Customer Reviews

The Handy Religion Answer Book (The Handy Answer Book Series)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(3)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

__ THE HANDY RELIGION ANSWER BOOK __ is broken down in such a way that it makes finding specific information about various aspects of the religions covered very accessible. Overall it is structured as follows:

RELIGIOUS TRADITIONS OF MIDDLE EASTERN ORIGIN

. . . . . Judaism

. . . . . Christianity

. . . . . Islam

RELIGIOUS TRADITIONS OF SOUTH ASIAN ORIGINS

. . . . . Hinduism

. . . . . Buddhism

RELIGIOUS TRADITIONS OF EAST ASIAN ORIGIN

. . . . . Daoism and Chinease Community Traditions

. . . . . Confucianism, The Literati, and Chinese Imperial Tradition

. . . . . Shinto

Under each religion, several questions are posed, having answers that serve to explain the traditions, philosophies, and religious practices of each. A few typical questions are: How does Jewish tradition interpret history? What is Christian Fundamentalism? and Do Muslims believe in miracles. These are just a sampling of the hundreds of subjects covered.

In addition to the information given for each of the various religions, there is a General Information section which includes a CHRONOLOGY OF MAJOR EVENTS covering a period of from 4000 BCE to 2001 AD and a section of DEFINITIONS AND METHODS

If you want a good overview of the major religious traditions of our world, you can't go wrong with __ THE HANDY RELIGION ANSWER BOOK __. Of course if you want to go into any subject more deeply, there is a list of resources included which will lead you to more in depth information.

This author begins with a general background that defines not only what religion is and how it has come about, but also about how it is structured as systems of disparate beliefs by varying societies. He then proceeds with an analysis of each of the eight major religions using the same template across religions: The template includes their historical sources, the body of their main beliefs, common signs and symbols and their meanings, membership requirements for each, their holidays, customs and rituals, and the makeup of their leadership; and finally, the source of their organizational authority, powers and key religious personalities.

The only drawback to the book that I could find is that it makes only a passing reference to Native American religions. I would have been happy if the author had spent at least a few paragraphs of general comments and references to Native American religions, or at the very least, to have told us why he had elected not to include even a general introduction to them?

Despite this, there is much to like about this book. It is balanced, non-polemical, and thus, generally very scholarly. His warning in the introduction to people like myself, (who believe that on balance religions are a net negative, that is to say more harmful than useful) is to suspend judgment until the survey is complete. It turns out this is good advice. As for once the complexity of religion - as it sits at the intersection of personal, cultural and traditional modes of thinking, learning and believing -- is explicated, plenty of room is left to fashion a more nuanced opinion and assessment of both the overall utility and value of religion to a particular society and to humanity as a whole. To his credit, he does not take sides in this important issue, leaving it entirely up to the reader's discretion.I am grateful to him for this suggestion and for his stance.

But also, in addition to the excellent structured survey of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Daoism, Confucianism and Shintoism, the introduction deserves special praise as it provides one of the clearest and most succinct analysis of religion as a general social phenomenon I have yet seen (and this includes the books of religious scholar Karen Armstrong, a couple of which I have also reviewed on Amazon.com).

Basically the author's take is this: Religion is a shared search via a common set of beliefs by various societies for the answer to a host of perplexing questions, among which are the following: How did life begin? What does it mean to be human? Are there forces greater than human ones responsible for the shape of things? How do good people live their lives? And the mother of all such questions: What happens to us after we die?

The author provides one additional piece of very useful advice. It is that when we allow cultural norms to dominate our quest for answers to these questions, we can then mistake our own conformity to the status quo, for religion itself. And in this piece of advice, the author does more than just allude to the fact that perhaps that is what has been done with the "American way of life." He strongly hints that what we have fashioned out of our own comfortable cultural materials (based mostly on traditions that fit our deepest fears and prejudices) is a complacent kind of "civil religion."

In the end, this kind of self-style "de facto religion" is little more than a form of "soft totalitarianism" based on social psychological bullying by the majority; one that subtracts from the subjectivity of the individual and especially of those of various targeted groups, and substitutes in their places "warm and fuzzy but often morally questionable societal groupthink." I agree with the author, we Americans seem to have perfected the science of making whatever we believe in as "our universal religion:" otherwise known as the religion of "American Exceptionalism." Five Stars

Great book that answers most of the questions rationale people have about religion. Great reference for settling disputes about religious practices. It's the "bible" of relgious FAQs.

I like the question-and-answer format, but too many of the answers are wrong.

The brief section "What about Baha'i and Ahmadiyya" is an example. The author has a sentence or so about the origin of the Baha'i faith, about its founder Baha'u'llah and his claims to be a Prophet. OK so far, though not too detailed. Then he goes on to say that after Baha'u'llah's death in 1892, "his followers took on the mantle" -- this is absolutely wrong and there is no credible source where the author could have gotten that idea. After Baha'u'llah's death, Baha'i leadership fell to his son Abdul-Baha and today Baha'is are governed by elected assemblies. But none of them ever "took on the mantle" of prophethood, because Baha'u'llah was very explicit that the next prophet would be only after 1000 years. It states that Baha'is are considered as non-Moslems -- this is obvious. No Baha'i or Moslem would ever claim otherwise, Baha'i beliefs and practices are far outside of Islam, and most Baha'is today are in non-Islamic countries.

The same section also discusses the Ahmadiyya movement, because both originated from Islamic backgrounds in the 19th century, though otherwise they have little in common. The author said that Ahmadiyya members are considered as "non-Moslems" but fails to point out that this is only the opinion of some mainstream Moslems. Ahmadiyya members -- unlike Baha'is -- claim to be within Islam and deny that their founder claimed a station equal to Muhammed. The author mentions that the Ahmadiyya movement has about 500,000 to 1 million members, but fails to mention that Baha'is have 5 million to 6 million members in over 300 countries, including over 100,000 in the US.

There is not a word about the beliefs and practices of either religion.

So, in summary, the author has only three facts about an important world religion; and of those three facts one is flat wrong and another is obvious.

Sections about Chinese religion and about Islam are little better.

Here is another handy reference book for anyone who wants to learn something about the faiths of the world after reading about them in newspapers or hearing about them elsewhere.

As a religion teacher I flipped through this book and found it very weak on total truthfulness. The author fails to mention that Muhammad murdered caravan merchants to raise money for a army to kill more people; that in his opinion Christians set up the Church by reinterpreting the Bible; he fails to mention the numerous rules to be obeyed in Hinduism and Buddhism. His lack of accuracy continues through the descriptions of other religions as well. Not a very good "Answer Book."

I like the idea of sort of a summary of the major religions. It is pretty informative. Unfortunately, no mention is made of the Wahabi movement in Islam which is responsible for at least some of the terrorism attributed to the midle east region. While I agree with the author that the vast majority of Muslims view their faith peacefully readers need to know what is expected under the most extreme practices and the relationship of those practices with the law in an Islamic nation ruled by the law of Sharia.

I am not sure why I purchased this book. I am an atheist and put no credence in any religious teachings.I am sure he leaves out some of the many distasteful things of religion and the gods.

I love this series but this one was rather disappointing didn't go into enough detail about the "minor" religions and was overkill on the "major" ones.