Religions of the World

Religions of the World
Author: J. Gordon Melton
Publisher: Abc-clio
Total Pages: 416
Release: 2002
Genre: Reference
ISBN: 9781576072233

An extraordinary survey, in four volumes, of the religious belief and practice in all 276 of the world's nations and territories. From the Aboriginal Cult of Maria Lionza in Venezuela to Zionist and Apostolic churches in South Africa and Zimbabwe, Religions of the World is the only comprehensive compilation of the world's existing major religious communities. This extraordinary four-volume survey examines the religious history and key religious communities in all 240 recognized nations and territories. More than 200 international experts contributed the 1,200+ entries covering each group's origin, history, organization, ecumenical contacts, and present status. Other entries focus on individual countries, surveying the current state of religious practice, supported by statistical data from leading religious statisticians David B. Barrett and Todd M. Johnson. The volumes place African independent churches, Japanese new religions, and surviving indigenous beliefs alongside Catholicism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Illustrated and indexed, and including cross-references and end-of-entry bibliographic citations, this remarkable set is destined to become the primary reference source on religious issues throughout the world. - 1,200+ A-Z entries including individual religious groups, country-by-country entries, and core entries that address major world religions - 200+ contributors including top religious scholars from around the globe - Photographs of religious leaders, ceremonies, sacred structures, and artifacts such as an Aboriginal sacred Churunga and the Gurujem Monastery in Tibet - Statistical data on the projected status of religions for 2000 to 2050 broken down by country and by type of religion - Cross references and end-of-entry bibliographic citations

World Religions and Cults Volume 1

World Religions and Cults Volume 1
Author: Bodie Hodge
Publisher: New Leaf Publishing Group
Total Pages: 432
Release: 2015-08-13
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1614584605

Religions in today’s culture seem to be multiplying. Have you ever wondered why certain religions believe and practice what they do? Or how they view the Bible? This volume delves into these and other engaging questions, such as: How can a Christian witness to people in these religions? Do these other religions believe in creation and a Creator? How do we deal with these religions from a biblical authority perspective? Many religions and cults discussed in this first volume openly affirm that the Bible is true, but then something gets in their way. And there is a common factor every time—man’s fallible opinions. In one way or another the Bible gets demoted, reinterpreted, or completely ignored. Man’s ideas are used to throw the Bible’s clear teaching out the window while false teachings are promoted. This book is a must for laymen, church leaders, teachers, and students to understand the trends in our culture and around the world where certain religions dominate, helping you discern truth and guard your faith. When you understand a religion’s origins and teachings, you are in a better position to know how to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ as you take the good news to those in false religions.

Religions of the World

Religions of the World
Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages: 3200
Release: 2010
Genre: Religions
ISBN:

Entries examine every major belief and significant practice around the world as well as the religious history of each and key religious communities.

Catholicism

Catholicism
Author: George Brantl
Publisher:
Total Pages: 256
Release: 1961
Genre:
ISBN: 9781568526706

Religions of the World [6 volumes]

Religions of the World [6 volumes]
Author: J. Gordon Melton
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing USA
Total Pages: 3788
Release: 2010-09-21
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1598842048

This masterful six-volume encyclopedia provides comprehensive, global coverage of religion, emphasizing larger religious communities without neglecting the world's smaller religious outposts. Religions of the World, Second Edition: A Comprehensive Encyclopedia of Beliefs and Practices is an extraordinary work, bringing together the scholarship of some 225 experts from around the globe. The encyclopedia's six volumes offer entries on every country of the world, with particular emphasis on the larger nations, as well as Indonesia and the Latin American countries that are traditionally given little attention in English-language reference works. Entries include profiles on religion in the world's smallest countries (the Vatican and San Marino), profiles on religion in recently established or disputed countries (Kosovo and Nagorno-Karabakh), as well as profiles on religion in some of the world's most remote places (Antarctica and Easter Island). Religions of the World is unique in that it is based in religion "on the ground," tracing the development of each of the 16 major world religious traditions through its institutional expressions in the modern world, its major geographical sites, and its major celebrations. Unlike other works, the encyclopedia also covers the world of religious unbelief as expressed in atheism, humanism, and other traditions.

