"No one has done so much as Mr. Eliade to inform literature students in the West about 'primitive' and Oriental religions. . . . Everyo ne who cares about the human adventure will find new information and new angles of vision."--Martin E. Marty, New York Times Book Review
‘A History of Religious Ideas, volume 1 will arouse the interest of all historians of western religion, since it includes chapters on the religions of Canaan and Israel. However, the book must be read cover to cover if one wants to grasp the significance of its gigantic historical scope...Not only has the work unity through Eliade's authorship, but it lays the foundation of the history of religious' edifice of which he has been one of the principal architects.' --Kees W. Bolle, Church History.

《宇宙与历史》旨在探索人类的脱除“历史”的欲动力，藉由不断地反复“回归(神话及宗教的)初民原型”，来重新汲取存在需要的能源，更新此生此世。耶律亚德认为人类原初社会中的神话及宗教不是愚昧初民的无知产物，它们其实折射出太初刹那的重要象征；它们是原型，是根源性的模范，是人类不断更新自我的源泉。本书耶氏一生理论的入门书，更是重要的宗教及神话学经典。

在本書中，伊利亞德論證了神聖與世俗從本質上說即是人類生命存在的兩種基本形式或者方式，他以神聖與世俗的樣式剪裁了古代社會中的一切行為和觀念、時間、空間、節目、勞動、生活、居住、婚育、人會式……，這種神聖與世俗的樣式在伊利亞德那裡幾乎成了一種方法論，用來說明歷史，也解讀神話 ，用來分析一切神聖的現象，也用來說明所有世俗的生