Eastern Religions and the West: The Making of an Image (original) (raw)

Between 1250 and 1350, in the aftermath of the Mongol conquests, Western travelers brought back new information on the Eastern religions of China, Tibet and India. By 1350, medieval views on religion were quite complex and nuanced; they did not just look at the East and group it all together as a vague “paganism.” This paper, then, examines what medieval authors thought they knew about Eastern religions in all their aspects (theological, ritual, institutional, material), and how these views relate to larger medieval ideas about the concept of religion itself. This paper will not seek either to determine the truthfulness of Western views of the East or to suggest what Eastern religious ideas or practices are being referenced. Instead, it will focus on the image of Eastern religions in the minds of Latin Christians.