Contenu du sommaire

Totemic structures in Chinese primitive religion The notion of totemism has too often been disputed, although traces of it are apparent in more than one civilisation. In China, two eminent specialists of religion : Yuan Dexing (Taiwan) and Cen Jiawu (People's Republic of China) have tried to establish the authenticity of these ancient beliefs. Ancient Chinese texts contain many references to the animal ancestor and its divine nature, and numerous instructions as how to treat it, when eating it, sacrificing it or calling for its protection.

Religious toleration in Turkic-Mongol societies The tolerant attitudes of Turkish and Mongol peoples, whether or not Muslim, has often been pointed as a remarkable aspect of such and such political structures. In spite of noteworthy exceptions, it appears that this is representative of a basic tendency and was widespread. Based on the idea that each religion is an effective means of communication between the divinity and man, toleration showed itself by measures and attitudes which we shall study here. We shall endeavour to show their consistancy, explain their meaning and examine their results : freedom of worship and apostleship ; the structure of the churches ; the organisation of colloquies ; a respect for, but not fear of priests, deviners, astrologists and privileges given them under certain conditions and a lack of concern with places of worship.

The Ethiopic version of the « Life of Besoy » "The Life of Besoy", wrongly attributed to John the less (Colobos) his illustrious contemporary and already familiar in Greek, Syriac and Arabic, is known in Ethiopic under the title : "The Story of Our Father Saint Besoy". It relates the deeds of an ascetic who lived in Scetis and later in the Antinoë Desert in the second half of the fourth century and the early decade of the fifth. A monastery in Scetis bears his name.

Robert Challe and the novel of religion On the occasion of the republication of an eighteenth century Deist Bible — "Difficultés sur la religion proposées au père Malebranche" — , the author studies the complex interplay between the mask (the author) and the text (the manipulation of manuscripts) in which the participants in the antireligious struggle of the Enlightenment took part. Through his biased autobiography, R. Challe turns religion into a fiction, a sort of « historical short story » as it was called, a mere « Scripture » of human fantasy.