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The Norton Anthology of World Religions
This magisterial Norton Anthology, edited by world-renowned scholars under the direction of Pulitzer Prize winner Jack Miles, offers a portable library of more than 1,000 primary texts from the world’s major religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, and Daoism (Volume 1); Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (Volume 2). The anthology brings together foundational works—the Bhagavad Gita, the Daodejing, the Bible, the Qur'an—with the writings of scholars, seekers, believers, and skeptics whose voices over centuries have kept these religions vital. To help readers encounter strikingly unfamiliar texts with pleasure, this Norton Anthology provides accessible introductions, headnotes, annotations, pronouncing glossaries, maps, illustrations, and chronologies. It also includes a dazzling general introduction by Jack Miles that questions whether religion can be defined and illuminates how world religions came to be acknowledged and studied, absorbed and altered, understood and misunderstood.
For readers of any religion or none, The Norton Anthology of World Religions opens new worlds that, as Miles writes, invite us all "to see others with a measure of openness, empathy, and good will…In that capacity lies the foundation of human sympathy and cultural wisdom."
For readers of any religion or none, The Norton Anthology of World Religions opens new worlds that, as Miles writes, invite us all "to see others with a measure of openness, empathy, and good will…In that capacity lies the foundation of human sympathy and cultural wisdom."
4448 pages, Hardcover
First published November 3, 2014
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About the author
Jack Miles
40 books77 followersJack Miles (b. 1942) is an American author and winner of both the Pulitzer Prize and the MacArthur Fellowship. His work on religion, politics, and culture has appeared in numerous national publications, including The Atlantic Monthly, The New York Times, The Boston Globe, The Washington Post, and The Los Angeles Times.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
May 31, 2020
The Norton Anthology of World Religions by Editor Jack Miles is a massive work of six religions, viz., Hinduism, Buddhism, Daoism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. It introduces the reader to art, play, and the comparative study of religion. Words from poet Todd Boss set the stage on entering Templar halls and museums, chambers of churches to admire the beauty, remembering the graveness, understanding the liturgy, feeling holy in the gallery, and reminiscing is enough to come just so far.
Next the question is asked, “can religion be defined?’ It was realized that this couldn’t be done to everyone’s satisfaction. But the six contributors to this anthology examined the primary texts for framing and contextualizing this question. There was therefore no attempt to impose a general theory. Then there was the question of “believers” and “unbelievers” concerning where they will fit in this discussion. Religion was therefore approached as a practice, that isn’t identical to each faith. So the text is presented showing how these religions developed. This process has its complexity and there’s some overlap of the various faiths. So religion was engaged more as a practice rather than a belief, with each tradition having multiple versions over time.
An explanation followed concerning how Christian Europe learned to compare religions. The process was euro-centric. Every discovery was viewed from a European perspective. Much of this perception was determined by missionaries that the colonists they encountered in non-Western societies. There were basic strands that became apparent, viz., Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and secular humanism (Paganism). This was the four-cornered medieval map of religion that they happened knew. But the Renaissance ushered in different thoughts about religion. There was a revival of classical Greek and Latin. This all led to comparative Christianity during the Protestant Reformation. Theologians like Martin Luther, Calvin, and Erasmus became famous, and they brought about unprecedented religious change in Europe.
A new map of comparative study of world religions began to dawn with the Peace of Westphalia. In the 17th century an epochal reference guide was born. It was entitled, Religious Ceremonies and Customs of All the Peoples of the World by Jean Frederic Bernard and Bernard Picart. This was the precursor of the Norton Anthology of World Religions, and included all the religions of the world that covered far-flung places that were explored and evangelized by Europeans. The 17th, 18th and 19th century saw the broadening of the scope of religions with peoples of the Artic and Oceania, Japan, India, China, Russia, North and South America. Missionaries mastered Chinese, Sanskrit studies were launched in the West, the “Semitic languages and religions” became known; Charles Darwin arose on the horizon along with the Age of Enlightenment and the scientific revolution. The first world’s parliament of religions was held at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893.
Next the question is asked, “can religion be defined?’ It was realized that this couldn’t be done to everyone’s satisfaction. But the six contributors to this anthology examined the primary texts for framing and contextualizing this question. There was therefore no attempt to impose a general theory. Then there was the question of “believers” and “unbelievers” concerning where they will fit in this discussion. Religion was therefore approached as a practice, that isn’t identical to each faith. So the text is presented showing how these religions developed. This process has its complexity and there’s some overlap of the various faiths. So religion was engaged more as a practice rather than a belief, with each tradition having multiple versions over time.
An explanation followed concerning how Christian Europe learned to compare religions. The process was euro-centric. Every discovery was viewed from a European perspective. Much of this perception was determined by missionaries that the colonists they encountered in non-Western societies. There were basic strands that became apparent, viz., Judaism, Christianity, Islam, and secular humanism (Paganism). This was the four-cornered medieval map of religion that they happened knew. But the Renaissance ushered in different thoughts about religion. There was a revival of classical Greek and Latin. This all led to comparative Christianity during the Protestant Reformation. Theologians like Martin Luther, Calvin, and Erasmus became famous, and they brought about unprecedented religious change in Europe.
A new map of comparative study of world religions began to dawn with the Peace of Westphalia. In the 17th century an epochal reference guide was born. It was entitled, Religious Ceremonies and Customs of All the Peoples of the World by Jean Frederic Bernard and Bernard Picart. This was the precursor of the Norton Anthology of World Religions, and included all the religions of the world that covered far-flung places that were explored and evangelized by Europeans. The 17th, 18th and 19th century saw the broadening of the scope of religions with peoples of the Artic and Oceania, Japan, India, China, Russia, North and South America. Missionaries mastered Chinese, Sanskrit studies were launched in the West, the “Semitic languages and religions” became known; Charles Darwin arose on the horizon along with the Age of Enlightenment and the scientific revolution. The first world’s parliament of religions was held at the World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago in 1893.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews