Literature, sources in religious studies

Burkert, Walter: Griechische Religion der archaischen und klassischen Epoche. Stuttgart: Kohlhammer, 2nd revised edition 2011. Standard work on ancient Greek religion; covers cult, myth, the festival calendar, mysteries, and hero cult in a systematic way. The single most important reference for the entries on Greek beings.

Eliade, Mircea: Geschichte der religiösen Ideen, 3 volumes. Freiburg: Herder 1978, 1985 (original edition Paris 1976, 1983). A comparative history of religion from the Palaeolithic to the 20th century.

Methodologically located in the phenomenology of religion, with the caveat that Eliade’s syntheses are now regarded in part as too smoothing over, but indispensable as an introduction and a cross-reference work.

Frazer, James George: The Golden Bough, A Study in Magic and Religion. London: Macmillan 1922 (standard edition; first edition 1890).

A classic of comparative religious studies, in many respects methodologically outdated, but still relevant as a collection of material. We cite Frazer where comparative findings are at issue; Frazer’s methodological conclusions are not taken over unexamined.

Smith, Jonathan Z.: Map Is Not Territory. Studies in the History of Religions. Leiden: Brill 1978. A methodological self-critique of comparative religious studies; important for understanding what a comparative operation in the history of religion can and cannot achieve.

Bremmer, Jan N.: Greek Religion. Oxford 1994. A concise, dense introduction to Greek religion; methodologically abreast of more recent research.

Burkert, Walter: Homo Necans. Interpretationen altgriechischer Opferriten und Mythen. Berlin: de Gruyter 1997 (first edition 1972). A study on the anthropology of sacrifice, important for understanding religious rites of violence in the Greek tradition.

Russell, Jeffrey Burton: The Devil. Perceptions of Evil from Antiquity to Primitive Christianity. Ithaca: Cornell University Press 1977. The first volume of the four-volume history of the concept of the devil; covers the ancient roots and the early Christian development.

Russell, Jeffrey Burton: Lucifer. The Devil in the Middle Ages. Ithaca 1984. The second volume; medieval demonology, witch belief, scholastic syntheses.

Walde, Christine (ed.): Der Neue Pauly. Enzyklopädie der Antike. Stuttgart: Metzler 1996ff. A standard work on the ancient world with detailed articles on gods, heroes, demons, spirits, and religious practices; the single most important reference for all entries on Greco-Roman beings.

West, Martin L.: Indo-European Poetry and Myth. Oxford 2007. Comparative mythology of the Indo-European language family; systematically covers the cross-connections between the Vedic, Greco-Roman, Germanic, and Celtic traditions.

Lurker, Manfred: Lexikon der Götter und Dämonen. Stuttgart: Kröner, 2nd expanded edition 1989. A concise reference work with keyword articles on gods and demons of all cultures; the most important aid for quick access in the lexicon style.

Eliade, Mircea (ed.): The Encyclopedia of Religion. New York: Macmillan 1987 (16 volumes). An English-language standard work with detailed subject articles; supplements the coverage for the non-European traditions where the Neue Pauly is silent.

Stuckrad, Kocku von: Geschichte der Astrologie. Munich: Beck 2003. A religious-studies classification of the Western astrology tradition; relevant for the interface between mythology and ritual practice.

Hanegraaff, Wouter J.: New Age Religion and Western Culture. Esotericism in the Mirror of Secular Thought. Leiden: Brill 1996. A standard work on the New Age movement; a particularly thorough religious-studies classification in methodological terms. The single most important reference for all entries on light beings and modern esoteric traditions.

Faivre, Antoine: Esoterik im Überblick. Geheime Geschichte des abendländischen Denkens. Freiburg 2001 (original edition Paris 1992). A concise, methodologically clear introduction to Western esotericism from Hellenism into the modern era.

Levi, Eliphas (Alphonse-Louis Constant): Dogme et Rituel de la Haute Magie. Paris 1855, 1856 (German edition: Geschichte und Praxis der hohen Magie. Munich 1979). A key text of modern high magic; the source basis for the ritual-magic traditions of the late 19th and 20th centuries.

