Customer Reviews

Introduction To World Religions

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

 

 

With the study edition, you get both the hardcover textbook by Partridge and you get the study guide (paperback) workbook authored by Beth Wright. They come plastic wrapped together in a bundle.

This is a good book - not flawless - but it does the job well as an introductory text to World Religions. I have used the Mary Pat Fisher "Living Religions" text - and I would say this book compares favorably. There are things Partridge omits, there are things it includes when matched up with the Fisher text. Students will find it mostly accessible, and fairly concise (there are some "jargony" sections, but they do not dominate the book), and teachers will feel that their students are getting a fair overview of religion. Partridge's book is well-illustrated and organized. I would recommend this for use as a World Religions textbook, or perhaps also for the independent reader who is curious about religion. There were a few problems - the chapter on Hinduism erred in having an insignificant discussion of Mohandas Gandhi and omitting the significance of the Congress Party in India. The chapter on Judaism eventually got around to brief descriptions of Abraham and Moses, and on Buddhism the 4 Noble Truths were delayed in their introduction - but all this material appeared in due time. I thought the last few pages on Religion and Politics by Robert Pope were very good.

So yes - I would say Partridge has contributed a scholarly and worthy textbook in a field that is very competitive.

This is a great text book for beginners. It gives you the basics and has a great layout so it's easy to read.

I do not recommend this textbook for use in college level religions courses. The text is poorly written and organized, with different sections of each chapter written by different scholars with varying levels of intellectual depth. Often, the sub-articles do not flow together with any sort of consistency or logic. The text appears to have been written for competent 8th graders and never approaches any level of conceptual analysis of the terms introduced. For example, in the Hinduism chapter 'Atman' and 'Brahman' are merely briefly mentioned or defined over a few sentences and then barely discussed again in any broader context. Broad swaths of terms are arranged in almost list-like fashion and given (on average) about two sentences of definition, but these terms are never synthesized into a greater narrative structure, nor are they brought into dialogue with other religious traditions. Again, for example, Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism are treated as three entirely separate traditions with little to no discussion about their shared cultural and historical origins, no conceptual discussions about their shared use of terms like 'karma', 'dharma', and 'samsara' and their philosophical differences concerning these terms, and little recognition that these religious traditions were often engaged in explicitly philosophical investigations into the nature of the self and of reality.

The book does try to be comprehensive, which may contribute to its lack of depth and utter lack of coherent organization, but it especially lacks any sort of comparative component that, in my opinion, is essential to any real introduction to religious studies. Ultimately, I find any course that attempts to cover ALL of the main "facts" of the major religions in the world in one semester to be a waste of time for students, and one not conducive to any real understanding. Stick with Huston Smith or John Koller for your religion texts, and break your religion surveys into two separate classes, at the very least.

This book will tell you everything you want to know about religion. It is a good book for students at any level. It is a textbook.

This book is the textbook for a class. There are various maps and a timeline that are very helpful. Book will be easy to use as a reference when the class is over because of indexes, layout, etc. (In other words it is "user friendly."

I was purchasing this for our home reference library and am very pleased with the timliness of reciept and condition of the book.

I purchased this book for a college Religions of the World course. I enjoyed the course and the book. For an introductory course, it seemed to do the trick. Though our course didn't focus on ancient religions, this book did. I have to say, I found great pleasure in reading the parts the course skipped over on my own time. I would recommend this book, not only for college students, but for anyone interested in increasing their knowledge on the origins of religion and the religions of other cultures.

Good reference book with timelines, maps, data and great photos! I'm sure I'll refer to this many times.

Book is highly cerebral without the intuition or wit to illuminate. The organization of information is also disconcerting. I would not recommend this book.