Our Religions: The Seven World Religions Introduced by Preeminent Scholars from Each Tradition – Essential Expert Perspectives from the 1993 Parliament of the World's Religions

by Arvind Sharma (Editor)

An essential introduction to the world's living religions by experts from each tradition -- published in conjunction with the 1993 Parliament of the World's Religions.

Genres: Religion, Nonfiction, Spirituality, History, Philosophy, Church, Theology

560 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1993

About the author

Arvind Sharma, Ph.D. (Sanskrit & Indian Studies, Harvard University, 1978; M.A. Theological Studies, Harvard Divinity Schookl, 1974; M.A. Economics, Syracuse University, 1970; B.A. History, Economics, & Sanskrit, Allahadad University, 1958), was appointed Associate Professor in the Faculty of Religious Studies at McGill University in Montreal, Canada in 1987, where he is now the Birks Professor of Comparative Religion. Previously he has been associated with the Universities of Sydney and Queensland (Brisbane) in Australia and Temple University in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Reviews

[JHM]

I have an MA in Comparative Religion, and I still found this a challenging book to get through. It was very dense, and sometimes the authors focused on issues more of interest to religious scholars than to general readers.

I suspect that individual reactions to this book will vary widely based on the degree of the reader's experience in religious studies and interest in the individual religions profiled. My personal reactions the various chapters:

Hinduism: Interesting and educational
Buddhism: Hard to get through (but I've always been challenged by Buddhist thinking)
Confucianism: Fascinating and inspiring
Taosim: Apologies to the author, but I skipped it
Judaism: Frustrating. The author framed the discussion in terms of oppression and resentment and promise -- which may be accurate (I don't know) but never really explained to me what it was like to practice Judaism. Of course, part of the point of the chapter was that, unlike other faiths, Judaism has an ethnic as well as a spiritual component, and he needed to address that.
Christianity: Enjoyed it a lot. I thought it was an excellent expression of both the diversity and unity of Christianity.
Islam: Very interesting and eye-opening.

If I could give this half-stars, this would be 3-1/2, but I rounded up because of the overall quality and ambition of the collection.

The book was published in 1994, and I would love to see another edition, hopefully one which also includes indigenous and neo-pagan faiths, which have become the focus of scholarly work.

[Nathaniel]

The book accomplished its mission. Living in a religiously pluralistic world can be quite interesting. But man, some of those chapters were a trial to understand. Apparently that's why one lifetime isn't enough to understand one's own religion, let alone others.

[Anna]

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[Will Manuel]

Interesting. Learned a lot. But very dense and kind of like reading a textbook for a PhD class.

[Zee]

One belief should slowly take you far, but one perspective can get you nowhere fast.

Religion is dangerous because depth is dangerous—though not nearly as dangerous as the lack thereof. This book’s depth arises from its cultural, historical, individual, theological, and universal exposition of the seven great religions by actual adherents of each, and it’s probably the deepest, most important book I’ll read all year. Some parts were certainly weaker than others, but the good majority of pages weigh heavily.

[Sumred]

只看了道教的部分，清晰易懂，很不错

[Bowen Sanders]

read this for a class, so confusing to read. i could’ve learned more in depth about religions literally any other way.

[H-Man]

Hinduism: Ok, pretty interesting. Would have liked a bit more about the Upanishads.
Judaism: Awesome. Captivating account.
Buddhism: Very interesting.
Confucianism: Not too bad either.
Taoism: Did not catch my interest at all. I have to assume that's not the fault of the religion, but the text here.
Christianity: Focused too much on different ways of living a christian life, instead of explaining the actual beliefs in depth. I would have liked a bit more background, some theology, I guess? Still a good overview though.
Islam: Pretty interesting.

[Donna Andersen]

Difficult but interesting.

[Rahul Rajamuthiah]

The experts perspectives on their religion

[Ron Banister]

Great introduction to the World's great religions. Highly recommended to all interested parties.

[Giovanni Alberto Orlando]

A great book resuming all World Religions