Mathers, S. Liddell MacGregor (ed./trans.): The Goetia. The Lesser Key of Solomon the King. London 1904. An English translation of the early modern Goetia; the most widely used standard edition of modern Goetia practice.

Crowley, Aleister: Magick in Theory and Practice. London 1929. Crowley’s main work on high magic; its importance for the reception history of the 20th century can hardly be overstated, methodologically idiosyncratic and to be read with critical distance.

Hanegraaff, Wouter J. (ed.): Dictionary of Gnosis and Western Esotericism. Leiden: Brill 2005 (2 volumes). A keyword work on Western esotericism; it supplements Hanegraaff’s main work on the New Age with the older esoteric context.

Blavatsky, Helena Petrovna: The Secret Doctrine. The Synthesis of Science, Religion, and Philosophy. London 1888. The main theosophical work; the source basis for the ascended masters teaching and for many modern New Age concepts. A religious-history distance is required when reading it; the work is a source, not a guarantor of truth.

Goodrick-Clarke, Nicholas: The Western Esoteric Traditions. A Historical Introduction. Oxford 2008. A comprehensive religious-studies account of Western esotericism; suitable as a second introduction after Faivre.

Yates, Frances A.: Giordano Bruno and the Hermetic Tradition. London 1964. A classic of esotericism research; it reconstructs the Hermetic tradition as an independent strand of Western intellectual history. Partly revised in more recent research in methodological terms, but still worth reading as an overall account.

Stuckrad, Kocku von: Was ist Esoterik? Kleine Geschichte des geheimen Wissens. Munich: Beck 2004. A concise, methodologically clear introduction, a good entry point for readers who are not systematically familiar with the term “esotericism“.

Kilcher, Andreas B. (ed.): Constructing Tradition. Means and Myths of Transmission in Western Esotericism. Leiden: Brill 2010. A methodological study of how esoteric traditions reconstruct and hand themselves down; important for placing the modern ascended masters teachings and the theosophical genealogies.

Bogdan, Henrik: Western Esotericism and Rituals of Initiation. New York: SUNY Press 2007. A study of initiation structures in Western esoteric traditions; relevant for understanding ritual-magic practice from the Goetia to modern magic schools.

Notes on working with the sources

The works named in this list are selected as standard references; they differ considerably in methodological thrust. Religious-historical works (Burkert, Bremmer, Russell) operate with classical source criticism and write in the tradition of comparative religious studies.

Works on the history of esotericism (Hanegraaff, Faivre, Stuckrad) examine Western esotericism with the tools of religious research; they take the self-interpretation of the traditions seriously without endorsing it. Practitioner works (Levi, Crowley, Mathers, Blavatsky) are themselves sources, not secondary literature; they are read as historical texts, not as factual references for the respective tradition.

This distinction matters when citing, and we mark it in the individual entries where a concrete tradition is at issue.

Anyone seeking an entry point into a particular culture is best advised to begin with the standard overview work named on the respective culture landing page and to work from there into the specialist literature.

The standard works in the history of religion are all accessible in larger university libraries; some are available as open-access editions or as inexpensive study editions.

For specific source questions, for example on Akkadian incantation literature or on the Tibetan Buddhist protective-being tradition, we recommend beginning with the specialist literature named in the respective individual entry on the being.

Further Standard Works

These works serve as references across many detail pages and are collected here centrally.

