The World's Religions: Our Great Wisdom Traditions

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	• The World's Religions: Our Great Wisdom Traditions Huston Smith HarperOne, 1991 - 399 pages average customer review:based on 105 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A nice overview of the major religions

One of the hot-button subjects in both the world and the United States - and maybe even the biggest - is religion. When we get U.S. generals declaring that Islam worships some sort of strange, alien god or gods, it shows not only bigotry but ignorance as well. Perhaps it would help to read a book like Huston Smith's The World's Religions to get insights into other faiths.

What The World's Religions isn't is around as important as what it is. It isn't a comprehensive look at all the religions of the world; instead, Smith focuses on seven principal religions in terms of adherents and influence. It doesn't favor one belief over another but looks favorably on all of them. It isn't a history text: there is only the minimum amount of history necessary to explain a religions ideology. It isn't interested in the negatives of a religion: if you're looking to bash Christianity or Buddhism, go elsewhere.

What the book does do is explain the basic ideas behind a septet of faiths: Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Islam, Judaism and Christianity. These can be divided into two basic groups of Western and Eastern religions. The Eastern religions are more exotic to the majority of Westerners (such as Americans) with a greater inclination to introspection and less of an emphasis on the divine (in fact, Confucianism seems more like a philosophy than a religion). Unlike the Western religions (of which Islam can be included as it has both similarities to Christianity and Judaism and shares common roots), the Eastern ones are not fully exclusive: it is possible to be both a Taoist and Confucian. The Western religions, on the other hand, place more emphasis on history.

What the book also does is show the difference between theory and practice. These religions are often very high-minded, but they practiced by people who will often put their own personal interests ahead of everything else and pervert the meaning of their faith.

When volumes - and sometimes whole libraries - can be dedicated to just one aspect of one of these religions - it's hard to really capture seven faiths (plus a little chapter on "primal" religions) within 400 or so pages, and Smith is wise enough to not even try. This is an introduction and an overview of these religions and you'll find much lacking if you expect greater detail. And while some of the ideas expressed in this book may be new or complicated to a general reader, Smith does a good job of laying out these ideas in as basic a manner as possible. It's not a perfect book, but I think it fits in the category of "must-read"; this is one small way of removing ignorance from the world.

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The All-Time classic on Religion

If you read only one book about religion in your life than read this book. "The World's Religions" brings out the spiritual practices and the esoteric ideas of each wisdom tradition. Huston smith has a loving and detailed look at each tradition. He has much first hand experience with the religions and has traveled the world learned from the people directly.

This is an excellent book!

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The World's Religions: Our Great Wisdom Traditions

I purchased this book on behalf of a friend who is thrilled with it.

I have not read the book.

Sincerely,
George J. McClelland

A great book

A wide spectrum of analogy and comparative findings.
The study of the origins and development of religions throughout the centuries is quite impressive.
Well researched.
Recommended to all those who are interested in the history of religions, and their social influences on various communities.

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Great book for general knowledge of religions

This book is great if you are looking for knowledge on several major religions. It offers history, origins, comparisons, and numerous other aspects of each religion. I feel personally that I now have a greater understanding of questions I previously had. Even though I consider myself a Christian, I have new found respect for those who are not. Another great point is that I noticed no personal bias of the author. I really like this book, yet I only give it 4 stars due to the style of writing. There were many areas the writer could have used more layman terms with out diluting the topics at hand.

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reviews: page 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

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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