Customer Reviews

World Religions

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In my humble opinion, Warren Matthews has written what I believe to be a good introduction to world religions. Some reviewers have remarked how the book is shallow in some places. However, given the topic and breadth of various faiths covered, finding a book that deeply covers all aspects of major world religions and being affordable to students would be difficult indeed.

Matthews covers the following major world religions:

1. Religions of the Americas (focus on North and South American Indian religions).
2. Religions of Africa (much info on Egypt).
3. Hinduism.
4. Buddhism.
5. Jainism and Sikhism.
6. China and Japan (Shintoism, Daoims, Confucianism).
7. Ancient Religions of Iraq and Iran.
8. Judaism.
9. Christianity.
10. Islam.
11. Various religions.

For each religion, Matthews covers the historical development, peoples, geography, and certain beliefs in an easy-to-read format. Additionally, he covers the worldview for each religion by describing 10 areas for each faith:

1. The Absolute - core beliefs.
2. The World - how the religion views the world.
3. Humans - how the religion views humans.
4. Problem for Humans - what's our problem?
5. The Solution for Humans - what does religion believe would solve our problem?
6. Community and Ethics - how the people of a certain faith interact with each other.
7. An Interpretation of History - how the world and people were created.
8. Rituals and Symbols - what celebrations does a particular religion observe?
9. Life After Death - where do we go after we leave this earth?
10. Relationship to other Religons - how does a certain faith group interact with people of other faiths?

I used this book to teach a World Religions class at a local community college this Fall 2006 semester and plan to use the book again for the Spring 2007 semester.

Admittingly, I am an evangelical Christian but do not impose my beliefs on my students. I found the Matthews book to be fair and reasonably objective in its treatment of world religions. The students seemed to like the book okay.

The main problem I had was with the exam view Power Point slides and tests. The Power Points did not coinicide well with the book and I often had to skip parts and adjust the information. I also had to adjust the tests as they did not correspond to the Power Point. However, both problems have been addressed for next semester.

Complaint aside, the book seems to be a good title for an introductory world religions class. Recommended.

Matthews manages to condense much essential information about the world's major religions with the judicious use of graphs and illustrations, maps and charts to encapsulate each traditions unique point of view. The textbook is useful especially if accompanied by apt selections of texts from the traditions themselves describing beliefs and practices. This text is ideal for lower division courses where students are likely to complain about being overwhelmed with so much new information and unfamiliar ideas. Still as anyone who teaches in the field is well aware, providing a survey course to the religions of the world is disingenuous at best. Matthews is to be commended for his hubris and attempting to distillate the essential characteristics of the major world religions.
Excerpt: In the absence of first-hand exposure, older people today are likely to have spent most of their lifetime learning about world religions. Perhaps they began by reading National Geographic in school. Later they may have met some students from overseas in their college classes. Travel abroad may have come later, in military or business assignments. In retirement they may visit countries with religions and customs quite different from the ones that they have known. For millions of people in the United States, serious discussion of world religions has been primarily academic; few major religions have been present.
Younger people today, however, are more likely to learn about different reli?gions in their home communities. They have classmates and coworkers from other countries and other religions. Learning about other religions may be as natural as learning anything else in the community. The differences may require adjustment and conversations at home, but the diversity generally works out rather well. Aca?demics and people in the larger community sometimes overlook all the everyday opportunities for learning about others.
Civic life requires that members of the community learn about diversity of world religions. The belief that in the United States there is only one historical religion has not entirely vanished, but a large segment of the population con?cedes that no one religion has exclusive rights at the expense of other religions. People of the various religions in the United States seem to be able to agree that all citizens should honor morality and fairness, respect God, and help fellow hu?mans. Among the diverse religions there is likely to be a shared reservoir of good will that can be tapped for the good of humankind. Many religions have dealt with the same human problems for centuries. Eventually they may cooperate on solutions.
World Religions, Fifth Edition, addresses these opportunities by helping stu?dents learn the essential history and beliefs of the peoples of the world. Long dis?cussions have been shortened to essential information. The text concentrates on teaching important concepts and terms. Maps, charts, timelines, pictures, and highlighted blocks of information help students learn more easily. An Overview at the beginning of each chapter points out the themes of the religion. A Consider This box later in the chapter brings together the themes in a more comprehensive view.
The most important changes in the Fifth Edition include:
An Overview at the beginning of each chapter to preview religions of the chapter.
New Consider This boxes discussing the themes.
New religions introduced:
Baha'i
Church of Satan
Druids
Candombl?, Santeria, and Vodun
Church of Scientology
Theosophical Society
Family Federation for World Peace and Unification Wicca

This is a must for everyone to read and not only college students. It gives a great historical view of religion, when, why and how it started. I read it over and over and sometimes look up when questions cross my mind. If people read this then they get the right picture of why things are happening around the world. War mainly.