• Aldhouse-Green, Miranda: The Gods of the Celts. Sutton, Stroud 1986. Survey of the Celtic gods based on archaeological and iconographic evidence.
• Andrew George, «The Babylonian Gilgamesh Epic», Oxford 2003. Critical edition and translation of the Babylonian Gilgamesh epic, the reference edition in cuneiform studies.
• Assmann, Jan: Ägyptische Religion. Theologie und Frömmigkeit einer frühen Hochkultur. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1984. Account of theology and piety in ancient Egypt, a widely used textbook in Egyptology.
• Aston, William G.: Shinto. The Way of the Gods. London 1905. Early Western overview of Shinto, long used as an English-language introduction.
• Axel Michaels «Der Hinduismus» (2. Aufl. 2006). Comprehensive scholarly account of Hinduism, a standard German-language work for study and teaching.
• Beard, Mary / North, John / Price, Simon: Religions of Rome. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1998. Two-volume history of Roman religion with a sourcebook, a standard work in classical studies.
• Bhattacharji, Sukumari: The Indian Theogony. Cambridge 1970. Study of the development of Indian conceptions of the gods from the Vedas to the Puranas.
• Birrell, Anne: Chinese Mythology. An Introduction. Johns Hopkins University Press, Baltimore 1993. Introduction to Chinese mythology based on classical textual sources, a common academic survey.
• Black, Jeremy / Green, Anthony: Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia. An Illustrated Dictionary. British Museum Press, London 1992. Illustrated reference work on the gods, demons and symbols of Mesopotamia, a standard resource in Assyriology.
• Bocking, Brian: A Popular Dictionary of Shinto. London 1995. Concise reference dictionary covering terms, shrines and practices of Shinto.
• Bonnefoy, Yves: Roman and European Mythologies. University of Chicago Press, Chicago 1992. Encyclopedic volume on Roman and European mythologies drawn from Bonnefoy’s French dictionary of mythologies.
• Bonnet, Hans: Reallexikon der ägyptischen Religionsgeschichte. Berlin 2000. Comprehensive lexicon of Egyptian religious history, a classic reference work in Egyptology.
• Bottéro, Jean: La plus vieille religion. En Mésopotamie. Paris 1998. French overview presenting Mesopotamian religion as the oldest documented religion.
• Bottéro, Jean: Religion in Ancient Mesopotamia. University of Chicago Press, Chicago 2001. English-language account of Mesopotamian religion from an Assyriological perspective.
• Breen, John / Teeuwen, Mark: A New History of Shinto. Chichester 2010. Historical and critical reassessment of Shinto history that revises older assumptions of continuity.
• Bremmer, Jan N.: The Early Greek Concept of the Soul. Princeton University Press, Princeton 1983. Study of early Greek concepts of the soul based on Homeric and archaic sources.
• Brown, Peter: The Cult of the Saints. Its Rise and Function in Latin Christianity. University of Chicago Press, Chicago 1981. Study of the rise and function of the veneration of saints in late antique Latin Christianity.
• Burkert, Walter: Griechische Religion der archaischen und klassischen Epoche. Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 1977. Comprehensive account of Greek religion in the archaic and classical periods, a standard work in the field.
• Bächtold-Stäubli, Hanns: Handwörterbuch des deutschen Aberglaubens. Berlin 1927, 42. Multi-volume reference dictionary of German folk belief, a central resource in folklore studies.
• Conze, Edward: Buddhist Thought in India. George Allen & Unwin, London 1962. Account of Buddhist philosophy in India across three phases of development, a classic introduction.
• de Vries, Jan: Altgermanische Religionsgeschichte. 2 Bände, Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 1956, 1957. Two-volume history of Germanic religion, a standard German-language work in Germanic studies.
• Deren, Maya: Divine Horsemen. The Living Gods of Haiti. New York 1953. Ethnographic account of Haitian Vodou and its gods based on participant observation.
