The Essential Max Müller On Language, Mythology, and Religion

377 Pages·2002·45.008 MB·

by  Jon R. Stone (eds.)

Additional Praise for Jon R. Stone's The Essential Max Müller
"This is an impressive collection of essays by one of the great minds in modern history.
Jon Stone has done all of us-specialists and general readers alike-a great service by
compiling and introducing them." -Peter van der Veer, University of Amsterdam,
author of Imperial Encounters: Religion and Modernity in India and Britain.
"One will find in this selection of Müller's lectures and essays a wonderful intro
duction to the work of a major nineteenth-century student of culture and founder of
the scientific study of religion. Stone makes available here Müller's reflections on a
wide range of topics that captured his interest over nearly forty years-from fetishism
to nihilism to monotheism and from fables and myths to the perception of the infi
nite to the scientific study of the traditions of thought and practice embodying those
perceptions-which illuminate the nineteenth-century landscape of the early social
sciences. The anthology therefore provides a rich and complex account of Müller's
pervasive influence on scholarship in the fields of language, thought, mythology, and
religion, yet maintains a unity of focus in the attention the lectures and essays chosen
for inclusion give to the emergence of the scientific study of religion, to which, Stone
rightly points out, Müller made a lasting contribution. This volume, therefore, will be
of special interest to scholars and students in the field of religious studies and to those
more broadly interested in the emergence of the social sciences generally."-Donald
Wiebe, Professor, Philosophy of Religion Trinity College, University ofToronto, and
author of The Politics ofR eligious Studies.
"Who was Friedrich Max Müller? The Claude Levi-Strauss or Mircea Eliade of
the nineteenth century, or a throwback to eighteenth century Deism? A lone, strong
voice against the racist Orientalism of British colonialism-the best friend India ever
had-or a subtle propagandist for German Aryanism and American Anglo-Saxonism?
Pious Christian, or the first 'advance man' for invasion of Asian religions into the
West? The model for Reverend Casaubon of George Eliot's Middlemarch, or the
hottest ticket on the late-Victorian lecture circuit? The Essential Max Müller, Professor
Jon R. Stone's anthology of the principal works of Max Müller, will help answer
some-if not all-of these tantalizing questions about an equally intriguing giant of
the nineteenth-century intellectual scene.
Stone has performed the entirely admirable service of making accessible for the
first time-and in a single convenient volume-a shrewdly selected and painstak
ingly edited collection of choice pieces from Max Müller's voluminous oeuvre-most
of which are currently out-of-pri,nt or very difficult to obtain.
Along with his readable and informative introduction to Max Müller's life and
times, this collection goes a long way toward explaining Müller's great vogue among
students of comparative mythology and religion, the origins of language as well as
his popularity among the informed reading public of his time. Here included are not
only Müller's classic statements about the nature of the ancient religions ofIndia, the
philosophy of myth, or how to go about the study of religion, but also fascinating
peeks into MüHer's own mystic spirituality and personal religious vision, as weH as
his attempts to wrestle with his allegiance to his own Christian faith over against the
claims made upon hirn by the nobility of the religions of India."-Professor Ivan
Strenski, Holstein Family and Community Professor ofReligious Studies, University
of California, Riverside, and author of Contesting Sacrifice.
Photo COUrtcsy of The Warden and Fellows of All Souls Collegc, O"ford.
Reprintcd with pcrmission.
THE ESSENTIAL MAX MÜLLER
Also by Jon R. Stone
The Craft 0/ Religious Studies
Expecting Armageddon: Essential Readings in Failed Prophecy
A Guide to the End 0/ the World
Latin for the Illiterati
More Latin for the Illiterati
On the Boundaries 0/A merican Evangelicalism
Prime-Time Religion: An Encyclopedia 0/ Religious Broadcasting
THE ESSENTIAL MAX MÜLLER
ON LANGUAGE, MYTHOLOGY, AND RELIGION
EDITED BY
JON R. STONE
* THE ESSENTIAL MAX MÜLLER
© Jon R. Stone, 2002
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reprodueed in any
manner whatsoever without written permission exeept in the ease of
brief quotations embodied in eritical articles or reviews.
First published 2002 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLANTM
175 Fifth Avenue, NewYork, N.Y. 10010 and
Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire, England RG21 6XS
Companies and representatives throughout the world
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN is the global aeademic imprint of the Palgrave
Maemillan division of St. Martin's Press, LLC and of Palgrave Maemillan Ltd.
Maemillan® is a registered trademark in the United States, United Kingdom
and other eountries. Palgrave is a registered trademark in the European
Union and other eountries.
ISBN 978-0-312-29309-3 ISBN 978-1-137-08450-7 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-137-08450-7
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Müller, F. Max (Friedrich Max), 1823-1900.
The essential Max Müller: on language, myth, and religion/
Jon R. Stone, editor.
p.em.
Includes bibliographical referenees and index.
1. Religion. 2. Mythology. 3. Language and languages-Religious aspeets.
I. Stone, Jon R., 1959-11. Title.
BL50.M785 2002
20O--de21 2002025825
A eatalogue reeord for this book is available from the British Library.
Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India.
First edition: November, 2002
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Transferred to digital printing 2008
In Memoriam
Ninian Smart
(1927-2001)
My Teacher
CONTENTS
Preface X111
Introduction
Chapter 1. Semitic Monotheism (1860) 25
Chapter 2. Lecture on the Vedas, or the Sacred Books 43
of the Brahmans (1865)
Chapter 3. Preface to Chips .fom a German Workshop (1867) 69
Chapter 4. Buddhist Nihilism (1869) 81
Chapter 5. On False Analogies in Comparative Theology (1870) 91
Chapter 6. The Science ofReligion: Lecture One (1870) 109
Chapter 7. On the Migration ofFables (1870) 123
Chapter 8. On the Philosophy ofMythology (1871) 145
Chapter 9. The Perception of the Infinite (1878) 167
Chapter 10. Is Fetishism a Primitive Form of Religion? (1878) 193
Chapter 11. The Ideas ofInfinity and Law (1878) 231
Chapter 12. Forgotten Bibles (1884) 249
Chapter 13. Physical Religion (1890) 265
Chapter 14. Religion, Myth, and Custom (1890) 279
Chapter 15. Discovery of the Soul in Man and Nature (1891) 293
Chapter 16. What Was Thought about the Departed (1891) 307
Chapter 17. The Divine and the Human (1891) 321
Chapter 18. The Parliament ofReligions in Chicago, 1893 (1894) 343
Chapter 19. Science of Religion: A Retrospect (1898) 353
Index 357