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Philip Novak

The World's Wisdom: Sacred Texts of the World's Religions Paperback – January 1, 1994

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A world Bible for our time from Buddhist, Hindu, Confucian, Taoist, Jewish, Christian, Islamic, and primal religion sources!

In this perfect companion to Huston Smith's bestselling The World's Wisdom, Philip Novak distills the most powerful and elegant expressions of the wisdom of humankind. Authentic, poetic translations of key texts are coupled with insightful introductions and "grace notes."

Print length

425 pages
Language

English
Publisher

HarperOne
Publication date

January 1, 1994
Dimensions

5.31 x 1.01 x 8 inches
ISBN-10

0060663421
ISBN-13

978-0060663421
Lexile measure

980L
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Editorial Reviews

Review

"[Shows] that all the widsom we need is already available to us in abundance."-- Thomas Moore"Phillip Novak's loving and imaginative presentation of key texts from several traditions offers an excellent resource . . . showing that all the wisdom we need is already available to us in abundance."-- Thomas Moore, author of "Care of the Soul" and "Soul Mates""I do not know where I could turn to find a richer harvest."-- Huston Smith, author of "The World's Religions""A superb collection from the most entrancing literature ever to find expression in human language, literature that emerges from the mysterious depths os the soul where the primordial world of the sacred manifests itself most clearly."-- Thomas Berry, author of "The Dream of the Earth""Beautifully organized . . . the volume is a major contribution to both the lay and professional studies of religion."-- "Publishers Weekly

From the Publisher

An essential collection of the world's spiritual wisdom--a world bible for our time from Buddhist, Hindu, Confucian, Taoist, Jewish, Christian, Islamic, and primal religion sources.

About the Author

Philip Novak is the Santo Distinguished Professor of Philosophy and Religion at Dominican University in San Rafael, California, where he has taught for over twenty years, and the author of The World's Wisdom, a widely used anthology of the sacred texts of the world's religions and the companion reader to Huston Smith's The World's Religions.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Chapter OneHinduismSowe four, thousand years ago pastoral nomads whose ancestors had sprung from the soil of northeastern Europe entered the Indus Valley of ancient India. They called themselves Aryans, or Noble Ones, and the religion they brought, with them comprised the first evolutionary layer of Hinduism. The ritual centerpiece of Aryan religion was afire sacrifice, a burnt offering to the gods, performed by priests specially trained to chant sacred hymns. The hymns themselves were known as Vedas or "sacred knowledge." The Vedas are the scriptural bedrock of the Hindu tradition.

The aim of the Vedic fire sacrifice, indeed of Aryan religion. in general, was to ensure well-being and prosperity in this life. The early Vedas, the focus of the first section, contain little evidence of sustained thought about human destiny beyond this, life. The doctrines most of us associate with Hinduism-the cycle of reincarnations driven by karma and the liberation from this bondage by means ofyogic discipline-were to be reflected 'only a thousand years later in the most recent layers of Vedic literature, called the Upanishads. Selections from the Upanishads comprise the second section of this chapter. The third section focuses on the scripture called the Bhagavad Gita and has its own introduction.THE EARLY VEDAS1. He, O Men, Is IndraOf the four collections of Vedas, theft- Veda is the most important and foundational. The most popular god of the Rig-Veda is the expansive and dynamic Indra. He is said to have surpassed the other gods in power as soon as he was born (v. I), and he is credited both with having created the world by slaying a cosmic serpent and thus releasing the lifegiving, monsoon-bringing maters (v. 3);. and with helping the Aryans overcome the non Aryan populations they encountered.

The chief wise god who who as soon as born
surpassed the gods in power;
Before whose vehemence the two worlds trembled by reason
of the greatness of his valor: he, O men, is Indra.

Who made firm the quaking earth who set at rest the agitated mountains;
Who measures out the air more widely, who supported heaven: he; O men, is Indra.

Who having slain the serpent released the seven streams . . .
Who has made subject the Dasa colour [the non-Aryan population] and has made it disappear . . .

