Our Religions: The Seven World Religions Introduced by Preeminent Scholars from Each Tradition [Paperback]

Arvind Sharma (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: August 5, 1994

An essential introduction to the world's living religions by experts from each tradition -- published in conjunction with the 1993 Parliament of the World's Religions.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"A coherent and literate compendium and a valuable addition to any library." -- Brain/Mind Bulletin

"I never thought that I would live to see an introductory text on [the world's religions] that I would (almost) be content to see retire my own. . . . It seems splendid in every respect." -- Huston Smith, author of The World's Religions

"It is a distinctive feature of the book that each of the great world religions is described by someone who is committed to that religion and lives within it, but who is at the same time fully at home in the modern Western academic study of religion . . . insiders who can speak to outsiders on the common wavelength of our contemporary academic culture." -- John Hick, author of An Interpretation of Religion: Human Responses to the Transcendent

"Sharma has not only created a book of a new kind but . . . has, with his collaborators, brought it off brilliantly. . . . Thought-provoking and soul-stretching." -- The Gazette, Montreal

"Viewpoints enough to keep the reader alert and engrossed." -- Christian Century

From the Publisher

Leading experts in the great living religions present their own faith traditions.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 560 pages
• Publisher: HarperOne (August 5, 1994)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060677007
• ISBN-13: 978-0060677008
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6.2 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #194,390 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Taoism, June 16, 2009

By 

D. Foster "bobthefish" (Charleston, SC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Our Religions: The Seven World Religions Introduced by Preeminent Scholars from Each Tradition (Paperback)

I've been trying to get a better understanding of Taoism. I was reading articles by Russell Kirkland at the University of Georgia and I came across a transcript of a speech he gave. In the speech he basically says that almost all western perceptions of Taoism are incorrect and spent a good deal of the speech tearing down different translations of ancient texts (such as Stephen Mitchell's translation of the "Tao Te Ching") and westernized interpretations that little resemble real Taoism (such as Benjamin Hoff's "Tao of Pooh"). He did, however, mention the chapter in this book by Liu Xiaogan as being a pretty good treatment of Taoism. He was right. It was most excellent.

As well, I have recently been studying the concept of Zen. This led me to read the chapter in this book on Buddhism and once again I was not disappointed. So I decided just to read the whole book.

This is an excellent book written by knowledgeable experts. It manages to avoid the pitfall of cultural bias that afflicts so many other works on religion. If you want to begin understanding the "whys" and "hows" of the world's major religions, I strongly recommend this book.

10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Content is solid, but the Kindle edition is frustrating, March 25, 2011

By 

Kirk Cowell - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Our Religions: The Seven World Religions Introduced by Preeminent Scholars from Each Tradition (Kindle Edition)

The book itself is great. I like the formate, with scholars from each tradition explaining their own religious heritage, and I have found it remarkably informative for someone like me who had only a passing familiarity with most of the world's faiths other than my own. I've learned a lot from this book, and I like that I am getting an insider's view and not the perspective of someone mounting a polemic against someone else's faith, or even that of a detached outside.

But the main thing that prompted me to write this review is to let other Kindle users know that the Kindle edition is frustratingly strewn with errors. Scanning mistakes abound, "modem" instead of "modern," for example, and, surprisingly often "Cod" instead of "God." Reading about "Almighty Cod" is amusing a time or two, but it gets old quickly. In the section on Hinduism there seem to be some Hindi-specific characters that don't convert into the Kindle fonts, leaving uninterpretable squiggles in the middle of names. I hope at some point Amazon does a corrected edition and updates my digital file, but right now it's clear that no one at HarperCollins even bothered to proof-read the Kindle edition.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars good find, March 23, 2010

By 

Ebonygypsybear - See all my reviews

This review is from: Our Religions: The Seven World Religions Introduced by Preeminent Scholars from Each Tradition (Paperback)

I found this book an interesting resource it gave a very good general idea of the concepts with in the Religions described in the text. A good starting point if one is interested in trying to understand the views of different Religions.