Illustrated Guide to World Religions, The

by Dean C. Halverson (Editor)

With the world at America's doorstep, today's Christians need to understand the beliefs of their neighbors, who represent many ethnic groups and religions. This book presents the evangelistic challenges and opportunities of the world's leading religions in a colorful graphic format. It prepares Christians to answer the questions "Is Jesus the only way to God?" and "How can we know the Bible is the Word of God?" Ideal for teachers, pastors, and lay Christians who want to witness to their friends and colleagues.

Genres: College, School

272 pages, Hardcover

First published November 1, 2003

Reviews

[Bailey Marissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

(4.5) If you really wanted to learn about other world views other than Christianity, you could look up all of this stuff on their websites or Wikipedia. However, in each chapter they gave hints about witnessing to people with different world views and how their culture will try to cast doubt on Christianity. Those facts help to make this book worth getting.

[Bart Breen · Rating 2 out of 5]

Niche Book that is Somewhat Deceptive as to What it is

There's nothing wrong with having a book written from a Christian Perspective that outlines other world religions and how to approach adherents of those religions to convert them to Evangelical Christianity. What is wrong however is presenting it as a comparative religions book without making that particular quality clear on the book cover.

This book does a reasonable job at stating in the first section what it is. The problem is, most people will have already bought the book before doing that and not be aware that this is effectively a Christian Apologetics work. World Religions are presented, but they are presented in the light of evangelical, fundamentalist beliefs and compared and contrasted against that standard alone.

That's really all that needs to be said about it. I'm a Christian and not completely adverse to the point of view to a limited degree, but I was disappointed with the tone and taste it left in my mouth as I considered others' reaction to reading it. It's a little difficult to expect others to take a call to "truth" seriously when the book itself somewhat misrepresents itself to the average buyer picking it off a shelf. The book itself is used as a textbook in Christian Universities. Obviously they know what they're getting and why, but outside of that context, the message is inconsistent with the method of approach and this should not be mistaken at all for a comparative religions text. It compares only against Christianity and that with an already made up mind.

2 stars. I can't recommend this book to a general audience without these issues being addressed.

bart breen

[Erwin Thomas · Rating 4 out of 5]

Dean C. Halverson, Editor of The Illustrated Guide to World Religions aspires to make Christian converts of adherents to other religions.
This book acknowledges that all religions contain some truth. Islam is known for its appreciation of God. Zoroastrianism stresses God’s purity. Animism sees our battle as being not against flesh and blood. Taoism holds that people should be sensitive to the ways of nature. Hinduism is known for its immanence of God. The atheist finds solutions through rational thinking. But Halverson argues that these religions and beliefs do not contain the “saving truth, or a truth that leads to salvation.”
It ought to be pointed out that such a perspective flies in the face of many renowned religious and international scholars, who argue that all religions are viable paths to the eternal reality for believers of their unique faith traditions.

[Tessa · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this hoping for a review of my religious studies college courses. While it was different than expected (with a Christian explanation of everything) the Christian background was helpful for me as I am a Christian and it explained things in ways a Christian would understand. I found the charts helpful listing important comparisons between the various aspects of each religion. Yes, it is not an in depth and extremely thorough analysis of each religion, but it was sufficient for my purposes.

[Bri · Rating 1 out of 5]

How very uninformative. I was hoping this would be a look inside the religions of the world. It is more like a guide for Christians trying to convert people of the world religions. At the end of each chapter about each religion there was a graph that compared the religion to Christianity. If I had known it was a biased book I would have found something else.

[Kevin · Rating 1 out of 5]

I should have read a little more about this book before picking it up at the bookstore. It is, in fact, a guide to world religions, but it is mainly a guide for Christian missionaries. Each chapter has a religion reviewed with basic tennants of that religion, and then a section that teaches Christians how to convert these people to Christianity. This was not my cup of tea.

[Doni Siswanto · Rating 5 out of 5]

I should love them.....understand them

[Paul · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good book of World Religions! I recommend this book and found it interesting.

[Wayne · Rating 3 out of 5]

great reference material for realistic religions in writing