Product Description

Taking a refreshing new approach to understanding different faiths, World Religions looks at the beliefs and practices of many different religions, including Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism and Islam.

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Product Details

Publisher	DK ADULT
ISBN	0756617723
Features	ISBN13: 9780756617721 Condition: New Notes: BUY WITH CONFIDENCE, Over one million books sold! 98% Positive feedback. Compare our books, prices and service to the competition. 100% Satisfaction Guaranteed
Format	Paperback
Author	John Bowker
EAN	9780756617721
Label	DK ADULT
Dewey Decimal Number	200
Studio	DK ADULT
Number Of Pages	216
Title	World Religions: The Great Faiths Explored & Explained
Publication Date	2006-02-20
Manufacturer	DK ADULT

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Customer Reviews

Objective???

Review by Thomas M. Mckee, 2010-06-09

The author writes from religious bias... It would be nice to see a book on religions that is objective...

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Almost Perfect, Flawed by Moments of Religious Bigotry

Review by Tevis Fen-Kortiay, 2010-05-09

First, this book is the most accessible, well-written and even-handed single-volume overview of current world religion (plus some historical context) I've ever found in English. I'd recommend this to anyone seeking to get at least a baseline grasp of what our neighbors believe. I will likely buy a copy for each of my nieces and nephews (with a few words of warning about the objectionable parts). At first the image-saturated, magazine-style format made me a little worried the information would be lightweight, but the appealing and accessible format is well-used to convey a genuinely well-chosen selection of information. Author John Bowker has perfect credentials, as the author of The Oxford Dictionary of World Religions and editor of the The Cambridge Illustrated History of Religions (Cambridge Illustrated Histories). The last section, which draws attention to the hopeful & empathetic common message seemingly at the heart of all major faiths, is particularly welcome.

Author John Bowker makes a few odd choices I wouldn't agree with -- like translating the title of the Tao te Ching as "The Way of Power," but generally these are only quibbles. The only element of this book that makes me slightly uneasy is when the author allows some religious bigotry against non-Christians to sneak into an otherwise excellent book. For example:

* The section on Islam includes a photograph of the Twin Towers burning and a picture of an angry-looking Islamic man in military gear holding up an assault rifle in one hand and the Qur'an in the other. Wow! Hitler wrote in Mein Kampf that his attempted genocide of the Jews was in the name of his Christian god, so why does Bowker not include photographs of the mass graves at Auschwitz in the Christian section? It's clear that Bowker's idea here is to make it clear to Western readers that not all Muslims agree with the 9/11 attacks -- many Muslims see them as having violated the very exacting conditions of Jihad (holy war) set down by the Qur'an and the Hadith. I can see what Bowker was going for, but this comes across as the demonization of a single faith.

* The non-religious (including Atheists and Agnostics) make up more than 12% of the world population, but they receive almost no mention here (compare to Jews, who make up 5% of the world population, yet receive their own chapter). Bowker's only acknowledgement of this huge segment of world belief seems to be this dismissive sentence: "Even though many people would deny that they are religious, it is clear that we are prepared for religion the same way as we are physically prepared for breathing, speaking a language, being musical, eating, and so on." This makes it sound as though atheists, and faiths which do not anthropomorphize divinity as gods (such as Taoism, Confucism and Buddhism), somehow "haven't got it." I do not have a problem with Bowker personally considering these moral systems inferior to his own (Christianity), but feel that his personal prejudices are out of place in an otherwise serious overview that pretends even-handedness.

* Bowker implies that native religions are mere silly, childish superstitions, in contrast to his own Christianity, which is an authentic understanding of capital-G God. Shaman travel to places that are "taken to be the other worlds" (while Christian otherworlds like Heaven are *real* places, not "taken to be" real places). Native peoples "translate" natural events such as famine into made-up Gods, while the famines described in the Old Testament *really were* due to Bowker's *real* Christian God. This comes across as transparent religious bigotry, which is a shame in what is generally an excellent and even-handed overview.

* On the last page, Bowker mentions that many people believe that religions are all just different paths to the same goal -- communion with the divine. He definitively states that this is untrue, claiming that "The accounts they [the various religions] give of the universe, of human nature, of the goals of life, of God or of a higher power, of the ways that lead to salvation or to enlightenment are deeply and irreconcilably different." Given that this book is presented as fact rather than opinion, I wish Bowker had been a little less slippery and more up-front here that he is expressing his opinion, not a fact, and more importantly that he is expressing the *minority opinion* in his field. Comparative Religion: A History has largely been a battle between serious scholars, who observe more and more that reigions serve the same social function and offer the same solace cross-culturally, and entrenched Christian scholars like Bowker, who bridle at the idea that theirs might not be the one true religion, and so need to always undercut the increasingly clear picture painted by their own field of study. Joseph Campbell spoke for the *majority* opinion in Bowker's field when he said that the quest for the divine is the same worldwide, and the major religions are "no more than local inflections."

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I'm sure it's really good.

Review by Tuck Tuck, 2010-04-05

Haven't seriously read it. But it has beautiful pictures and seems very comprehensive. I'll get to it one day.

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World Religions: The Great Faiths Explored & Explained

Review by Rachel Hoover, 2010-01-31

I was very impressed with the arrival of my book, this service provider was very quick and efficient, and the book was in good condition.

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Good generalization

Review by Rebecca L. Claypool, 2010-01-09

I purchased this for a nephew (14 yrs) for X-mas, per his request, but like most books, I had to read it before I wrapped it. The reviews on Amazon that I based my purchase on were correct. I wanted a general review of the world's religions but not a dissertation (like many of the books I looked at). The pictures of the relgious art were a beatuful compliment to the writing. The descriptions of the various religious practices were comprehensive but not overwhelmimg to the casual reader in most respects.

The description of Hindu religion was confusing, but this could be due to my total ignorance of this religion and its complexity and not the fault of the writer. My biggest complaint is the lack of information on Ancient (Greek, Egyptian, Roman, Babylonia, and et al) African, American Indian, Carribean, South American and other religious customs that are not considered "main-stream" religious traditions. These religious practices are an important part of religion development in the past (X-mas trees, Easter eggs) and will continue to influence religious tradtions now and in the future. More information on these traditions would have been appreciated.

Over-all a good general survey of major world religions.

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