World Religions: From Ancient History to the Present

Book Overview

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• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0871961296
• ISBN13: 9780871961297
• Release Date: March 1984
• Publisher: Facts on File
• Length: 528 Pages
• Weight: 2.02 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.2" x 7.7" x 9.6"

Customer Reviews

Excellent Overview

I've had this book for at least 15 years that I can remember and I refer to it constantly. What I really like about this book is that it looks at religion from a historical perspective, referencing both scriptures and history from the secular standpoint. It also gives a concise description of the major tenants of enumerated religions. The book does not give its own opinion, rather it references known experts and lists their specific contributions in the body of the text thereby allowing one to go to the various authors quoted for more indepth and detailed information/analysis. The book is extremely well illustrated with both archeological and historical photos and renderings. Its purpose is to juxtapose extant religious literature and archeological data and place it within its historical timeframe and context. I found the information of Early Hinduism, Buddhism and Jainism along with Zoroastrianism to be particularly helpful. It also explains the effect of known human migrations (again referring to Buddhism) and its influence on both early Hinduism and subequently, Buddhism especially insiteful. The book is dry, accurate, and encyclopedic in nature. If I had only one reference book for my religious studies available to me, this would be the one that I would choose.

Good price, good book, but not hardcover

The book arrived with good speed, in excellent condition. It wasn't hardcover as advertised, although the price cannot be beat, and I can't imagine why anyone would want hardcover over paperback... but that should have been noted.

world religions

I love learning about other religions and I think everyone should know about other religions so that way they wont be as judgemental about them and this book gives really useful information about them.

an encyclopedia of religions

This book follows the religious history of the world. It starts from ancient times, continues with religions of Egypt, India, Greece, China and Japan, and concludes with Judaism, Christianity and Islam. It gives the sense that religion almost everywhere arose as a result of a particular need, and evolved in a certain way to address those needs. I found the section on Chinese religions (Confucianism, Buddism and Taoism) especially well-written. (I am no content expert; I mean this section was interesting and easy to read). Some sections are packed with information, and one does not remember much after a few days (such as the section on religions of Greece where several gods are mentioned one after another without going into much detail). I didn't like the organization of pictures. There are quite a few black and white photographs, but instead of being scattered in the book close to the place where they are mentioned, the pictures are gathered on a few pages throughout the book. This makes it difficult to match them with their mention in the text. I think it could have been written in a less formal way to make it easier to read. It seems that it was aimed to be an encyclopedia, a book of reference, and that is what it is.