Global Connections: Volume 1, To 1500

Global Connections: Volume 1, To 1500
Author: John Coatsworth
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 439
Release: 2015-03-16
Genre: History
ISBN: 1316297772

The first textbook to present world history via social history, drawing on social science methods and research. This interdisciplinary, comprehensive and comparative textbook is authored by distinguished scholars and experienced teachers, and offers expert scholarship on global history that is ideal for undergraduate students. Volume 1 takes us from the origin of hominids to ancient civilizations, the rise of empires, and the Middle Ages. The book pays particular attention to the ways in which ordinary people lived through the great changes of their times, and how everyday experience connects to great political events and the commercial exchanges of an interconnected world. With 65 maps, 45 illustrations, timelines, boxes, and primary source extracts, the book moves students easily from particular historical incidents to broader perspectives, enabling them to use historical material and social science methodologies to analyze the events of the past, present and future.

The Secret Doctrine: The Synthesis of Science, Religion, and Philosophy Volume I: Cosmogenesis

The Secret Doctrine: The Synthesis of Science, Religion, and Philosophy Volume I: Cosmogenesis
Author: Helena Petrovna Blavatsky
Publisher: Lulu.com
Total Pages: 362
Release: 2018-02-24
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1773562177

The first book in the monumental work of Theosophic thought. This book focuses on gaining occult power in the formation of the universe and the cosmos. This group sought to learn the secrets of nature, science and divinity in order to empower themselves to godhood and this book reveals their secrets as to how knowledge to do this can be attained. It does not reveal what the ultimate saving knowledge is that can do this but it gives guidelines on how to start the journey for yourself.

Medicine and Religion in Enlightenment Europe

Medicine and Religion in Enlightenment Europe
Author: Andrew Cunningham
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 292
Release: 2017-03-02
Genre: History
ISBN: 1351918702

The Enlightenment period, here understood as covering the years 1650 to 1789, is usually considered to be a period when religion was obliged to give way to rationality. With respect to medicine this means that the religious elements in the treatment and interpretation of diseases to all intents and purposes disappeared. However, there are growing indications in recent scholarship that this may well be an overstatement. Indeed it appears that religion retained many of its customary relations with medicine. This volume explores how far, and the ways in which, this was still the case. It looks at this multi-faceted relationship with respect to among others: medical care and death in hospitals, religious vocation and nursing, chemical medicine and religion, the clergy and medicine, the continued significance of popular medicine, faith healing, dissection and religion, and religious dissent and medical innovation. Within these significant areas the volume provides a European perspective which will make it possible to draw comparisons and determine differences.

Interreligious Reflections, Six Volume Set

Interreligious Reflections, Six Volume Set
Author: Alon Goshen-Gottstein
Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers
Total Pages: 615
Release: 2018-08-08
Genre: Religion
ISBN: 1532671520

