The Penguin Dictionary of Religions (Dictionary, Penguin)

By John R. Hinnells

In this title, Paul Theroux sets off for Cape Town from Cairo - the hard way.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0140512616
• ISBN13: 9780140512618
• Release Date: December 1997
• Publisher: Penguin Books
• Length: 800 Pages
• Weight: 0.10 lbs.
• Dimensions: 7.7" x 1.7" x 5.1"
• Age Range: 18 years and up
• Grade Range: Grade 12 and higher

Customer Reviews

Good all around reference for religious terms

This book contains a brief description of most of the major religions. What is helpful is that terms that one would not be familiar with unless one was a member of a particular religion are illuminated. So if you were reading about religions and wanted to know what a "Mo Tzu" was, then you could find that it is "an anti-Confucian, pragmatic philosopher" or if you read in the Bible about the "Sadducees", then you could find out that they were "a religious party in Judaism ... theologically conservative, rejection post-exilic angelology and demonology and the belief in bodily resurrection." With maps, an extensive Bibliography and a General Index, I find this book very useful. It is by no means comprehensive in every religious term but a great reference for obscure terms not found elsewhere.