According to An11strong, "All ancient religion was based on what has been called the perennial philosophy, because it was present in some fonn in so many premodem cultures." To suppo1t this claim she...

According to An11strong, "All ancient religion was based on what has been called the perennial philosophy, because it was present in some fonn in so many premodem cultures." To suppo1t this claim she looks at religion among such disparate groups as the Australian Aborigines. the ancient A1y:rns and Chinese, che peoples of the Middle East, and the ancient Greeks. While their belief systems can appear quite dissimilar today, A1111sn-ong poincs to w1derlying commonalities. For example, just as the Aryans thought of their gods as devas or shining ones, so the forerunners of tbc Abrahamic faiths-Judaism, Christianjry, and lshun-used the world ilm11, meaning "radiant power," to desctibe their own deities. What are the implications of these parallels? Have we put so great an emphasis on the differences that we have lost touch with the gr eater unity? What factors might explain the emphasis on such difl:ercnccs?