Ambasciano L.. An Unnatural History of Religions: Academia, Post-Truth and the Quest for Scientific Knowledge. Bloomsbury Academic,2019. — 280 p.. 2019

How come that, despite centuries of scientific research, the main academic discipline dedicated to the historical study of religion has been - and still is - so blindly devoted to an apologetic study of its research subject? The paradox lies in the fact that nature, in the guise of deep-historical, impersonal, aimless and meaningless evolutionary dynamics, has provided us, Homo sapiens, with a software that, for the mere purpose of its hardware self-maintenance, survival and replication, is inclined to produce immediate, personal, intentional and purposeful answers which are intuitively at odds with evolutionary and scientific thinking (e.g. Evans 2000; Kelemen 2012; for nonhuman animals and their cognitive abilities, see de Waal 2013 and de Waal 2016).1 When confronted with science and evolution, just as the famous episode of the TV animated sitcom Family Guy where Carl Sagan's Cosmos had been overdubbed to be broadcast in the US Bible Belt, believers, religionists and theologians are likely to answer ‘God'.2

Books and textbooks on the discipline History of religions:

1. Behera Maguni C. (ed.). The Routledge Handbook of Contemporary Readings on Tribe and Religions in India: Emerging Negotiations. Routledge,2024. — 502 p. - 2024 ãîä
2. Brodd Jeffrey, Little L., Nystrom B., Platzner R., Shek R., Stiles E.. Invitation to World Religions. 4th edition. — Oxford University Press,2022. — 1196 p. - 2022 ãîä
3. Aldhouse-Green Miranda. Sacred Britannia: The Gods and Rituals of Roman Britain. Thames & Hudson,2018. — 256 p. - 2018 ãîä
4. Bell Michael. City of the Good: Nature, Religion, and the Ancient Search for What is Right. Princeton University Press,2018. — 360 p. - 2018 ãîä
5. Bhayro Siam, Rider Catherine (eds.). Demons and Illness from Antiquity to the Early-Modern Period. Leiden, Boston: Brill,2017. — xiv, 434 p. - 2017 ãîä
6. Blakely S. (ed.). Gods, Objects, and Ritual Practice. Lockwood Press,2017. — 371 p. - 2017 ãîä
7. Bredholt Christensen Lisbeth, Hammer Olav, Warburton David. The Handbook of Religions in Ancient Europe. Acumen,2013. — 456 p. - 2013 ãîä
8. Bommas M., Harrisson J., Roy Ph. (Eds.). Memory and Urban Religion in the Ancient World. Bloomsbury Academic,2012. — 312 p. - 2012 ãîä
9. Ahearne-Kroll Stephen P., Holloway Paul A., Kelhoffer James A. (eds.). Women and Gender in Ancient Religions: Interdisciplinary Approaches. JCB Mohr (Paul Siebeck),2010. — 518 p. - 2010 ãîä
10. Annus Amar (ed.). Divination and Interpretation of Signs in the Ancient World. Chicago: The University of Chicago Press,2010. — viii, 352 p. - 2010 ãîä
11. Cox Robert E.. Creating the Soul Body: The Sacred Science of Immortality. Inner Traditions,2008. — 288 p. - 2008 ãîä
12. Clothey Fred W.. Religion in India: a Historical Introduction. Routledge,2007. — 300 p. - 2007 ãîä
13. Asad Talal. Formation of the Secular: Christianity, Islam, Modernity. Stanford University Press,2003. — 269 p. - 2003 ãîä
14. Benko Stephen. The Virgin Goddess Studies in the Pagan and Christian Roots of Mariology. Leiden: Brill, 2003 - 2003 ãîä
15. Carroll Brett. The Routledge Historical Atlas of Religion in America. Routledge,2000. — 144 p. - 2000 ãîä
16. Burkert Walter. Creation of the Sacred: Tracks of Biology in Early Religions. 3rd Edition. — Harvard University Press,1998. — 272 p. - 1998 ãîä
17. Clarke Peter et al. (eds.). The World's Religions. Routledge,1988. — 995 p. - 1988 ãîä
18. Asimov Isaac. Words in Genesis. Houghton Mifflin,1962. — 257 p. - 1962 ãîä