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World's Religions, Revised & Updated, The | 
| Author: Huston Smith
Publisher: HarperCollins e-books
Category: EBooks
List Price: $12.95
Buy New: $9.99
You Save: $2.96 (23%)
Rating:  2 reviews
Sales Rank: 983
Format: Kindle Book
Media: Kindle Edition
Edition: Rev Rep
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 399
Dewey Decimal Number: 291
ASIN: B000FC14MQ
Publication Date: April 8, 2003
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
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Product Description
From the world-renowned authority on religion comes a completely revised and updated version of his masterpiece. Explore the essential elements and teachings of the world's most predominant faiths, including: Hinduism; Buddhism; Confucianism; Taoism; Islam; Judaism; Christianity; the native traditions of Australia, Africa, Oceania, and the Americas. Originally titled The Religions of Man, this completely revised and updated edition of Smith's masterpiece, now with an engaging new foreword, explores the essential elements and teachings of the world's predominant faiths, including: - Hinduism,
- Buddhism,
- Confucianism,
- Taoism,
- Islam,
- Judaism,
- Christianity,
- and the native traditions of the Americas, Australia, Africa, and Oceania.
Emphasizing the inner -- rather than institutional -- dimensions of these religions, Smith devotes special attention to Zen and Tibetan Buddhism, Sufism, and the teachings of Jesus. He convincingly conveys the unique appeal and gifts of each of the traditions and reveals their hold on the human heart and imagination.
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| Customer Reviews:
 Learning about major religions December 2, 2008
Wow. I am shocked by the last review on here. I have been very pleased with this book so far. I must admit I have only read the first 60 pages, but I can already tell that this is going to be head and shoulders above most religious books. I would rate it five stars, but since I have not completed it will refrain, and rate it only four.
I was actually on here to buy it as a gift because I am enjoying it when I saw the negative coment on this. I don't think that being critical of these religions is necessary to teach what they believe. in fact I would be highly disapointed in such a book. I want to learn what they believe not why I should love or hate them.
Many people have killed and committed atrocities in the name of all religions, but that does not mean that the God they worship, their prophets, or the religous books, teach killing and atrocities as a spiritual path to righteousness. Both Christianity and Islam had several wars in the name of God, or crusades and jihads respectively. That bad fruit does not mean that Jesus or Mohamed said kill thy neighbor and take his land, in fact Christianity teaches the opposite at its core, and my guess is that Islam basically teaches love thy neighbor as well. I am looking forward to reading the section on Islam.
This book looks at the major religions' core belief structure. Each major religion writen of here has lasted centuries and has prospered with many followers that believe they are on the correct path to making themselves and the world a better place. This book describes the main tennants of Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Islam, Judaism, Christianity, and Primal Religions. From what I can tell so far it does not praise nor criticize the religions that it describes. It gives you the root structure and tree trunk of the major religons, as well as a glimpse of some of the larger branches, but one book can not do justice to the many branches of each of these religions.
 Horay for belief! November 23, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I had hoped to find a factual description of various world religions. Instead I found an author who is a cheerleader for all beliefs. This book is full of tedious quotations from other sources extolling the virtues of _____ (fill in the blank with any religion). The book has more poetry than facts, more praise than critical evaluation. The repression of women in much of the Islamic world is dismissed as un-Islamic without so much as a single sidelong glance. The endless cycle of religiously motivated violence is blithely ignored. Interestingly ,the only (faint) criticism to be found is directed at Christianity, and even that is so minimal, that even the hardcore fundamentalists aren't likely to be offended. You'll likely get more satisfaction and a more thought provoking analysis looking up religions online.
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