CONTENTS EXPANDED
(Tr.: Have added further secondary alpha-numeric divisions present in the text that were not included in the "Contents" page of the book. Some have an italicized first sentence and these have been incorporated. For those without an explicit title I have provided one in square brackets "[ ]" abstracted from the corresponding section)


Outside back cover ---{ 0 }
Translator’s Introduction ---{ // }
Editor’s Introduction ---{ i }


THE PHILOSOPHICAL PROBLEM OF THE
HISTORY OF RELIGIONS


INTRODUCTION ---{11}


FIRST PART
THE RELIGIOUS FACT ---{13}

CHAPTER 1
THE RELIGIOUS FACT AS SUCH ---{15}

§ 1
Religion as an institution ---{16}

§ 2
Religion as domain of the sacred ---{18}
A) [The sacred according to Durkheim] ---{18}
B) [The sacred according to Rudolf Otto] ---{20}

§ 3
The radical attitude of man ---{29}

I. What is a personal attitude? ---{29}

II. Which is the radical personal attitude? ---{37}
1) [Reality as ultimate] ---{38}
2) [Reality as possibilitating] ---{38}
3) [Reality as imposition] ---{39}

III. The structure of religation and its terminus ---{41}
A) [Religation as a real fundament] ---{41}
---1) [The power of deity as transcendent] ---{45}
---2) [The living power of deity] ---{46}
---3) [Power of deity as fountain of all things] --- {47}
---4) [Power of deity as solidary with separation of things] ---{47}
---5) [Power of organization of things] ---{47}
---6) [Power of success] ---{47}
---7) [Deity as power over human relationships] ---{47}
---8) [Power over birth and death] ---{49}
---9) [The power that directs humans collectively] ---{49}
---10) [The power of reality, of deity, is the power of destiny] ---{49}
---11) [It is the power of the unity of the cosmos, physical and moral] ---{49}
---12) [The power that does everything] ---{50}
---13) [In the Greek-Roman world, the power over moral virtues] ---{50}
---14) [The power of deity fills everything] ---{50}
---15) [The power that perdures always, indefinite time] ---{50}
B) [Religation is the very experience of deity in man's
------own substantive being] ---{52}
---1) [Religation to conscience] ---{53}
---2) [Religation is the primordium of all positive religion] ---{55}

IV. How do things appear in religation? ---{57}

APPENDIX
DIVINITY AND REVELATION ---{61}
A) Deity and divinity ---{62}
B) The accessibility of God ---{68}
---1) [God is the ground of every reality in
---------an absolutely strict and fontanal way] ---{69}
---2) [Personal and inter-personal presence of the divinity in man] ---{70}
---3) [God is the fundament of the power of the real] ---{71}
------a) [Differences according to man himself] ---{73}
------b) [Historic manifestation of God] ---{74}
------c) [Manifesting initiatives of God] ---{76}



SECOND PART
THE FACT OF THE HISTORY OF RELIGIONS ---{79}

CHAPTER 2
RELIGION AND RELIGATION ---{85}

§ 1
The molding itself ---{87}

I. Molding as a personal act of man ---{87}

II. Molding and socialization ---{90}

§ 2
What is religion specifically? ---{95}

I. The body of religion ---{95}
---A) Religion as body ---{95}
---B) The structure of that body ---{98}
------1) [Every religion involves a theology] ---{98}
------2) [It also involves a mundology] ---{100}
---------a) [It involves a cosmogony] ---{100}
---------b) [It involves an ecclesiology] ---{102}
------------aa) Actions of cult, remembering the gods ---{104}
------------bb) [Cults as communication] ---{105}
---------c) [Cults as surrender to gods] ---{106}
---------d) [Tradition] ---{108}
------------aa) [Initial or constitutive moment] ---{108}
------------bb) [Continuating moment of tradition] ---{109}
------------cc) [Moment of progressing tradition] ---{110}

II. Personal religious life ---{111}


CHAPTER 3
THE DIVERSITY OF RELIGIONS ---{115}

§ 1
The fact of diversity ---{116}
A) [Primitive civilizations] ---{116}
B) [Primary civilizations] ---{117}
C) [Secondary cultures] ---{118}
D) [Tertiary civilizations] ---{118}

