Religions Of The World

by Palmer, Martin Palmer, Joanne O'Brien

Religions of the World looks at the key issues of faith as it exists today. It includes features on beliefs, traditions, festivals, and practices of the major faiths, and also looks at and discusses the differences within, as well as between, the faiths.

Genres: Religion, Nonfiction, Reference

160 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 1997

Reviews

[Jacquelyn]

This beautifully illustrated book brings the world’s contemporary religions to life. The major religions of Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism are reviewed in detail. Other faiths, including one of the newest, Baha’i, are also included. The text is accompanied on each page by full color photographs and sidebars with informational tidbits.

[Rafael]

Overall, it’s in educational, easy to read book and I learned a considerable amount. However, it had inaccurate information regarding neopaganism, saying neopaganism is synonymous to Wicca. Wicca is the largest neopagan religion, but by no means are they one in the same. Remembering the author descriptions, I presume that the authors have a Christian background–the Christian portion seems to be pretty accurate to all the other books I’ve read. I’m not as familiar with the other religions included in the book as I am with Christianity, Islam, and Neopaganism but I wonder about the accuracy of the those sections, given how the authors and editors all missed such a glaring mistake on Neopaganism. It was a very small section though, so I hope the other, much longer sections were accurate, since they had to have more time spent on them. Still, it was a good introductory read, included helpful pictures, and was a fun summer library read. 4 stars I hope to read more books like this in the future.

[Boo]

This was interesting

[Hesper Budge]

This was a really interesting and useful primer on the basics of world religions!

[Hanna Haynes]

Mainly used this book to study from and jot down notes about religions but it was good and well organized

[Kevin]

Great overview of not just the major religions, but minor ones as well. Goes into enough detail about, not just beliefs but things like the texts they consider their canon, sub-sects of the religion, and such. Quite good.

[Chris Paluszek]

Light and easy to read; great coverage for most religions. I especially liked how the book included cutaway views of temples/worship sites specific to each major religion, as well as a calendar of their major holidays.