Customer Reviews

The Oxford Dictionary of World Religions

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The dictionary does its job in explaining religious terms in an up-to-date, clear, and concise manner. The majority of the terms have at the end of the definition a list of books whereby the reader can persue the idea further. All of the broad terms (e.g., death, angels, sin) are broken down into sections for each of the major religions; the major religions themselves are broken down historically. There are a few terms, however, that I would have liked expanded, or were missing, but then again, this is just a general dictionary of religion.

A great reference source if you are interested in studying religion.

This book is probably one of the most comprehensive guides I've seen on the subject of the world's religions. It includes incredibly fascinating details on past and present religions. However, it may be too detailed for some.

The 'Oxford Dictionary of World Religions' is a concise and comprehensive single-volume reference to the religions, faith systems, and spiritual practises of the world. This dictionary has one of the broadest ranges for any multi-religious guide around. The book contains nearly 13,000 entries, broadly categorised as follows:

- Religions
- Movements, sects, cults
- Scriptural and philosophical text synopses and analyses
- Biographies of individuals
- Sacred sites
- Customs and practises

- Ethics and moral systems
- Themes on general topics

Edited by John Bowker, the text is introduced by an essay which pulls together philosophical, sociological and historical information tying together the concepts of religion. 'A strange thing about religion is that we all know what it is until someone ask us to tell them. As Augustine said of time, "What, then, is time? If no one asks me I know; but if I have to say what it is to one who asks, I know not." That has not stopped people trying to define religion, but their definitions are clearly different.'

Bowker, who has published several books including award winning books on the relationship of God and science, and the meaning of death in religious frameworks, has pulled together a team of over 80 contributors, some of the brightest names in the study of religion. Thus, articles and entries are contributed by experts in their respective fields, edited and cross-referenced by Bowker and his team of eight consultant editors who hold academic posts on three continents.

In an innovative fashion, Bowker has included a topical index in back which shows in an abbreviated and quickly-referenced fashion the interrelationship between topics; for instance, if one is using this text to research Anglicanism, in addition to such well-known entries such as Book of Common Prayer and Lambeth Conferences, one would be directed also to see the articles on:

African Greek Orthodox Church
Cambridge Platonists
Sundar Singh
Order of Ethiopia
Latitudinarianism

This makes for interesting reading. Every now and then, an article will be surprising. If you want to research Wrathful Dieties, there is an article so entitled, which discusses both the specifics of events in scripture (God in Jewish, Christian, and Muslim scripture is sometimes shown as a wrathful and vengeful) and the general purpose behind the wrathful imagery (moral seriousness).

Also, if you want to know for certain what a Holy Fool is, here is the place! I confess I sometimes feel like a holy fool (as opposed to being more generally an unholy one), but this book has clarified this for me so that I no longer feel that way. According to the dictionary, holy fools are: 'Figures who subvert prevailing orthodoxy and orthopraxis in order to point to the truth which lies beyond immediate conformity. The holy fool endeavours to express the insistence of all religions that detachment from the standards of the world is the sine qua non of advance into truth.'

Many of the articles contain suggestions for further reading, either specific titles or, more generally, authors of note on the topic in question. This is a great reference source, and one I have referenced frequently both in my studies and my personal researches.

Most reviews have described the Oxford Dictionary as comprehensive, as it indeed is. Almost everything connected to religion in any way seems to be in here, including topics of amazingly recent importance. It is most unlikely that anyone looking through this volume will fail to find what he's looking for. The book deserves several stars for this alone.

But the book is also a little strange, even weird, in other ways. For one thing, the editor has an obsession with genetics that shows up in most of the entries he has worked on. He sees us as beings whose moral behavior is guided entirely by our genetic code. The article on adultery for instance, ignored the matter of how different religions have viewed the issue, and instead explained it away as a system of genetic enhancement! The same can be said of many other entries. His beliefs may be correct, but does this belong in the dictionary?

I was also a bit troubled by the left-liberal bias that permeated the book. Authors choose to ignore conservative and even mainstream belief, and thus give misleading and incomplete information on their topics. We are not even told, for instance, about homosexual sin in Sodom and Gomorah. The author merely says the town was destroyed because of inhospitality! Explanations like this may be popular in some quarters, but fail to do justice to the subject.

With a field of over 80 leading religion scholars working on and contributing 13,000 entries, generated from Oxford University Press and edited at the University of Pennsylvania, it's got to be pretty good. While every dictionary is going to have interesting flaws and idiosyncrasies - what do you need in a work of this kind? 1) comprehensiveness 2) precision 3) ease of use. On all these counts, the Oxford meets or exceeds the criteria. For instance, there is an excellent, concise Topic Index, useful for double-checking whether the topic is covered - and the vast majority are. Best of all, it's pretty affordable. I teach religion, and it's been a great quick reference for me. For depth, however, one must go to the source. If you need a personal bookshelf general reference of religion, it doesn't get any better. Before buying, however, I would definitely heed the editorial reviews of the book. They point to a serious omissions - such as a complete lack of references regarding Native American and other indigenous religions. The Wade-Giles/Pin Yin Index with which the text ends seems an awkward bit of organization. Why not simply include the alternative transliteration in parenthesis with each entry? Further, there are a number of less expensive, more svelte, "concise" dictionaries of religion available. In fact, Oxford has produced a concise version of this one to compete in that market. Again, the most popular alternative, the Harper-Collins is a better exploratory browse. Still, the Oxford has packed an overwhelming amount of critical, and most commonly referenced material into a mere 1,111 pages.

I am constantly doing research on the topic of religion and spirituality, I found I needed a dictionary of world religions as an easy reference, although I have others, this one I found to be less cumbersome and I find myself constantly referring to it, more so than the other dictionaries of religion that I have. I highly recommended.

Doron Alon
Author of "The Bible and the Law of Attraction"
www.bibleloa.com

This book is necessary to all persons interested in the study of Religions. Gives to the reader the quick consultation needed when reading other text. It is a "Must Have it" in the library.

C. Giudici