History of Religions

“This is not merely a history, but a comprehensive theory of religions.”
– Prof. Zahari Staykov, sociologist

Vaklush Tolev is known as a theologian and thinker with an original approach and theoretical contribution to the field of religious studies. In his work, religion is not subordinated to confessional or academic boundaries, but is the fruit of inner insight, lived truth, and spiritual knowledge.

His lectures on the history and theory of world religious teachings are published in two volumes. The first — History of Religions — offers an extensive overview of the major world religions (Hinduism, Judaism, Zoroastrianism, Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam), exploring both their practical expressions and metaphysical dimensions. A separate chapter is also dedicated to atheism. Beyond deep comparative analysis, the author introduces a hierarchical framework of the religions based on his original Doctrine of the Hierarchy of Spiritual Waves.

The first edition of History of Religions (1992) was approved by the Bulgarian Ministry of Education as supplemental educational material in the field of philosophy.

Annotation

Religion, as faith and a teaching about life, carries the idea of Wholeness. It is unity within the hierarchy of human potential. It is unity because it seeks, reveals, and realizes perfection — the Way of deification.

Religion is the debt owed by God to His likeness. And Sonhood, in its act of service, gives birth to reverence. The soul makes sacrifice, for the Spirit is immortal. Change is not an attribute of Divine life — yet God in man begins with the totem. We cannot deny that god, but through supreme will and personal effort, we are liberated. Thus every religion, as a necessity of its time, places its own “hewn stone” in the Universal Temple for millennia — even as the garments of civilization are far more often shed from the body of humankind.

Each finds their joy by applying their sacred teaching in life and recognizing the other’s right to be their neighbor. And before man, before us, the mystery will always remain::
– of the Absolute and the limited;
– of the Incorruptible and the perishable;
– of the Contemplated and the real;
– of the Spiritual rhythm and the cultural phenomenon;
– of the World consciousness and the personal worldview;
– of … !

Guided by this vision, the author dares to present his short lectures on the History of Religions before students and readers as an expression of the Great Concern — that which has troubled, transformed, and built the spiritual being of humankind; the great concern we call religion!