Understanding the Religions of the World: An Introduction

by Will Deming

Understanding the Religions of the World offers a new approach to the study of religion which moves away from the purely descriptive and instead helps students understand how religions actually 'work'. Covering all the main faith traditions, it combines historical context, contemporary beliefs and practices, and original theory, with numerous study features and valuable overviews.

520 pages, Hardcover

First published June 15, 2015

Reviews

[Tabitha Chamberlain · Rating 2 out of 5]

it focus more on the historical development on a lot of different religions in specific areas, but does seem to take a turn for the weird when he focuses on Heaven's Gate and UFOs in the New Religions aspect of the book.

personally i would have liked to have more of details of how each of these religions actually practice their faith and beliefs

[Richard Pütz · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is a good book for most classes on comparative religions, especially for High School, but it just doesn't come close to being as good as "Comparing religions" by Jeffrey J. Kripal for teaching college and adults.

[Bruce Reiter · Rating 5 out of 5]

A very good work on religions in the world, giving the reader both an historical and a theological perspective. The sections are straight forward and provide questions, reviews, bibliographies and good glossaries. I read the major religions that impact me and followed with the African and Oceania sections at the end. I find that in my life I have cherry-picked from most of the majors and some of the minors, finding myself more on the side of the Unitarians and Mormons in the God situation and less with the Trinintarians. The Shias, Sunnis and Sufis get sorted out on the Islamic side. I appreciate the fact that this edition was put together by one of the religion professors from the University of Portland, one of several outstanding private colleges in the Pacific Northwest. The book can certainly be used to flesh out social studies classes at the high school level

[Acelias]

Informative