A History Of The World's Religions

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A History of the World's Religions bridges the interval between the founding of religions and their present state, and gives students an accurate look at the religions of the world by including descriptive and interpretive details from the original source materials. Refined by over forty years of dialogue and correspondence with religious experts and practitioners around the world, A History of the World's Religions is widely regarded as the hallmark of scholarship, fairness, and accuracy in its field. It is also the most thorough yet manageable history of world religion available in a single volume, treating many subjects largely neglected in other texts.

Paperback: 608 pages

Publisher: Routledge; 13 edition (July 13, 2011)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 0205167977

ISBN-13: 978-0205167975

Product Dimensions: 8 x 0.8 x 9.9 inches

Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)

Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (44 customer reviews)

Best Sellers Rank: #114,170 in Books (See Top 100 in Books) #21 in Books > Textbooks > Humanities > Religious Studies > Religious History #179 in Books > History > World > Religious > General #275 in Books > Religion & Spirituality > Religious Studies > History

Much to my confusion after having taught with the book for a semester-long “Religions of the World” course, Noss’ text is lauded by quite a few. That’s evinced by the fact that it is in its 13th edition, goodness knows how many printings, and a new author is taking it up and its revision process. The facts are confusing because I really can’t imagine a book that’s more poorly constructed by equally knowledgeable people. While the text has “history” in the title, it certainly isn’t a history text, and I hope that Noss wasn’t a historian, because the textbook does not reflect the kind of narrative indicative of a great historian. If anything, the book is a pile of fact, rather arbitrarily chosen. For instance, I don’t recall the textbook referring to the Hebrew Scripture as the “Tanakh” even once, nor the breakdown of where that word derives (Toran, Nevi’im, and Ketuvim…though he does refer to the “Nebi’im,” which I guess means “Nevi’im,” but I have never previously seen such a transliteration).From a disciplinary standpoint —and I am certainly not a strict adherent to any single discipline—, the book is an incoherent mix of disciplinary perspectives and approaches. Such textbook, drawing upon the collection of disciplines, is doable, and someone has probably even done it; but Noss’ is a mess of anthropology, history, literature studies, archeology, and so forth. Having read through the book twice, I can’t tell what the overarching objective was for the book. There was not enough discussion of odd religions, indigenous religions, or religions that are atypical for a “living religions” sort of text, such as Celtic religion or Anglo-Saxon Christianity —i.e., truly historical brands of religion.

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