• Donald Cosentino (Hg.), «Sacred Arts of Haitian Vodou» (Los Angeles 1995). Exhibition volume on the sacred arts of Haitian Vodou with scholarly contributions.
• Doniger, Wendy: The Hindus. An Alternative History. Penguin, New York 2009. Alternative history of Hinduism with attention to women, castes and marginalized groups.
• El-Zein, Amira: Islam, Arabs, and the Intelligent World of the Jinn. Syracuse 2009. Study of the role of the jinn in Islamic theology and Arab thought.
• Eliade, Mircea: Die Religionen und das Heilige. Otto Müller, Salzburg 1954. Phenomenological survey of the sacred, the German edition of Eliade’s Traité.
• Fahd, Toufic: La divination arabe. Brill, Leiden 1966. Comprehensive study of Arab divination practices, a reference work in Islamic studies.
• Faulkner, Raymond O.: The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead. London 1972. English translation of the Egyptian Book of the Dead, a widely used reference translation.
• Frazer, James George: Der goldene Zweig. Das Geheimnis von Glauben und Sitten der Völker. Rowohlt, Reinbek 1989. Classic comparative study of magic and religion, influential for early religious studies.
• Gieysztor, Aleksander: Mitologia Słowian. Warszawa 1982. Polish account of Slavic mythology, a standard work in Slavic studies.
• Grayson, J. H.: Korea, A Religious History. Routledge, 2002. One-volume religious history of Korea from shamanic beginnings to the present.
• Hansen, Valerie: The Open Empire. A History of China to 1600. Norton, New York 2000. Survey of Chinese history to 1600 with emphasis on religion and everyday culture.
• Heinrich Zimmer «Myths and Symbols in Indian Art and Civilization» (1946). Interpretation of Indian myths and symbols in art and culture, a widely read work of Indology.
• Helmut Rix: Etruscan Texts: Editio Minor (1991) Critical edition of the Etruscan textual corpus, the reference collection in Etruscan studies.
• Hornung, Erik: Der Eine und die Vielen. Ägyptische Gottesvorstellungen. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1971. Foundational study of Egyptian conceptions of god between unity and plurality.
• Hurbon, Laennec: Voodoo. Search for the Spirit. New York 1995. Introduction to the history and practice of Haitian Vodou with rich illustrations.
• Ivanits, Linda: Russian Folk Belief. Armonk 1989. Account of Russian folk belief covering spirits, household demons and popular religious practices.
• Jakobson, Roman: Slavic Mythology. In: Funk and Wagnall’s Standard Dictionary of Folklore. New York 1950. Concise encyclopedic overview of Slavic mythology from a linguistic perspective.
• Jens Peter Schjodt «Initiation between Two Worlds» (2008). Study of initiation patterns in Old Norse religion and its mythic narratives.
• Jeremy Black, Anthony Green: Gods, Demons and Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamia (1992) Illustrated reference work on the gods, demons and symbols of Mesopotamia, a standard resource in Assyriology.
• Joan Dayan, «Haiti, History, and the Gods» (Berkeley 1995). Literary and cultural study of the interweaving of Haitian history and Vodou.
• Johnston, Sarah Iles: Restless Dead. Berkeley 1999. Study of beliefs about the restless dead in ancient Greece.
• Kanda, Christine Guth: Shinto in History. Ways of the Kami. Honolulu 2000. Edited volume on the history of Shinto and the development of the concept of kami.
• Kang, Xiaofei: The Cult of the Fox. Power, Gender, and Popular Religion in Late Imperial and Modern China. Columbia University Press, New York 2006. Study of the Chinese fox cult at the intersection of popular religion, gender and power.
• Karmay, Samten G.: The Arrow and the Spindle. Mandala Book Point, Kathmandu 1998. Collected essays on Tibetan religion, the Bon tradition and ritual practice.
• Kim Tae-gon: Han’guk musok yŏn’gu. Jimmundang, Seoul 1981. Foundational Korean study of musok, the Korean shamanic tradition.
• Klaus Klostermaier «A Survey of Hinduism» (3. Aufl. 2007). Comprehensive survey of Hinduism in an updated edition, a widely used study handbook.