The terrible one of whom they ask "where is he," of whom they also say "he is not";
He diminishes the possessions of the foe like the stakes of gamblers. Believe in him: he, O men; is Indra . . .

Even Heaven and Earth bow down before him; before his vehemence even the mountains are afraid.
Who is known as the Soma-drinker,l 'holding the bolt in his . . . hand: he, 0 men, is Indra.

2. O Agni, Dispeller of the NightBecause of his role in the all-important fire sacrifice, Agni, the god of fire, is perhaps second only to Indra in popularity, with over one thousand hymns dedicated to him in the Vedas. Here is a brief selection from a few.

a. From Rig-Veda I

I praise Agni, domestic priest; divine minister of sacrifice,
Invoker, greatest bestower of wealth . . .

To thee, dispeller of the night; O Agni, day by day with prayer,
Bringing thee reverence, we come;

Ruler of sacrifices, guard of Law eternal [Rta], radiant one,
Increasing in thine own abode.

Be to us easy of approach, even as a father to his son:
Agni, be with us for our weal.

b. From Rig-Veda' II

Thou, Agni, shining in, thy glory through the days, art
brought to life from out the waters, from the stone;
From out the forest trees and herbs that grow on ground, thou,
sovereign lord of men, art generated pure.

By thee, O Agni, all the immortal guileless gods eat with thy
mouth the oblation that. is offered them.
By thee do mortal men give sweetness to their drink.
Pure art thou born, the embryo of the plants of earth.

c. From Rig-Veda VII

I have begotten this new hymn for Agni, falcon of the sky:
will he not give us of his wealth?

Bright, purifier, meet for praise,
Immortal with refulgent glow,
Agni drives Rakshasas [demons] away.

Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ HarperOne (January 1, 1994)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 425 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0060663421
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0060663421
Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ 980L
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 12.2 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.31 x 1.01 x 8 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #74,733 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #52 in Comparative Religion (Books)
- #282 in Inspiration & Spirituality
- #693 in Theology (Books)

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rosalinda

Book

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on September 8, 2022

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The media could not be loaded.

Had gotten this for a college class; intro to world religions.

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Ed

A tremendous and affordable little book.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on October 30, 2009

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To begin, Novak assembled this book as a compendium to accompany Huston Smith's book on world religions, so you may want to give both of them a shot at the same time, reading Novak's sections after the corresponding Smith sections.

Concerning the book itself, it is a fantastic collection of original sources and it looks like you can get a used copy + shipping for less than $10. For me, that says a lot. Concerning what was selected, there is no doubt that Novak put some serious effort in selecting what he did. The reader will get a very nice exposure to many elements within each religious tradition. However, the translations chosen are not so impressive, but there may be issues beyond the author's control here, so I cannot fault him too much. For example, the Dao Dejing was translated by Stephen Mitchell, who did an alright job, but his is hardly considered to be the authoritative translation. The good news is that it is nearly published in it entirety! On a similar positive note, the citations in the back are often quite informative. With a flip to the back, you will be brought to the original source. Now, I don't want to say that this book is showing its age, but many of the sources seem a bit dated. My suspicion is that this was how the price of the book was kept to a minimum. Also, in the last fourteen years since this was published, a lot of good translation work has come from Chinese philosophy. I worry that some of the older translations may give false impressions as to the state of the research today.

With this book, you have to take the good with the bad, and the best part seems to be the affordability. You will not be able to find a collection as thorough as this for anywhere near the price.

9 people found this helpful

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Zayna

Excellent book!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 13, 2022

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Purchased this for a class and I have to say I really enjoyed reading it! Well written and quality was perfect!

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Tami Adams

Better than The World’s Religions.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 7, 2020

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Got this book for a religions class and was pretty impressed. Bought used and came in great condition. It is meant to go with The World’s Religions which I also read (it was VERY dry). The author did a nice job at filtering through a lot of crap in religious texts and really did a great job at keeping excerpts in context as well as explaining their significance. In the class, I had to pick a text/excerpt in the book and write a paper on it. I chose an excerpt from an interview with Elie Wiesel and the essay turned out great. I loved how there were greater discussions about religion with such excerpts—it made the read much more interesting.

