How should we explain differences in religious belief and practice? Philippe Borgeaud's ambitious intellectual history tells the story of how reflection on religious phenomena emerged, throughout the centuries, in European consciousness and scholarship. Christianity in particular, as Borgeaud shows, long wrestled with how to understand polytheistic cultures versus its own belief in a single omnipotent God. The Church Fathers, the author argues, sought to inherit the core of Graeco-Roman culture while rejecting its deities and religious practices; and patristic ideas were later adopted when Europeans travelling and colonising the world encountered ever more varied polytheistic traditions. At times detached, at times enchanted, these travellers' reflections provided the basis for the modern study of 'religions', and have since conditioned the mindset of anyone brought up in a European culture. The book concludes by arguing for the importance of liberation from these assumptions and instead considering religion as a form of 'play'.

‘A delight to read, wonderfully informative, richly synthetic, challenging and stimulating. Borgeaud ranges widely, thinks deeply, consistently offers shrewd observations and provocative suggestions, while tracing the history of ideas about the nature of religion from antiquity to the present.'

Bruce Lincoln - Caroline E. Haskell Distinguished Service Professor Emeritus of the History of Religions, University of Chicago

‘What is Religion? constitutes the synthesis of a lifetime of reflection. Moving with admirable ease both over the entire historical depth that separates us from ancient Greece and over the global geographic expanse, Borgeaud invites his reader on a journey which is as striking for its erudition as for the clarity of its argument, which is both respectful of its subject and open.'

John E. Jackson - Professor Emeritus of French Literature, University of Bern