• Klostermaier, Klaus K.: A Survey of Hinduism. State University of New York Press, Albany 1989. Comprehensive survey of Hinduism, the first edition of a standard English-language handbook.
• Lambert, Wilfred G.: Babylonian Wisdom Literature. Oxford 1960. Edition and translation of Babylonian wisdom literature, a reference work in Assyriology.
• Lebling, Robert: Legends of the Fire Spirits. Jinn and Genies from Arabia to Zanzibar. I.B. Tauris, London 2010. Cultural history of jinn beliefs from Arabia to East Africa.
• Lecouteux, Claude: Geschichte der Gespenster und Wiedergänger im Mittelalter. Böhlau, Köln 1987. Study of ghosts and revenants in medieval Europe from a medievalist perspective.
• Leslie G. Desmangles, «The Faces of the Gods» (Chapel Hill 1992). Study of the syncretism of Vodou and Catholicism in Haiti.
• Lihui Yang, Deming An: Handbook of Chinese Mythology (2005) Handbook of Chinese mythology with a survey of sources and an encyclopedic section.
• Lindow, John: Norse Mythology. A Guide to the Gods, Heroes, Rituals, and Beliefs. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2002. Handbook of Norse mythology with an encyclopedic section on gods, heroes and rituals.
• Linrothe, Rob: Ruthless Compassion. Wrathful Deities in Early Indo-Tibetan Esoteric Buddhist Art. London 1999. Art-historical study of wrathful deities in early Indo-Tibetan esoteric Buddhist art.
• Lopez, Donald S.: Religions of Tibet in Practice. Princeton 1997. Sourcebook on lived Tibetan religion with translated ritual and everyday texts.
• Lurker, Manfred: Lexikon der Götter und Symbole der alten Ägypter. Scherz, Bern 1987. Dictionary of Egyptian gods and symbols, a compact reference for general readers.
• Mac Cana, Proinsias: Celtic Mythology. Bedrick, New York 1985. Illustrated survey of Celtic mythology, a widely used introduction.
• MacKillop, J.: Dictionary of Celtic Mythology. Oxford University Press, 2004. Reference dictionary of Celtic mythology in an updated Oxford edition.
• MacKillop, James: Dictionary of Celtic Mythology. Oxford 1998. Reference dictionary of figures and themes in Celtic mythology, a standard lexicon in the field.
• Mary Beard, John North, Simon Price: Religions of Rome (1998) Two-volume history of Roman religion with a sourcebook, a standard work in classical studies.
• Maya Deren, «Divine Horsemen» (New York 1953). Ethnographic account of Haitian Vodou and its gods based on participant observation.
• Mańczak, Witold: Slawische Mythologie. In: Encyclopedia of Religion 13, Macmillan 1987. Encyclopedia article on Slavic mythology in the Encyclopedia of Religion.
• McCarthy Brown, Karen: Mama Lola. A Vodou Priestess in Brooklyn. Berkeley 1991. Ethnographic portrait of a Vodou priestess in Brooklyn, a frequently cited study of diaspora religion.
• Michaels, Axel: Der Hinduismus. Geschichte und Gegenwart. München 1998. Scholarly account of Hinduism in history and the present, a standard German-language work.
• Métraux, Alfred: Le Vaudou haïtien. Paris 1958. Classic ethnographic account of Haitian Vodou.
• Nancy Thomson de Grummond: Etruscan Myth, Sacred History, and Legend (2006) Study of Etruscan myth, sacred history and legend based on visual sources.
• Nebesky-Wojkowitz, René de: Oracles and Demons of Tibet. Mouton, The Hague 1956. Comprehensive documentation of Tibetan protective deities and oracles, a reference work in Tibetan studies.
• Nilsson, Martin P.: Geschichte der griechischen Religion. 1955 Multi-volume history of Greek religion, long the standard work in the field.
• Patera, Maria: Figures grecques de l’épouvante. Leiden 2015. Study of Greek bogey figures such as Lamia, Mormo and Gello.
• Patrick Bellegarde-Smith und Claudine Michel (Hg.), «Haitian Vodou: Spirit, Myth, and Reality» (Bloomington 2006). Edited volume on spirits, myth and practice in Haitian Vodou.
• Pinch, Geraldine: Magic in Ancient Egypt. London 1994. Survey of magic in ancient Egypt based on texts and objects.
• Quirke, Stephen: Ancient Egyptian Religion. London 1992. Concise introduction to ancient Egyptian religion for students and general readers.
