To live in a global society and make sense of world events requires more than a cursory understanding of world religions and the roles they play. This fascinating, in-depth, academic study of the five major religions focuses on each group's response to some of the most critical social issues of our time: ecology, peace, and women's rights. The author also highlights individual religious "heroes" and provides links to numerous digital sources for further research, making this a particularly timely and personalized approach to the study of world religions and their far-reaching impact at every level of society. Book jacket.

"Professor Parrinder's classic survey of his own field of study, out of print for several years, has been thoroughly revised and updated and is now issued in paperback for the first time. In it, he considers the meaning and purpose of the study of other religions, especially those of Asia, in view of their increasing presence in our society. He discusses how other religions should be approached, their varying truth claims, and the use of propaganda and missionary work. He demonstrates clearly the vital differences between the world's religions and urges understanding at social and personal levels."-Publisher.

Contains nearly 600 brief entries on the world's religious traditions.

Reproduction of the original: A Comparative View of Religions by Jan Hendrik Scholten

This book provides the reader a golden opportunity to take a glance over his or her own religion as well as all other major religions of the world. It raises many intriguing questions about faiths worldwide of the past and the present.

“[A] lucid and thoughtful book... In a spirit of reconciliation, Crane proposes to paint a more accurate picture of religion for his fellow unbelievers.” —James Ryerson, New York Times Book Review Contemporary debate about religion seems to be going nowhere. Atheists persist with their arguments, many plausible and some unanswerable, but these make no impact on religious believers. Defenders of religion find atheists equally unwilling to cede ground. The Meaning of Belief offers a way out of this stalemate. An atheist himself, Tim Crane writes that there is a fundamental flaw with most atheists’ basic approach: religion is not what they think it is. Atheists tend to treat religion as a kind of primitive cosmology, as the sort of explanation of the universe that science offers. They conclude that religious believers are irrational, superstitious, and bigoted. But this view of religion is almost entirely inaccurate. Crane offers an alternative account based on two ideas. The first is the idea of a religious impulse: the sense people have of something transcending the world of ordinary experience, even if it cannot be explicitly articulated. The second is the idea of identification: the fact that religion involves belonging to a specific social group and participating in practices that reinforce the bonds of belonging. Once these ideas are properly understood, the inadequacy of atheists’ conventional conception of religion emerges. The Meaning of Belief does not assess the truth or falsehood of religion. Rather, it looks at the meaning of religious belief and offers a way of understanding it that both makes sense of current debate and also suggests what more intellectually responsible and practically effective attitudes atheists might take to the phenomenon of religion.

This book provides a detailed and insightful comparison of the world's major religions. Josiah Conder's meticulous research and attention to detail make this book an invaluable resource for anyone interested in the study of religion. The comparative analysis presented in this book provides a deep understanding of the similarities and differences between different religions. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Author Anthony Steinbronn examines the postmodern perspective that views the Christian church as only one of many brands in the ideological supermarket. He critiques the position that Christianity no longer has ultimate truth but must take its place alongside numerous other religions. How should Christians respond in this pluralistic age? Steinbronn advocates that we need to know how different religions view the world, humanity's reason for existence, sin and its consequences, and eternal life. Armed with this knowledge, Christians can communicate the truth of God's Word to a world searching for truth and meaning. The book examines : Buddhism; Confucianism; Hinduism; Islam; Tribalism; Modernity.

Thirty classic and contemporary readings - from such writers as Kant, Hume, Schleiermacher, and Otto, to Ninian Smart, Mircea Eliade, Karen McCarthy-Brown, and Wendy Doniger.

The ideal primer on world religions, "Exploring the Major Faiths" is an introduction to the five most significant religious movements - Hinduism, Judaism, Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam. These are the faith traditions that have shaped human history, societies, cultures, indeed entire civilizations.The Book of Religions is an unbiased presentation of the major faiths, one that introduces readers to the prime characteristics and distinctive features of each. It takes a broad view to include all the essential and important elements of each religion."Exploring the Major Faiths" organizes the diverse doctrines and practices of these exotic religious traditions into a format that allows readers to compare similar aspects of different faiths. The book presents each religion with eight standard chapters: Introduction, Beliefs, History, Scripture, Practices, View, Features, and Vocabulary.This new third edition of the Book of Religions includes illustrations, comparison charts, a glossary of religious terms, and individual vocabularies for each faith.