Introduces the origins of self-understanding in the cultures of Ancient Greece, the Roman Empire, the Middle Ages, and the Renaissance, and explains how Western civilization frames the issues of self and society.

This book was first presented by historian Christopher Dawson as part of the prestigious Gifford Lecture series in 1947. It sets out the thesis for which he became famous: religion is the key of history.

"A short, provocative book on religion from a Pulitzer Prize-winning author. In his new book, acclaimed scholar Jack Miles poses a question: How did our forebears begin to think about religion as a distinct domain, separate from other activities that were once inseparable from it? Starting at the birth of Christianity-a religion inextricably bound to Western thought-Miles reveals how we in the West have come to isolate religion as an object of study,...