This set includes all six volumes of Interreligious Reflections. ABOUT VOLUME ONE: Friendship is an outcome of, as well as a condition for, advancing interfaith relations. However, for friendship to advance, there must be legitimation from within and a theory of how interreligious relations can be justified from the resources of different faith traditions. Friendship Across Religions explores these very issues, seeking to develop a robust theory of interreligious friendship from the resources of each of the participating traditions. It also features individual cases as models and precedents for such relations—in particular, the friendship of Gandhi and Charlie Andrews, his closest personal friend. Contributors: Balwant Singh Dhillon, Timothy J. Gianotti, Alon Goshen-Gottstein, Maria Reis Habito, Ruben L. F. Habito, Ryan McAnnally-Linz, Stephen Butler Murray, Eleanor Nesbitt, Anantanand Rambachan, Meir Sendor, Johann M. Vento, and Miroslav Volf ABOUT VOLUME TWO: This book tackles the core problem of how painful historical memories between diverse religious communities continue to impact—even poison—present-day relations. Its operative notion is the healing of memory, developed by John Paul II. Chapters explore how painful memories of yesteryear can be healed and so address some of the root causes. Strategies from six different faith traditions are brought together in what is, in some ways, a cross-religious brainstorming session that identifies tools to improve present-day relations. At the other pole of the conceptual axis of this book is the notion of hope. If memory informs our past, hope sets the horizon for our future. How does the healing of memory open new horizons for the future? And what is the notion of hope in each of our traditions that could lead to a common vision of good? Between memory and hope, this book seeks to offer a vision of healing that can serve as a resource in contemporary interfaith relations. Contributors: Rahuldeep Singh Gill, Alon Goshen-Gottstein, Maria Reis Habito, Flora A. Keshgegian, Anantanand Rambachan, Meir Sendor, Muhammad Suheyl Umar, and Michael von Brück ABOUT VOLUME THREE: The essays collected here, prepared by a think tank of the Elijah Interfaith Academy, explore the challenges associated with sharing wisdom—learning, teachings, messages for good living. How should religions go about sharing their wisdom? These chapters, representing six faith tradition (Jewish, Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, and Buddhist), explore what wisdom means in each of these traditions; why and how it should be shared, internally and externally; and the role of love and forgiveness in sharing. This book offers a theory that can enrich ongoing encounters between members of faith traditions by suggesting a tradition-based practice of sharing wisdom, while preserving the integrity of the teaching and respecting the identity of anyone with whom wisdom is shared. Contributors: Pal Ahluwalia, Timothy Gianotti, Alon Goshen-Gottstein, Sallie B. King, Anantanand Rambachan, Meir Sendor, Miroslav Volf ABOUT VOLUME FOUR: All the world’s religions are experiencing rapid change due to a confluence of social and economic global forces. Factors such as the pervasive intrusion of globalizing political and economic developments, polarized and morally equivalent presentations seen in the media, and the sense of surety demanded in and promised by a culture dominated by science are some of the factors that have placed extreme pressure on all religious traditions. This has stimulated unprecedented responses by religious groups, ranging from fundamentalism to the syncretistic search for meaning. As religion takes on new forms, the balance between individual and community is disrupted and reconfigured. Religions often lose the capacity to recall their ultimate purpose or lead their adherents toward it. This is the situation we call “the crisis of the holy.” It is a confluence of threats, challenges, and opportunities for all religions. This volume explores the contours of pressures, changes, and transformations and reflects on how all our religions are changing. By identifying commonalities across religions as they respond to these pressures, The Crisis of the Holy recommends ways religious traditions might cope with these changes and how they might join forces in doing so. Contributors: Vincent J. Cornell, Alon Goshen-Gottstein, Sidney H. Griffith, Maria Reis Habito, B. Barry Levy, Deepak Sarma, Michael von Brück ABOUT VOLUME FIVE: The chapters collected in this book, prepared by a think tank of the Elijah Interfaith Academy, address the subject of religious leadership. The subject is of broad relevance in the training of religious leaders and in the practice of religious leadership. As such, it is also germane to religious thought, where reflections on religious leadership occupy an important place. What does it mean to be a religious leader in today’s world? To what degree are the challenges that confront religious leadership today the same perennial challenges that have arrested the attention of the faithful and their leaders for generations, and to what degree do we encounter challenges today that are unique to our day and age? One dimension is surely unique, and that is the very ability to explore these issues from an interreligious perspective and to consider challenges, opportunities, and strategies across religious traditions. Studying the theme across six faith traditions—Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Sikhism, Hinduism, and Buddhism—The Future of Religious Leadership: World Religions in Conversation recognizes the common challenges to present-day religious leadership. Contributors: Awet Andemicael, Timothy J. Gianotti, Alon Goshen-Gottstein, Anantanand Rambachan, Maria Reis Habito, Meir Sendor, Balwant Singh Dhillon, Miroslav Volf VOLUME SIX: One of the biggest challenges for relations between religions is the view of the religious Other. The question touches the roots of our theological views. The Religious Other: Hostility, Hospitality, and the Hope of Human Flourishing explores the views of multiple religious traditions on how to regard otherness. How does one move from hostility to hospitality? How can hospitality be understood not simply as social hospitality but as theological hospitality, making room for the religious Other on theological grounds? What is our vision for the flourishing of the Other, while respecting his otherness? This volume is an exercise in constructive interreligious theology. By including Abrahamic and non-Abrahamic traditions, it approaches these challenges from multiple perspectives, highlighting commonalities in approach and ways in which one tradition might inspire another. Contributors: Vincent J. Cornell, Alon Goshen-Gottstein, Richard P. Hayes, Lord Rabbi Jonathan Sacks, Deepak Sarma, Stephen W. Sykes, Dharma Master Hsin Tao, Ashok Vohra