Introduction to World Religions

by Christopher Partridge (Editor), Veikko Anttonen (Contributor), Eric S. Christianson (Contributor)

This substantially revised and updated edition features maps, charts, and more than two hundred photographs, many in color. An international group of expert scholars sympathetically discuss the world’s major religious traditions (including Buddhism, Baha’i, and Jainism) and new religious movements. The contributing editors include Diana L. Eck, Robert Kisala, Nicholas de Lange, Mikael Rothstein, Lamin O. Sanneh, Garry W.Trompf, and Linda Woodhead.

Genres: Religion, Nonfiction, Textbooks, History

495 pages, Hardcover

First published April 30, 2005

About the author

Dr Christopher Hugh Partridge is Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Lancaster, Lancashire, England.

Partridge (born 1961) is an author, editor, professor, and founding Co-director of the Centre for the Study of Religion and Popular Culture. According to Gordon Lynch, Partridge is a leading scholar of topics in popular culture.

Reviews

[Sophie · Rating 3 out of 5]

This wasn’t my favourite textbook because each section was really hard to get into. It’s really too bad because there is such interesting information in here and it’s organized in a logical way so it’s a great book to reference. However, the writing was not compelling at all and somehow even the passages that spoke of things I already knew about managed to confuse me. If this were written better, I would definitely recommend it, but I think that there are better written books on this topic out there.

[Tyler Collins · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read much of this book for my Religions of the World class taught by Professor Mark Hayse. This is an excellent overview of world religions, even dedicating sections to Religions of Antiquity and Indigenous Religions. Additionally, it has great pictures and an attractive layout. It will be a good resource to refer to going forward.

[Linda Slonksnes · Rating 4 out of 5]

This review is for the Third Edition, published May 2018.

My mom wanted to learn about religion to gain an understanding of others. I goggled texts used in introductory religion classes and this was the only basic one I found. It was surprisingly easy to read. We talked about each of the sections weekly and had wanted to take our own field trips but the virus started right as we were about to go to a Buddhist center so we never made it. Reviewing this textbook each week gave us great foundational information.

This book gives good summaries and hits upon every religion. It starts with brief information about religious tendencies before the advent of writing and then takes off with antiquities and ancient peoples. All major religions are presented with a history, summary of sacred texts and beliefs, context on family and community life, and modern thinking if the religion still exists. It even covered more modern “new religious movement”, existentialism, and post-modernist thinking. Everything is brief, sometimes too brief, but there is so much to cover that it is understandable. And it lends itself as a jumping off point for interests and histories that you may want to look into further. There are additional resources listed and a glossary at the end.

It gave a lot of food for thought and plenty of opportunity for discussion. I don’t think there is another text that could be so thorough.

[Jaime O'Connell · Rating 5 out of 5]

I came to this book looking for an introduction to the various religions in the world, being raised quite secularly, myself. Since the book is the work of a number of different academic authors, with all their works brought together in concert, the quality of what is included in the book changes subtly from section to section. That said, the overall quality of the book was excellent for what I was looking for! I highly recommend this book to anyone looking for that same kind of overview and educational experience. It gives a surprising amount of depth of information for the length.
As a side note, the section on Christianity, in particular, same across as "this is why my religion isn't only great, it's THE BEST religion!". I took that with a grain of salt.

[Harrison Large · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brief enough to not be overbearing, but detailed enough for someone with a cursory interest in religions around the world. Also focuses very nicely on past as well as present religions which most people probably don't have an understanding of.

A very niche book, but if it's a topic you're looking into them you could start with worse books.

[Paige M Brooks · Rating 5 out of 5]

These books go together great for better understanding.....

[Rivkah · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought it was a good book that outlined the various world religions and their origins well. Lots of great pictures and illustrations, and I also liked how they broke-up the informative articles by giving first hand accounts from practicers of this religion. If you must read a world religion book, this would be a good one to choose.