Front Matter -- Half Title Page -- Title Page -- Copyright Page -- Table of Contents -- Contributors -- Preface -- Content -- The Axial Age Breakthroughs Their Characteristics and Origins -- The Origins of the Axial Age in Ancient Greece -- The Axial Age Breakthrough in Ancient Greece -- The Emergence of Second-order Thinking in Classical Greece -- Dynamics of the Greek Breakthrough: The Dialogue between Philosophy and Religion -- The Meaning of the Word (Body) in the Axial Age: An Interpretation of Plato's CRATYLUS 400c -- The Origins of the Axial Age in Ancient Israel-with a Comparative Look at Assyria -- The Axial Age Breakthrough in Ancient Israel -- Myth and Reality in Ancient Israel -- The Protest against Imperialism in Ancient Israelite Prophecy -- On Self-Consciousness in Mesopotamia -- Monarchy and the Elite in Assyria and Babylonia: The Question of Royal Accountability -- The Secondary Breakthroughs in Late Antiquity-Second Temple Judaism and Christianity -- The Secondary Breakthrough in Ancient Israelite Civilization The Second Commonwealth and Christianity -- Eschatology, Remythologization, and Cosmic Aporia -- Old Wine and New Bottles: On Patristic Soteriology and Rabbinic Judaism -- The Role of Christianity in the Depolitization of the Roman Empire -- Architects of Competing Transcendental Visions In Late Antiquity -- The Origins of the Axial Age in China and India -- The Axial Age Breakthrough in China and India -- Historical Conditions of the Emergence and Crystallization of the Confucian System -- Was There a Transcendental Breakthrough in China? -- The Structure and Function of the Confucian Intellectual In Ancient China -- The Historical Background of India's Axial Age -- Ritual, Revelation, and Axial Age -- Asvatthliman and Bt:hannadli: Brahmin and Kingly Paradigms in the Sanskrit Epic.

Some Observations on the Place of Intellectuals in Max Weber's Sociology, with Special Reference to Hinduism -- The Reflexive and Institutional Achievements of Early Buddhism -- Islam -- Introductory Remarks: Islam -- The Emergence of Islamic Civilisation -- Back Matter -- Notes -- Back Cover.