• Ross, Anne: Pagan Celtic Britain. Studies in Iconography and Tradition. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London 1967. Study of pagan religion in Celtic Britain based on iconography and tradition.
• Rudolf Simek «Lexikon der germanischen Mythologie» (3. Aufl. 2006). Dictionary of figures and concepts in Germanic mythology, the standard German-language reference.
• Samuel, Geoffrey: Civilized Shamans. Smithsonian Institution Press, Washington 1993. Study of the relationship between monastic Buddhism and shamanic currents in Tibet.
• Schimmel, Annemarie: Mystische Dimensionen des Islam. Diederichs, Köln 1985. Comprehensive account of Islamic mysticism, the standard German-language work on Sufism.
• Scholem, Gershom: Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism. Schocken, New York 1941. Survey of Jewish mysticism from Merkabah to Hasidism, a standard work in Kabbalah research.
• Schumann, Hans Wolfgang: Mahāyāna-Buddhismus. Diederichs, Düsseldorf 1990. Introduction to the doctrine and history of Mahayana Buddhism for German-speaking readers.
• Simek, Rudolf: Lexikon der germanischen Mythologie. 3. Aufl. Kröner, Stuttgart 2006. Dictionary of figures and concepts in Germanic mythology, the standard German-language reference.
• Sjøestedt, M. L.: Celtic Gods and Heroes. University of California Press, 1949. Structuralist account of Celtic gods and heroes, a classic study in Celtic scholarship.
• Stefan Maul, «Die Wahrsagekunst im Alten Orient», München 2013. Survey of divination in the ancient Near East from omens to extispicy.
• Stephanie Dalley, «Myths from Mesopotamia», Oxford 1989. English translation of the major Mesopotamian myths, a widely used student edition.
• Teiser, Stephen F.: The Ghost Festival in Medieval China. Princeton 1988. Study of the ghost festival in medieval China between Buddhism and popular religion.
• Thorkild Jacobsen, «The Treasures of Darkness», New Haven 1976. History of Mesopotamian religion traced through changing images of the divine, a frequently cited synthesis.
• Trachtenberg, Joshua: Jewish Magic and Superstition. Behrman, New York 1939. Study of magic and folk belief in medieval Ashkenazi Judaism, a classic reference work.
• Tucci, Giuseppe: The Religions of Tibet. University of California Press, Berkeley 1980. Comprehensive account of the religions of Tibet including Bon, a classic work of Tibetan studies.
• von Stietencron, Heinrich: Der Hinduismus. Beck, München 2001. Concise introduction to Hinduism from a religious studies perspective.
• Walraven, B. C. M.: Shamanism and Syncretism in Korean Religion. Ashgate, 2001. Study of shamanism and syncretism in Korean religious history.
• Walraven, Boudewijn: Songs of the Shaman. Kegan Paul International, London 1994. Study of the songs of Korean shamans with translations of muga texts.
• Walther Sallaberger, «Der kultische Kalender der Ur III-Zeit», Berlin 1993. Study of the cultic calendar of the Ur III period based on administrative texts, a foundational Assyriological work.
• Werner, E. T. C.: Myths and Legends of China. London 1922. Early English-language collection of Chinese myths and legends, a popular survey.
• Wiggermann, Frans A. M.: Mesopotamian Protective Spirits. The Ritual Texts (Cuneiform Monographs 1). Styx, Groningen 1992. Edition of the ritual texts on Mesopotamian protective spirits, a reference work on Babylonian apotropaic practice.
• Wilfred Lambert, «Babylonian Creation Myths», Winona Lake 2013. Edition and analysis of the Babylonian creation myths including Enuma Elish.
• Wilkinson, Richard H.: The Complete Gods and Goddesses of Ancient Egypt. London 2003. Illustrated handbook of the gods and goddesses of Egypt, a widely used reference.
• Williams, Paul: Mahāyāna Buddhism. The Doctrinal Foundations. Routledge, London 1989. Account of the doctrinal foundations of Mahayana Buddhism, a standard English-language textbook.
• Yang, Lihui / An, Deming: Handbook of Chinese Mythology. Santa Barbara 2005. Handbook of Chinese mythology with a survey of sources and an encyclopedic section.
• Yeats, W. B.: Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry. London 1888. Collection of Irish fairy and folk tales edited by the poet W. B. Yeats.