2 people found this helpful

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D. Layman

Kindle edition seriously flawed

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on August 28, 2012

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Please understand the rating strictly applies to the Kindle formatting of this volume.

First to content: this is the best anthology of the world's religious texts. I have been using it with great satisfaction for years in my comparative religions classes. That it is cheap is an added bonus for students. Sometimes the editor puts material in his own idiosyncratic order, rather than conceptually, in a way that can be easily taught--a major problem esp. in Buddhism and Christianity. E.g., he places the quasi-biography of Siddhartha's coming-to-enlightenment on pp. 50-57, the four noble truths on p. 65 (I want to teach the truths directly after the enlightenment), the nature of nibbana on p. 75 (which follows logically from the 3rd truth).

Another negative about the text is the "Grace Notes" subsection in each chapter, which consists of mostly irrelevant developments in the later post-scriptural traditions, especially mystical re-interpretations. Most of those should be eliminated and replaced with more from the canonical core of the tradition. His selections from the Muslim Hadith are not representative: hadiths (technically, ahadith) are largely legal in nature; his selection is historical and moral. On the plus side, he does an excellent job covering including the Oral Torah in Judaism (unlike his mentor, Huston Smith).

Now to my critique of the Kindle edition: I was hoping that I could replace my well-worn paper copies with the Kindle edition. Alas, can't happen. Although it displays page numbers, THEY CANNOT BE TRUSTED. Sometimes they are as much as a full page off. I'm used to pointing out a text by say, "p. so-and-so, top of the page (...in the middle, at the bottom, etc.)." There is also far too much white space, esp. between stanzas of poetry (e.g., the selections from the Rig Veda at the beginning of the chapter on Hinduism).This makes it difficult the grasp the whole of the reading. Tightening up the presentation would have made it much easier to preserve pagination.

A major disappointment in Kindle presentation.

12 people found this helpful

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gamer

Nice research

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on May 12, 2000

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Author really has a good study of texts in many ancient books. These books are considered holy in many religions. The passages are from Bhagavat Geeta, Bible, Koran etc. A more information on the background of books is essentials.
The author selects the passages wisely. There is so material out there that to select a few `sacred' text can be real difficult. The book does not explain why some texts are chosen over others though. This can be a personal preference and I think the author has done well. But sometimes its not easy to find the hidden meaning behind the scriptures. It means much more than just a plane translations. The author uses effective and easy language for translation. However since I know a little Sanskrit, I can say the translation could have been more accurate.
This book can be helpful to scholars, teachers and public speakers.

5 people found this helpful

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Will Jerom

Good Highlights / Essentials - not perfect, but good.

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 24, 2016

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I don’t think any summary of world religious literature is going to be perfect. This could get 5 stars, because there really are some good or representative samples of world religions. Or you could give it 4 or 4 and a half stars because it doesn’t have selections from Jainism or Shinto, nor from Mormonism or Bahai. But what it does cover (Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Indigenous Religions) it does fairly well. I’ve looked at many different selections for world religion classes, and this one I think does the job very well. So as I’ve said, no selection is perfect, but this one of the better ones.

One person found this helpful

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Tony henry

Book about holy books and texts

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on March 27, 2022

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Great book and great price and got to me quickly

Johnny P

Five Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on June 16, 2017

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A great book!

Joanne S.

Great Book!

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on February 27, 2019

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I bought this book, as it was required for one of the university courses I'm taking. It was cheaper to buy from Amazon then the university bookstore, and arrived quickly. The book itself is well written and interesting, as it provides wisdom from various world religions.

meepmeep

instead of a bible!

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on June 12, 2012

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Bought this product for godson and goddaughter instead of the traditional bibles - they are a bit young to give feedback at present - but I thought it was a good present!

Falen McNulty

Four Stars

Reviewed in Canada 🇨🇦 on December 11, 2016

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text book for school

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