Product Description

The Oxford Dictionary of World Religions is the most wide-ranging A-Z reference guide to all aspects of the world's religions past and present. Whether the reader seeks quick, accessible answers from the short entries, or more detailed discussion from the longer more discursive articles, it offers a wealth of unrivalled and unbiased authoriative detail. With a total of over 8,200 entries, an extensive topical index, and an original in-depth introductory essay, this new dictionary is the definitive compendium of the subject.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #63325 in Books
• Published on: 1999-03-25
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 1126 pages

About the Author
John Bowker, Gresham Professor, London and Adjunct Professor at the University of Pennsylvania (formerly professor of religion at the University of Lancaster and Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge), is a highly regarded authority on religious studies and a well-known broadcaster on BBC Radio and World Service.

Customer Reviews

Many faces of faithful response
The 'Oxford Dictionary of World Religions' is a concise and comprehensive single-volume reference to the religions, faith systems, and spiritual practises of the world. This dictionary has one of the broadest ranges for any multi-religious guide around. The book contains nearly 13,000 entries, broadly categorised as follows:

- Religions
- Movements, sects, cults
- Scriptural and philosophical text synopses and analyses
- Biographies of individuals
- Sacred sites
- Customs and practises

- Ethics and moral systems
- Themes on general topics

Edited by John Bowker, the text is introduced by an essay which pulls together philosophical, sociological and historical information tying together the concepts of religion. 'A strange thing about religion is that we all know what it is until someone ask us to tell them. As Augustine said of time, "What, then, is time? If no one asks me I know; but if I have to say what it is to one who asks, I know not." That has not stopped people trying to define religion, but their definitions are clearly different.'

Bowker, who has published several books including award winning books on the relationship of God and science, and the meaning of death in religious frameworks, has pulled together a team of over 80 contributors, some of the brightest names in the study of religion. Thus, articles and entries are contributed by experts in their respective fields, edited and cross-referenced by Bowker and his team of eight consultant editors who hold academic posts on three continents.

In an innovative fashion, Bowker has included a topical index in back which shows in an abbreviated and quickly-referenced fashion the interrelationship between topics; for instance, if one is using this text to research Anglicanism, in addition to such well-known entries such as Book of Common Prayer and Lambeth Conferences, one would be directed also to see the articles on:

African Greek Orthodox Church
Cambridge Platonists
Sundar Singh
Order of Ethiopia
Latitudinarianism

This makes for interesting reading. Every now and then, an article will be surprising. If you want to research Wrathful Dieties, there is an article so entitled, which discusses both the specifics of events in scripture (God in Jewish, Christian, and Muslim scripture is sometimes shown as a wrathful and vengeful) and the general purpose behind the wrathful imagery (moral seriousness).

Also, if you want to know for certain what a Holy Fool is, here is the place! I confess I sometimes feel like a holy fool (as opposed to being more generally an unholy one), but this book has clarified this for me so that I no longer feel that way. According to the dictionary, holy fools are: 'Figures who subvert prevailing orthodoxy and orthopraxis in order to point to the truth which lies beyond immediate conformity. The holy fool endeavours to express the insistence of all religions that detachment from the standards of the world is the sine qua non of advance into truth.'

Many of the articles contain suggestions for further reading, either specific titles or, more generally, authors of note on the topic in question. This is a great reference source, and one I have referenced frequently both in my studies and my personal researches.

Worth its weight in gold
Whether you are a religious studies student or someone who simply wants to understand what religion is really about, you will find this marvellous reference book of immense value. This will be especially true if you are someone genuinely interested in learning about the nature and meaning of religion without being overly attached to one tradition in particular. That is because this book manages not only to describe each religious tradition objectively and accurately (the contributors are some of the leading scholars in their fields) but brings out the reality that the 'different' religions of humanity are not so different after all sharing as they do such similar philosophical bases, values and goals. Away from the hype and propaganda of the mass media and the similar distortions of sectarian presentations of religion this book is a welcome antidote to the widespread ignorance of religion in our brash secularist age. As a useful and faithful friend for ten years it never ceases to amaze me how this tremendously accomplished book was put together combining as it does such astonishing breadth and detail. You will not regret investing in this splendid educational resource.