Four Testaments: Tao Te Ching, Analects, Dhammapada, Bhagavad Gita: Sacred Scriptures of Taoism, Confucianism, Buddhism, and Hinduism

by Brian Arthur Brown (Editor), SJ, Francis X. Clooney (Foreword), David Bruce (Contributor)

Four Testaments brings together four foundational texts from world religions—the Tao Te Ching, Dhammapada, Analects of Confucius, and Bhagavad Gita—inviting readers to experience them in full, to explore possible points of connection and divergence, and to better understand people who practice these traditions. Following Brian Arthur Brown’s award-winning Three Torah, Gospel, Quran, this volume of Four Testaments features essays by esteemed scholars to introduce readers to each tradition and text, as well as commentary on unexpected ways the ancient Zoroastrian tradition might connect Taoism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Hinduism, as well as the Abrahamic faiths. Four Testaments aims to foster deeper religious understanding in our interconnected and contentious world.

Genres: Religion, Spirituality

498 pages, Kindle Edition

Published July 8, 2016

About the author

Brian Arthur Brown has authored and edited the monumental Three Testaments: Torah, Gospel and Quran, the scriptures of Abraham's family together for the first time. It is now followed by Four Testaments: Tao Te Ching, Analects, Dhammapada, Bhagavad Gita, making a two volume set of the Seven Testaments of World Religions.

Purchased separately in many formats, this interfaith set has the seven sacred texts in their entirety, expert commentary and endorsements by eminent scholars you will recognize. Both volumes have won numerous awards.

Previous books by Canada's Brian Arthur Brown include several on Native-White history, French-English relations, Western alienation, US-Canada relations and two prequels on Jewish-Christian-Muslim tensions. Brown has lived and worked in all parts of Canada, consulted broadly in the United States, taught briefly in the Caribbean, and travelled frequently in the Middle East in media, learning and teaching roles.

Brown holds a bachelor's degree in Classics from Dalhousie University in Halifax, a master's degree in Theology from McGill University in Montreal, a doctorate in Ecclesiastical Organizational Behaviour from the San Francisco Theological Seminary in association with the University of California, and has done post doctoral Studies in Executive Leadership at Harvard University. He is currently a member of the Oxford Round Table at Oxford University and in 2015 he was elected as a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts. Married for over fifty years, Brian and Jenny Brown live in Canada within earshot of the thunderous Niagara Falls.

Reviews

[Nicholas Wolf · Rating 1 out of 5]

I took a glimpse at the table of contents, but then I was confronted by this gem "jesus as a zorastrian saoshyant, the redeemer of the world".

This, combined with the title of the work makes me think the author is trying a bit too hard to force a connection between Christianity and the Eastern religions which are no more closely related to each other than they are to Arabrhamic faiths. Quite frankly, it's rather disrespectful both to Christianity and to Taoism, Buddhism, Hinduism, and Confucianism. The last one is not even a religion, it's actually a secularized civil code with heavy Taoist influences.

[Mills College Library]

208.2 F7737 2016