Religious Autobiographies

by Gary L. Comstock (Editor)

This unique anthology, now with contributing editor C. Wayne Mayhall, includes spiritual autobiographies of both men and women from a variety of religious traditions within a multicultural context. It presents religion as a "lived experience" and helps students think empathetically about religious experiences in a wide variety of cultural and religious settings.

Genres: Religion, Nonfiction

Paperback

First published July 26, 1994

Reviews

[Rebecca]

Not the book I thought it was going to be. This book is suited for a college/university class on World Religions.

Lakota Sioux, Druidry, Hinduism, Zen Buddhism, Creation Spirituality, Judaism, Honduran Catholicism, African-American Protestantism, and Islam are covered here with two autobiographies for each one. Prior to that we get a chapter on "What is Religious Autobiography" and another chapter on "What is Religion". We even get the author's own religious autobiography.

A word of caution for those with light stomachs- the Lakota Sioux and the Judaism biographies contain graphic descriptions that could be upsetting. The first Judaism one is a Holocaust survivor story.

[Belle Meade School]

200.922

[JHM]

I really wanted to like this book, but I kept getting frustrated with the authors. In most cases (at least as far as I got), their religious experiences seemed secondary to other events of their lives they were talking about. The exception was John Lame Deer, whose work I have read before.

I kept wondering why Comstock chose the selections he did. He seemed to want to keep actual religious passion and development at arm's length. Again, the exception was Lame Deer, whose account was vividly personal and deep.

[Michael]

Want to read 30 essays about how borink people found the same genocidal, evil god?

No, me neither.