I received my purchase in a very timely matter and it was in excellent condition. The book is for a class and it is very thought provoking.

I was not very impressed with this textbook. It held a lot of well-organized information but it was hard to read with a lot of big words and lengthy sentences. I think the information in this book could have been presented in a better and more interesting way. For my class we were required to answer the "Questions for Discussion" at the end of every chapter. I found it irritating that the questions did not go in order of the chapter and you really had to hunt around for the exact sentence that held the answer. Also, I never even found the information for some of the questions. One chapter had the page number that the answer was on for each question, but that was only in one chapter, which I found to be very odd. I would not recommend reading this book unless you are required to. If you are looking to learn about religions for your own pleasure, I would look elsewhere.

The one true God proclaimed: "Look to Me, and be saved, all you ends of the earth! For I am God, and there is no other" (Isaiah 48:18-22). The question of world religions has its answer here. There is an exit, which is at the same time the entrance to life. It is through the God revealed in the Bible as expressed in Jesus Christ--the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6).

And in "World Religions" by Warren Matthews one finds a very informative and helpful reference book that reveals the history, doctrines, confessions, worship, and observances of the world's major religions. "World Religions" provides a fine outline and summary that offers students, as well as investigators, a reliable general synopsis of important faiths.

"World Religions" covers:

- Hinduism
- Buddhism
- Jainism
- Sikhism
- Confucianism
- Shintoism
- Islam (Shiite and Sunni)
- Judaism
- Christianity (RCC and Protestant, etc.)
- and more.


The author supplies the basics of each faith without pressing a critical review and seems to affirm the richness of diversity.

The textbook itself is surprisingly amicable and useful as the author furnishes a fine arrangement in his review of each faith. Considering that this volume is large and exhaustive it avoids the dry and unengaging problem associated with many textbooks.

I personally affirm the truth of the Christian faith. Let's say My wife took my i-pod off our dinning table and put it on an obscure shelf before she ate lunch. When I returned home and found it missing on the table, I phoned my wife. She said that she needed space to eat and so she put my iPod away. I asked her how I could find my iPod now that she moved it to an unknown location. She told me that she had put a post-it note on the iPod. That, of course, would not have done me, her befuddled husband any good. The portable stereo would have been hidden, and a note on a hidden stereo was lost to me until my wife informed me where she put it. Such is the problem of a person who builds his worldview on false religion. The person is lost, and cannot use his own reason or experience to find his way to truth. He is lost, and his autonomous reason is lost with him. The only way he can find the truth is through an objective, unchanging source. The God of the Bible is the unchanging rational bedrock and fountainhead. The biblical God is the pre-necessity for self-knowledge and the intelligibility of the world. Without God, man is lost, holding his own note of a man-made holy book. Only through the biblical God and His revelation can a man be found
and have an objective basis for truth. God is the absolute and transcendental necessity for the intelligibility of all human apprehension. He is the precondition for the grounding and understanding of knowledge. Buddhism, Hinduism, and atheism cannot justify knowledge or truth (they have ontic foundations that are mutable). If one does not presuppose the truth of God in Christ, you cannot make sense out of the cosmos and all of reality. Christianity is
true not because it makes better sense, but because it alone supplies the foundation for the laws of logic (universal immutable necessities); it is true because without it you cannot make sense of anything. All other religions, philosophies, and worldviews lack the transcendentally required precondition (God revealed in the Bible) for intelligibility, logic, ethics, and truth.

Jesus said to him, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except
through Me" (John 14:6).

Herein Warren Matthews has provided a first-rate non-sectarian reference work that gives the reader a helpful introduction to world religions. This is not a Christian apologetic work but a reasonable summary of world's major religious faiths.

For a Christian assessment of World religions see:
"One Way to God: Christian Philosophy and Presuppositional Apologetics Examine World Religions" just type in ASIN#:1432722956
or
Truth, Knowledge and the Reason for God: The Defense of the Rational Assurance of Christianity

Product was sold in great condition. Book is good for the material covered for a session.

Author made use of wrong data for the World Religon distribution.
What does the author mean by 'Chinese religion'? Does it mean Confucianism?
If do, he is really making a big mistake. Even in China, there are no Confucian
religious adherents(believers). And in particular, in South Korea, referring to
the related statistics, Confucians are much lesser than 1% of whole population,
47 million. About 27% of 47 million have been Christians since 1970s, another
25% of it,Buddhist believers. North Korea has no religion as being a hard-line
communist country. Though I do not know about other countries, it is likely that
auther depended heavily upon very old statitics. I am afraid it is an example of
irresponsable research conduct. Hoping these to be corrected.