The World's Great Religions

by Time-Life Books (Publisher)

Genres: Religion, Nonfiction

310 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1957

Reviews

[Timi Okoya · Rating 3 out of 5]

Engaging but very biased towards Christianity. The bias is understandable given the year it was published and the author.

[Jacob Scupp · Rating 4 out of 5]

While it's definitely weighted towards Christianity (the author noting that he is a Christian in the first several pages), the book still offers a fairly unbiased perspective on the theological, cultural, and philosophical basics of each of the religions covered. As it is intended to be an introductory look and various religions, the depth of review is nowhere near complete and is full of pictures depicting various events or art significant to the various faiths. While this may put off readers more interested in a deeper look at any one of the religions described and leaves many questions unanswered, as an introduction for younger readers it is definitely engaging.

The only major complaint of note is the disproportionate exposure given to Christianity, with whole pages given to sections of the Bible and a more thorough breakdown of Christian religious practices. However, given that this book was published in the 1950s and intended for readers whose previous religious experiences were likely Christian, I don't think that this disproportionate representation significantly undermines the main purpose of the book, which again is to provide an introduction to world religions and their thought systems that young readers may not have even heard of before.

All in all, not a bad book for what it sets out to accomplish.

[Covenant Presbyterian Springfield Ohio]

Call Number: 290 TIM (OS)

Available.

[Jimmyle · Rating 3 out of 5]

A nice little reference. Way heavily weighted toward Christianity.