Customer Reviews

Illustrated Dictionary of Religions

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this is a fantastic book! I'm doing a religious studies course, and this book really helped. With the awesome pictures, it helped to make sense of the confusing words with the pictures and symbols associated with them so it made more sense. It's really easy to read, and is great for anyone who wants to know about the worlds religions.

This is a really thorough, well-written book, and it gives a clear summary of just about all the major religions, from ancient Norse mythology to Rastafarianism. As both a Religious Studies student and a library clerk at a children's library, I would recommend this book as one of the best in the field.

The DK Illustrated Dictionary of Religions is an excellent visual reference guide to the world's religions, past and present. It provides wonderful images of religious objects, symbols, and figures accompanied by a detailed summary of the history, beliefs, myths, and practices of each religion. This book covers the big monotheistic religions like Christianity, Islam, and Judaism, as well as Hinduism, Buddhism, Confuscism, Native American shamanism, with an entire section on the anicent religions of the Egyptians, Greeks, Romans, and others.

This book is fantastic in that even in it's brevity it is able to provide informative and interesting information on a variety of religious subjects and provide at least a cursory familiarity with the multitude of religious beliefs that have flurished over the ages.

Illustrated Dictionary of Religions is a comprehensive, succinct, well illustrated quick reference for the student and layman both.

I had the chance to review this book at some length. It provides adequate coverage of the well-known world religions given the limitations of space of such a book. The illustrations are interesting and well-chosen. It seems that the author spent his time doing his homework on the well-known world religions, but coasted when it came to the other religions, particularly the "new religions." The coverage of the Baha'i Faith, for instance, shows not only a lack of doing homework, but a tiresome bias. This is so unfortunate given the plethora of objective information available that could have been included in such a summary of world relgions.

The bias comes across in several comments. In referring to the founders of the other world religions, and the Baha'i Faith clearly is a world religion, there are not statements about the "self-declared prophet" claims of Moses, Jesus or Muhammed. But, the founders of the Baha'i faith are referred to in this language. It is a fundamental misreading of the most basic Baha'i tenets to say that any of the founders of the world's religions are "incarnations of God." But, this claim is attributed to the Baha'i founders. This would be akin to blasphemy to a Baha'i. But, here it is presented as a basic Baha'i tenet! The most basic Baha'i tenets are not even presented. This is shear neglect on the part of the author. It would have been better to have left this section out than to give it such unprofessional coverage.

There are several such mistakes in a very short review! So, it is not only bias that makes the book of questionable value, but it is also uninformed. That would be one thing if the uniformed were not writing a book for the general public, especially students, about the subject. But, it is a tragic flaw in a book that might otherwise be a valuable asset in an age where inter-religious understanding is so vital to stabilizing our beleaguered world.

One wonders if similar mistakes and bias exist for the religions covered in this book that I know little of, but might turn to a book like this for a review. Sadly, the uninformed and biased treatment of the Baha'is in this book would lead me to look for another review of the major world religions. I hope the next edition corrects these mistakes and the bias is edited out.

I refer often to this book to remind myself of the basic ideas of various religions and to review the meaning of words used. Other faiths are referred to often in today's world, and this book helps me to understand something about those faiths.

Illustrated Dictionary of Religions is a comprehensive, succinct, well illustrated quick reference for the student and layman both.