Varieties of Religious Invention: Founders and Their Functions in History

Religious Controversies Frequently Focus On Origins, And At The Origins Of The Major Religious Traditions One Typically Finds A Seminal Figure. Names Such As Jesus, Muhammad, Confucius, And Moses Are Well Known, Yet Their Status As 'founders' Has Not Gone Uncontested. The Aim Of This Book Is To Consider The Subtexts Of Debates About These 'founders' As An Exercise In Comparative Religion. As The Contributors Survey The Landscape Shaped By Questions Within Each Tradition, They Provide An Opportunity To Map Their Contours From A Novel Perspective. Finding Judaism's Founders / Mark Leuchter -- The Buddha : Historicizing Myth, Mythologizing History / Nathan Mcgovern -- When The Founder Is Not A Creator : Confucius And Confucianism Reconsidered / Cai Liang -- What Is Daoism And Who Is Its Founder? / Gil Raz -- Jesus, Paul, And The Birth Of Christianity / Patrick Gray -- Muhammad's Mission And The Din Of Ibrahim According To Ibn Ish'aq / R. Kevin Jaques -- Hinduism And The Question Of Founders / Måns Broo -- Crossing Boundaries : When Founders Of Faith Appear In Other Traditions / Mark Muesse. Edited By Patrick Gray. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.