Introduction to the Science of Religion; Four Lectures Delivered at the Royal Institution in February and May 1870

by F. Max Müller

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1899 edition. Excerpt: ... The following are the names of the scholars who have promised to supply translations: -- Beal, S. Fausboll, V. Bhandarkar, r. G. Jacobi, H. Buhler, G. Jolly, J. Cowell, E. B. Kern, H. Darmestkter, J. Leqge, J. Eggeling, J. Max Muller, F. Oxford, October, 1876. LETTER TO THE VERY REV. THE DEAN OF CHRIST CHURCH. Oxford, March 18,18S3. My Deab Dean, When, in the year 1875, I received an invitation from the Austrian Government to transfer my services to Vienna, and to publish there, under the auspices of the Imperial Academy, a Series of Translations of the Sacred Books of the East, it was, I believe, mainly due to your kind exertions that the University invited me to stay at Oxford, and to carry out the same undertaking here, substituting only English for German in the translations which I had originally contemplated. I then submitted to you, and through you to the Delegates of the Clarendon Press and the Secretary of State for India, a general outline of the translations which, if only I could secure the co-operation of Oriental scholars in England, I hoped to bring out in a series of twenty-four volumes. This was in October 1876, and as the time is now approaching when this Series ought to be finished, viz. in October 1884,1 think I ought to render, through you, to the Delegates of the Clarendon Press and the Secretary of State for India, an account of my stewardship. There was in the beginning, as it could hardly have been otherwise, considerable delay. The help of really competent scholars had to be secured, and some time had to elapse before they could prepare their translations. The first volume therefore could not be published before 1879, and now in 1882 the number of volumes published amounts to fourteen only. It would be too long...

Genres: Religion, Philosophy, Nonfiction, History

104 pages, Paperback

First published January 19, 2001

About the author

Friedrich Max Müller, K.M. (Ph.D., Philology, Leipzig University, 1843)—generally known as Max Müller or F. Max Müller—was the first Professor of Comparative Philology at Oxford University, and an Orientalist who lived and studied in Britain for most of his life. He was one of the founders of the western academic field of Indian studies and the discipline of comparative religion. Müller wrote both scholarly and popular works on the subject of Indology and the Sacred Books of the East, a 50-volume set of English translations, was prepared under his direction.

Müller became a naturalized British citizen in 1855. In 1869, he was elected to the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres as a foreign correspondent. He was awarded the Pour le Mérite (civil class) in 1874, and the Bavarian Maximilian Order for Science and Art the following year. In 1888, he was appointed Gifford Lecturer at the University of Glasgow, delivering the first in what has proved to be an ongoing, annual series of lectures at several Scottish universities to the present day. He was appointed a member of the Privy Council in 1896.

His wife, Georgina Adelaide Müller was also an author. After Max's death, she deposited his papers at the Bodleian Library, Oxford.

Reviews

[Alex · Rating 5 out of 5]

Muller's the man! So outdated, but the Pater of our discipline nonetheless!

[Roger Green · Rating 3 out of 5]

Can't exactly argue with a classic like this. Lots of misinformation, for sure, and yet it is foundational in all its imperfections. One could be saying worse things in 1870.

[Miao · Rating 5 out of 5]

宗教学的必修课！大师级人物就是不一样，总能让人耳目一新。