CONTENTS -- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS -- GENERAL INTRODUCTION -- PART ONE: THEORETICAL APPROACHES -- Introduction: History, Theory and Interpretation -- The Axial Age and its Interpreters: Reopening a Debate -- The Meaning of the Axial Age -- Palomar's Questions. The Axial Age Hypothesis, European Modernity and Historical Contingency -- Between Tradition and Christianity: The Axial Age in the Perspective of Béla Hamvas -- PART TWO: THE ANCIENT NEAR EAST AND ITS AXIAL PERIPHERIES -- Introduction: Archaic Backgrounds and Axial Breakthroughs -- Axial "Breakthroughs" and Semantic "Relocations" in Ancient Egypt and Israel -- Mesopotamian Vistas on Axial Transformations -- Zoroastrian Origins: Indian and Iranian Connections -- Axial Transformations within Ancient Israelite Priesthood -- The Jewish Historical Experience: Heterodox Tendencies and Political Dynamics in a De-territorialized Axial Civilization -- Polis, "the Political", and Political Thought: New Departures in Ancient Greece, c. 800-500 BCE -- PART THREE: LATE ANTIQUITY AND BEYOND -- Introduction: Late Antiquity as a Sequel and Counterpoint to the Axial Age -- Cultural Memory in Early Christianity: Clement of Alexandria and the History of Religions -- "The Religion of Light": On Mani and Manichaeism -- Arabia and The Heritage of the Axial Age -- PART FOUR: INDIAN AND CHINESE PERSPECTIVES -- Introduction: Extending the Axial Model to South and East Asia -- Axial Grammar -- Axialism and Empire -- Rethinking the Axial Age-The Case of Chinese Culture -- The Axial Millennium in China: A Brief Survey -- The Ming-Qing Transition: Seventeenth-Century Crisis or Axial Breakthrough? -- PART FIVE: CONCLUDING REFLECTIONS -- Axial Civilizations and the Axial Age Reconsidered -- List of contributors -- INDEX -- A -- B -- C -- D -- E -- F -- G -- H -- I -- J -- K -- L -- M -- N -- O -- P -- Q -- R -- S -- T -- U.

V -- W -- Y -- Z.