The New Penguin Handbook Of Living Religions

Comprehensive and informative. The New Penguin handbook of Living Religions has been completely revised, with all chapters updated to include discussion of modern developments and recent scholarship. Compiled by a team of leading international scholars, it is an authoritative guide to understanding the religious beliefs and practices of the world today.

Discusses the history, beliefs, practices, and festivals of Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, Hinduism, and the other major world religions

Comprehensive, informative and authoritative, The Penguin Handbook of the World's Living Religions is compiled by a team of leading international scholars, and is the definitive guide to the religious belief systems and practices of the world today. This in-depth survey of active religions has now been fully updated to include modern developments and the most recent scholarship. It explains the sources and history of the world's religions, includes material on the phenomenon of Black African and Asian diaspora religions around the world and explores the role of gender in modern religion.

This overview of the religious customs of ancient cultures boasts an international selection of contributors, all of whom are leading scholars in their field. The cultural practices of popular as well as formal religion are explored in detail, giving an impression of all, not only elite societies. Every topic is placed in its own cultural context, while bearing in mind its relevance to a wider historical and sociological debate. The result is an erudite and thoroughly readable handbook to ancient religions, from Palaeolithic cave art to the rituals of Aztec and Inca civilizations.

"The sources and history of the world's religions, from Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Sikhism and Zoroastrianism, to regional studies in Africa, China and Japan; their teaching, practices and popular traditions; diaspora religions in the Western world, in the USA, Canada, Australia and Britain, including a new section on these religious migrations in a comparative international perspective; gender and spirituality and the Black African diaspora; developments that have taken place in the twentieth century; recent scholarship, including new material on China; and public festivals and private devotions." "With charts and diagrams to illustrate and clarify the text, The New Handbook of Living Religions is the definitive guide to understanding the belief systems of the world today."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Providing a genuinely full guide to the theory and methods related to religious studies, this text - written entirely by world-renowned specialists - is the ideal resource for those studying the discipline.