Understanding Sikhism

by W. Owen Cole

One of the world's major faiths with more than 20 million adherents, Sikhism is a religion which most people, including academics, seem to ignore. This introduction assumes no prior knowledge on the part of the reader. At the centre of the religion is the scripture, the Guru Granth Sahib, it is the focus of Sikh theology and practice to the extent that no one is allowed to come between it and the believer. There is no priesthood. A particular aspect of Sikhism is its relationship with and attitude to other religions, something of particular significance in our multi-religious society.

Genres: Religion

192 pages, Paperback

First published August 26, 2004

Reviews

[Einzige · Rating 3 out of 5]

The first few chapters are fairly jumbled and the history component of the book is not as good as the Very Short Oxford introduction written by Eleanor Nesbitt – however unlike Nesbitt’s work this book does focus more on the theology and the Sikh understanding of God which is a big advantage.

It would have been much better if it explored the continuity between the evangelical and iconoclastic faith of its first Guru Nanak and the far more ritualistic and insular faith of its last human Guru, Gobind Singh.

Not really a book I can recommend unless you are really interested in getting to understand Sikhism and dont mind taking the long way.

[Jaskeat Singh · Rating 2 out of 5]

When the author goes over the history of the religion he does a good job in explaining in a way that is easy to understand but once he starts explaining the religious concepts, he makes it unnecessarily complicated.

Religious concepts aren’t simple or easy to explain but the explanations feel like they are not leading anywhere. Even for the concepts that I do know, instead of providing more information it just confused me more.

[J-russ · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oddly written but informative.