Within the Jewish and Christian traditions, the origin of philosophical and historical examinations of religion lies in the works of the ancient Greeks. This is equivalent to saying that the point of departure for these traditions' philosophical and historical self-examination is Greek thought. Other attitudes toward the development of religion are undoubtedly to be found in Egypt, Mesopotamia, India, and China before Greek thought intervened, but these attitudes will remain outside my present consideration. I shall here be concerned basically with the examination of religion within the Hellenic tradition.

Historical and Philosophical Dichotomy

A significant distinction was imposed by the very nature of the Greek perspective: philosophical examination and historical examination of religion became two distinct branches of knowledge. Indeed, it is characteristic of Greek thought to distinguish in general (at least from the fifth century BCE onward) between philosophy and history...