Evil Children in Religion, Literature and Art explores the genesis, development, and religious significance of a literary and iconographic motif, involving a gang of urchins, usually male, who mock or assault a holy or eccentric person, typically an adult. Originating in the biblical tale of Elisha's mockery (2 Kings 2.23-24), this motif recurs in literature, hagiography, and art, from antiquity up to our own time, strikingly defying the conventional Judeo-Christian and Romantic image of the child as a symbol of innocence.

This book pays critical homage to the eminent comparatist of Chinese and Western literature and religion, Anthony C. Yu of The University of Chicago. Broadly comparative, cross-cultural, and interdisciplinary in scope, the volume consists of an introductory essay on Yu's scholarly career, and thirteen additional essays on topics such as literary texts and traditions of varying provenance and periods, ranging from ancient Greece, medieval Europe, and nineteenth- and twentieth-century England and America, to China from the classical to modern periods. The disciplines and areas of research that...

This book reexamines the meaning and significance of the first World's Parliament of Religions and its impact on the development of the academic study of religion. Held in Chicago in 1893, the Parliament attracted the participation of religious leaders from different faiths and a smaller number of academics who studied religion from what they called "scientific" perspectives. Following an introduction by the editor, the essays are organized into three sections. Part I reissues six papers on comparative religion from the Parliament's original proceedings. Part II contains two articles, both...