§ 2
The formal structure of this diversity ---{120}

§ 3
The essential difference of religions ---{123}

I. What is religious thinking? ---{126}

II. What is the religious idea of God? ---{129}
1) [Transcendent power] ---{130}
2) [Vivifying power] ---{130}
3) [Power separating the forms of things] ---{130}
4) [Power of germination] ---{131}
5) [Power of organization of living beings] ---{131}
6) [Power of the success of the harvest] ---{131}
7) [Power of tying men among themselves] ---{131}
8) [Power of birth and death] ---{132}
9) [Power that defends men] ---{132}
10) [Power that fixes destiny] ---{132}
11) [Power that constitutes the cosmic unity] ---{132}
12) [Sacralized power] ---{133}
13) [Power that fills everything as atmosphere] ---{133}
14) [Power of indefinite time] ---{133}

III. In what does its presumed truth consist? ---{134}

§ 4
The characteristics of the essential diversity ---{136}

I. Which are these ways? ---{137}
A) Polytheism ---{137}
B) Pantheism ---{139}
C) Monotheism ---{139}

II. Are they equivalent ways? ---{142}
1) [As absolutely absolute reality there can only be one God] ---{144}
2) [The absolute reality as fundamenting has an essential
---connection with this world] ---{145}
3) [The religious monotheisms] ---{146}

III. In what does the essence of diversity consist? ---{146}

APPENDIX
RELIGIOUS TRUTH ---{151}
A) What is religious truth? ---{152}
B) The occurrence of this truth ---{160}


CHAPTER 4
THE HISTORICITY OF RELIGIONS ---{165}

§ 1
The historical occurrence of religions ---{168}

I. How are religions born? ---{168}

II. Development of religions ---{170}
---A) [Contacts between religions
------through the power of the real] ---{170}
---B) [Internal development of religions] ---{174}
------a) [Through specialization] {174}
------b) [Through amplification] ---{175{
------c) [Appropriation of the gods by social groups] ---{175}
------d) [The social extension] ---{176}
------e) [The attraction] ---{176}

III. Death of religions ---{177}
1) [Religion as ours] ---{177}
2) [Through opression] ---{178}
3) [Through internal consumption] ---{178}
4) [Dissociation between religion as social
---body and religion as personal life] ---{178}

APPENDIX
“PRIMITIVE RELIGION” ---{181}

§ 2
The intrinsic historicity of a religion ---{185}

I. What is historicity? ---{185}
1) [Reality actualized in the intelligence as something
---"de suyo", as real truth] ---{186}
2) [Reality transcends from one thing and remits us
---problematically "towards" another] ---{186}
3) [Possibilities "towards" intellection of deeper
---strata of the same reality] ---{186}
4) [Possibilities constituted by the integral reality of man] ---{187}
5) [The "towards" offers different possibilities] ---{187}
6) [Some possibilities do fit the thing] ---{188}
7) [Realization of a possibility is an event] ---{188}
8) [This demands the truth to be founded logically on
---reality, deductively or as event] ---{188}
9) [Between logic and history there is no opposition] ---{189}

II. The historicity of religion ---{191}

APPENDIX
SITUATION AND MENTALITY ---{197}

§ 3
The fundament of historicity ---{199}


CHAPTER 5
THE WAY OF MONOTHEISM ---{205}

§ 1
The entry of monotheism in history ---{208}

§ 2
The historical unfolding of monotheism ---{211}

I. Abraham and the Patriarchs: the solitary God ---{211}
II. Moses and Yahwism: the jealous God ---{214}
III. The crisis of Yahwism: the excluding God ---{218}
IV. The monarchy and the only God ---{220}
V. Restoration and the national religion: God and his Messiah ---{223}
VI. Christianity ---{226}
VII. Islam ---{229}



THIRD PART
CHRISTIANITY IN THE HISTORY OF RELIGIONS ---{233}

CHAPTER 6
CHRISTIANITY AS AN INTRINSIC HISTORICAL RELIGION ---{237}

§ 1
The preaching and work of Christ ---{239}

I. The God revealed by Christ ---{241}

II. Christ as revealer of God ---{245}
A) How is God in Christ? ---{246}
---1) [First, Christ presents himself as a thaumaturge] ---{246}
---2) [Second, Christ presents himself as Messiah] ---{248}
---3) [Christ called himself Son of God] ---{249}
B) How does one go to God through Christ? ---{250}
---1) [First, the access to Christ has the characteristic
------of a filiation] ---{251}
---2) [Second, a filiation which consists in some way of being
------like God, the same way Christ was] ---{252}

