A World Religions Reader [Hardcover]

Ian S. Markham (Editor)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0631215182 | ISBN-13: 978-0631215189 | Publication Date: February 16, 2000 | Edition: 2

This Reader, now in its revised second edition, combines passages from the scriptures with classic statements from major thinkers and institutions, ranging from the Bhagavad Gita to John Lennon and Martin Luther King.

Editorial Reviews

From Library Journal

This single volume grew out of the editor's course taught at the University of Exeter, England. His aim is to help students enter into dialog with each of nine religious traditions. To this purpose, he includes scriptural texts and excerpts from experts, scholars, and sometimes converts. There are sections on Hinduism, Buddhism, Chinese religion, Shintoism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and Sikhism. Secular humanism is also represented, thus providing a nonreligious worldview for contrast. Markham's selections are necessarily brief but give a good balance of traditional and modern views. Summaries for review and a list of comparative questions for class discussion make this book a solid supplement to any college undergraduate course in comparative religion. Recommended for undergraduate academic libraries.?C. Robert Nixon, MLS, Lafayette, Ind.
Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"This is the Reader I have long been looking for. This Reader will enhance and enliven any standard textbook by enabling students not just to understand but to feel, not just to study but to pass over to, what these religious communities have been and what they offer our contemporary world." Paul Knitter, Xavier University, Ohio (of the previous edition).

"This will be an invaluable source for those in Religious Studies who need access to some central texts in translation. The commentaries, lists of data and questions for reflection will be particularly useful for those beginning a study of religions." Professor J. S. K. Ward, University of Oxford

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 400 pages
• Publisher: Wiley-Blackwell; 2 edition (February 16, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0631215182
• ISBN-13: 978-0631215189
• Product Dimensions: 9.8 x 6.7 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.8 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,911,573 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

6 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars egalitarian overview, August 21, 2006

By 

Joshua D. Jones (Nottingham, UK) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: A World Religions Reader (Paperback)

A World Religions Reader is a very positive look at the major world beliefs ranging from Atheism and Buddhism to Islam and Judaism. Markham presents all these world views decked up like prom queens. One begins to wonder while reading the book how the world could be such a jacked up place with all these beautiful and enlightened belief systems all around us.
The book is very egalitarian in that each different world view is presented by people who hold fast to them as being absolutely true. Every view gets its fair shot to persuade you. The book makes no attempts to show that one belief system may be more correct than another, that one may be more coherent than another or that one may have more harmful effects than another. It seems that, above all; the editor was trying to be fair and inoffensive to everyone. The book is really a World Religions 101 in that many major views are presented but none in great depth. If the goal of the book was to create a platform for each major belief system to present itself, then I suppose the book was successful in accomplishing its goal. If it was to critically show them "warts and all" then it failed like a bat taking an eye exam.
The book is informative to a point and is therefore worth a read for those approaching interfaith dialogues or for those trying to figure out why in the world someone would actually want to convert to Shintoism. I felt that Judaism was the most beautifully presented. Half way through I felt like joining a synagogue but then thought that they might have some policy against taking Pentecostal missionaries.
Personally I found it very interesting that so many of the writers used Christianity as its point of comparison. Many of the writers would point out that a certain belief or practise in their faith was either like or unlike a belief or practise in Christianity. I also found it a bit odd that so much attention was given to liberal theology in the chapter on Christianity as throughout history and even into the present such groups only tend to make up a small, white quibbling minority which is often viewed as heretical by the rest of the world body.