tunisia: NATIONAL TRANSLATION CENTER
What the press says about it
Literary Magazine
– December 2008 “Yesterday, at dinner parties, people spoke seriously about politics and readily mocked religion. Today, it’s the other way around. For twenty years, Frédéric Lenoir has played a pioneering role in the press and publishing world, tirelessly explaining to the French the importance of religion, a subject for which their schools have left them completely unprepared. Here, he offers his lessons—without the lectures—on God, the sacred, ritual, salvation, and deliverance, in a treatise, small in size but grand in its pedagogical skill, that spans centuries, mysteries, revelations, and wisdom traditions to better answer a single set of anthropological questions: Why, from its origins to the present day, has religion persisted so long? In what way is it consubstantial with humanity?” From prehistoric tombs to the diffuse spiritualities of the New Age , the editor of Le Monde des Religions (The World of Religions) doesn't shy away from any difficulty, readily exploring the ambivalence of this phenomenon, which must be considered in terms of transcendence and immanence, verticality and horizontality, communion and confrontation. In doing so, he shows how worship lies at the heart of culture and deciphers in depth the metamorphoses of a phenomenon that is both ever-present and ever-changing. This is why we follow him in this grand symbolic analysis, which manages to make accessible, between the abysses of belief and the sums of faith, even the vertigo of the inaccessible. – Jean-François Colosimo
Télérama
– November 26, 2008 “The philosopher, journalist, and novelist Frédéric Lenoir is a remarkable communicator. Proof of this lies in this ambitious work, which reads like a captivating narrative, where even the most complex concepts become crystal clear. The author delves into the history of humanity and civilizations throughout the world, from prehistory to the present day, to trace the imprint of religious sentiment.” It appears (among other things) that the birth and evolution of the gods mirror the birth and evolution of our societies; that while the first humans, possessing nothing, were the equals of nature spirits, their successors, the farmers and settled peoples of the Neolithic era, quickly came to believe in a fertility goddess who provided wealth… Foundational funeral rites, the precedence of female deities over male ones, the emergence of sacrifices of all kinds… everything becomes clear under the pen of this author who interprets our human adventure as a gradual separation from nature, even as he paradoxically evokes the astonishing return of its worship through the reappearance of shamanism and its omnipresent spirits in our contemporary societies… After all, it is life itself, above all, that remains an enigma, concludes Frédéric Lenoir. – Fabienne Pascaud
La Croix
– October 25, 2008 “ No human society of which we have any record is exempt from religious beliefs and rituals.” It is from this observation that Frédéric Lenoir, philosopher and director of Le Monde des Religions , has constructed this book, which aims to trace the religious history of humanity. An ambitious undertaking, but a successful one, as the book is very easy to read. In a fascinating first part, the author devotes considerable time to describing the religious phenomenon and its development up to the first millennium BC. This perspective, which delves into the depths of history and prehistory, allows him, in the book's conclusion, to analyze with great subtlety the religious reality of the 21st century and to question the “archaization” of religion that he perceives in the contemporary rejection of rationalization and religious organization. Between these two parts, a second, more conventional but nonetheless interesting section undertakes to precisely describe the major religious traditions of humanity. Frédéric Lenoir does this simply, but without falling into oversimplification or excessive shortcuts. The work, which is resolutely descriptive, never seeks to prove the superiority of one religion over another, nor even to pass judgment on religious sentiment itself. – Nicolas Senèze