III. The access of man to Christ ---{253}

§ 2
The apostolic preaching ---{260}

I. The Apostles and Judaism ---{260}

II. The Apostles and the Empire ---{263}
A) The Apostles and the gentiles ---{263}
B) The Apostles and Greek wisdom ---{265}

III. Christianity and Greek reasoning ---{268}
A) First phase: What is it to be Son of God? ---{269}
B) Second phase: What is it to be the real Son of God? ---{271}
C) Third phase: What is the physical reality of the
------Word, and of Christ? ---{273}
---1) [What is Christ and who is Christ] ---{274}
---2) [The Trinity, one "what" and three "who"] ---{275}

IV. Christianity and modern reasoning ---{278}
A) Scientific reason ---{278}
B) Philosophical reason ---{279}
---1) [Revelation and faith illuminate reason] ---{281}
---2) [Revelation as essential mysteriosity] ---{281}
------a) [The reasonable is the real exceeding reason] ---{282}
---------aa) [Reason is constitutively and formally an open reason
------------to an encounter as sketch] ---{284}
---------bb) [Reason has to search] ---{284}
------b) [Reality is sensed in its own formality of reality,
------------this is intellective sensing] ---{285}
------c) [Deity is mere manifestation of the divinity] ---{293}
---------aa) [What is being searched for?] ---{294}
---------bb) [How is it searched for?] ---{294}
---------cc) [What is being found?] ---{297}
C) Historical reason ---{305}
---1) [Development of revelation is not an "impulse"] ---{306}
---2) [History of revelation as a "declaration" of the deposit] ---{306}
------a) [Two ways to reach the dogma] ---{310}
------b) [Dogma implicit in the entire deposit] ---{310}
---3) [Undiscernible truths] ---{315}
------a) [First stage, the integral revealed deposit] ---{315}
------b) [Concrete possibilities] ---{315}
------c) [Dogma is fundamentally in the revealed deposit] ---{316}
---------a) [No dogma is solidary with the situation that has
------------illuminated the concepts formulated] ---{318}
---------b) [What is simple faith?] ---{319}
---------c) [The history of dogma is radically not concluded] ---{320}

V. Christianity and religions ---{322}


CHAPTER 7
CHRISTIANITY AND THE HISTORY OF RELIGIONS ---{327}

§ 1
Christianity as true religion ---{329}

§ 2
The other religions in themselves ---{331}

A) [All religions involve intrinsically and formally
---an access to the God of Christianity] ---{331}
B) [No religion is false simpliciter] ---{332}

§ 3
Christianity and the other religions ---{335}

A) The truth of Christianity with respect to the other religions ---{335}
B) The other religions with respect to Christianity ---{337}
---1) [The other religions carry in themselves, as formal constitutive
------of their own truth, an intrinsic Christianity] ---{337}
---2) [The other religions are a de-form Christianity] ---{337}
---3) [The other religions are an ignored Christianity] ---{338}
C) The unity of Christianity “and” the other religions ---{339}
---1) [The attitude of Christ of saving the other religions involves,
------in the first place, a factual historical presence of the truth] ---{243}
---2) [Second, it is also a factual historical
------presence of freedom of option] ---{243}
---3) [Third, it is also a factual historical dynamic presence] ---{344}
------a) [First, it is a factual historical dynamic presence whose power
---------is manifested precisely by sanctifying the one that has it] ---{344}
------b) [Second, it is also a power of endurance] ---{345}
------c) [Third, an expectant factual historical presence] ---{346}

APPENDIX
THE WILL TO HISTORICAL RELIGION ---{349}
1) [In any of the three ways (dispersion, transcendence and immanence)
---man really and actually reaches the divine] ---{349}
2) [The Christian God is reached qua Christian by all the ways] ---{350}
3) [But those ways different from the way of transcendence are
------tortuous "de-form" ways] ---{350}
---a) [God's permissive will anchored in a will to approval] ---{352}
---b) [God's superior will to historical religion, to reach
------God historically] ---{352}
4) [The "form-ness" of each non-Christian religion, a conformity
------and a deformity, is the historical body of each religion] ---{353}
5) [There is a movement of access to God in the graces deposited
------on the rectitude with which man obeys his conscience] ---{357}
6) [The history of religions is in its own way a revelation in act] ---{359}


CONCLUSION ---{361}