World Religions: An Indispensable Introduction

by Gerald R. McDermott

An essential introduction to eight of the world’s major religions. Gerald R. McDermott explains what you need to understand about major world religions in order to engage people of other faiths while better understanding your own Christian faith and practice. McDermott offers an overview of the central beliefs of Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism, and Shinto. Each chapter includes explanations of traditions and rituals. McDermott discusses major figures within each religion.

 

Features include:

Insights from members of each religious community
Glossary of important terms

Genres: Religion, Nonfiction, Christian

152 pages, Kindle Edition

First published March 22, 2011

About the author

Gerald R. McDermott (PhD, University of Iowa) is Jordan-Trexler Professor of Religion at Roanoke College in Salem, Virginia, and Distinguished Senior Fellow at the Baylor Institute for Studies of Religion. He is the author or editor of ten books, including God's Rivals: Why Has God Allowed Different Religions? and Claiming Christ: A Mormon-Evangelical Debate.

Reviews

[Joshua Walker · Rating 4 out of 5]

Read for comparative religious class. This quick guide is a good resource for world religions. McDermott is highly esteemed in his field and this book is a good addition to my library!

[M.K. Laffin · Rating 2 out of 5]

Somehow this book managed to give too much yet too little information at the same time. It felt overwhelming but also not like the most productive way to get information because of the lack of detail, or unnecessary detail. The sidebars and breaks in the narration seemed a little at random and messed up the flow of the read for me. Most of the information shared in them could have easily been incorporated into the narration to make it a lot smoother, but that’s just my personal preference.

[Rebecca Fell · Rating 3 out of 5]

A compilation of clear and insightful overviews of Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Daoism and Shinto. Though, this introduction is definitely partial towards Christianity, it was fascinating when reading the analytic comparisons/links between Christianity and chosen religion. I personally skipped the Christianity portion due to these comparisons- I feel that an overview of Christianity to a clearly Christian aimed audience was pointless-. The particular areas that I feel piqued my interest the most were probably Shintoism, Islam and Buddhism. Accessible and intriguing, I would definitely recommend this to anyone who is interested in learning more about or being briefly introduced to global religions and their links to Christianity.

[Bobby H · Rating 4 out of 5]

4 1/4 stars. Good history and general overview of major world religions. Pull out boxes offer nice extra insight. Comparisons to Christianity helps with perspective and understanding of the other religions.
Chapters are short enough to make this a fast read.

[Azucena M · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fácil de entender

Me gusto mucho, esta bien explicado y breve. Aprendí muchas cosas . Lo recomiendo mucho, así tenemos idea de concepto de las otras religiones y reforzamos nuestra fe en Cristo.. Gracias!

[Don Palmer · Rating 4 out of 5]

Helpful, high level intro.

[Kari · Rating 3 out of 5]

Does what it says on the label with a bent toward converting others (not my favorite bit)

[Alex · Rating 2 out of 5]

Pretty basic. Classic McDermott. I tell people he is one of my favourite theologians to read not because I agree with him (I often do not) but because he challenges me by his intellect.

[Evan Baird · Rating 2 out of 5]

This book was more of a struggle than it should have been. I finished maybe a week ago and am now logging it - and I’m baffled by how little I remember. Maybe a fault of my own, but I think the presentation isn’t the smoothest, and the book itself not very engaging. My only other critique is the Christian influence. Maybe I find myself aligning more with the liberal Christians mentioned in the back of the book, but the Christian analysis at the end of each chapter rubbed me the wrong way. To claim this is an indispensable introduction than explain where those religions fall short of Christianity hurt a piece of my soul. Not a bad book by any means, and I am very prone to hyperbole on this matter.

[Linda Reyes · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is not a non biased review of world religions

I bought this because I thought it was an unbiased overview of world religions. It was not what I expected and I will admit to being unsure of buying books online without a chance to see if the description meets the true content.

[Nancy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just started the very first step of the faith to know other religions by finishing reading this book. It gives me a brief idea of what the major religions are. The journey of evangelism has just started. Always remind myself of doing so by gentleness and respect.