A survey of the world’s religions with more historical breadth than intellectual persuasiveness.
A sweeping analysis of the world’s major religions, designed to demonstrate their shared commitment to universal values.
According to Verma (Gandhi’s Technique of Mass Mobilization, 2016), the world is plagued by sectarian discord due to the arbitrary division of religions into warring tribes. He also says that globalization, despite the failings, has powerfully highlighted world unity as a worthy aspiration. The rivalry among different faiths, Verma avers, is largely the result of scriptural ignorance—egregious misinterpretations of authoritative texts that foster delusions of mutual exclusivity. In an attempt to remedy this, he furnishes a panoramic synopsis of the world’s major religious traditions—including the three Abrahamic religions, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, and others—in order to excavate their common moral foundations. He argues that representatives of each faith need to communicate their perspectives in more accessible, nondenominational language; seek out opportunities for interfaith dialogue; and clearly articulate their tolerance of divergent traditions. His wide-ranging analysis also discusses the virtues and vices of multiculturalism and pluralism, the spiritual core of the Bhagavad-Gita, India’s attempts to achieve cultural integration, and Mohandas Gandhi’s interpretation of religious harmony. (There are also less incisive, meandering accounts regarding philosophers Plato and Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel.) The author’s aims are impressively ambitious, and his adumbrative sketches of various religions are instructive. This is a refreshingly hopeful book and a timely call for theological moderation. However, it never convincingly establishes its two central contentions—that the world’s faiths echo the same teachings about the human condition and that they’re doctrinally designed to support open-minded exchange. In fact, sometimes Verma contends that traditions are contradictory, but in a way that’s philosophically surmountable (“Two or more faiths claiming mutually exclusive truth may be equally valid on a higher level”), though he never explains in any detail how this would be done. Also, the points of commonality that he does find are often so vague—such as a devotion to truth and purpose, some sense of a morally significant soul, and a love of fellow man—that they don’t produce a sense of shared mission.
A survey of the world’s religions with more historical breadth than intellectual persuasiveness.Pub Date: Nov. 27, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-5437-0119-7
Page Count: 232
Publisher: PartridgeIndia
Review Posted Online: Oct. 31, 2018
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
This a book of earlier, philosophical essays concerned with the essential "absurdity" of life and the concept that- to overcome the strong tendency to suicide in every thoughtful man-one must accept life on its own terms with its values of revolt, liberty and passion. A dreary thesis- derived from and distorting the beliefs of the founders of existentialism, Jaspers, Heldegger and Kierkegaard, etc., the point of view seems peculiarly outmoded. It is based on the experience of war and the resistance, liberally laced with Andre Gide's excessive intellectualism. The younger existentialists such as Sartre and Camus, with their gift for the terse novel or intense drama, seem to have omitted from their philosophy all the deep religiosity which permeates the work of the great existentialist thinkers. This contributes to a basic lack of vitality in themselves, in these essays, and ten years after the war Camus seems unaware that the life force has healed old wounds... Largely for avant garde aesthetes and his special coterie.
Pub Date: Sept. 26, 1955
ISBN: 0679733736
Page Count: 228
Publisher: Knopf
Review Posted Online: Sept. 19, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1955
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.
A compendium of charts, time lines, lists and illustrations to accompany study of the Bible.
This visually appealing resource provides a wide array of illustrative and textually concise references, beginning with three sets of charts covering the Bible as a whole, the Old Testament and the New Testament. These charts cover such topics as biblical weights and measures, feasts and holidays and the 12 disciples. Most of the charts use a variety of illustrative techniques to convey lessons and provide visual interest. A worthwhile example is “How We Got the Bible,” which provides a time line of translation history, comparisons of canons among faiths and portraits of important figures in biblical translation, such as Jerome and John Wycliffe. The book then presents a section of maps, followed by diagrams to conceptualize such structures as Noah’s Ark and Solomon’s Temple. Finally, a section on Christianity, cults and other religions describes key aspects of history and doctrine for certain Christian sects and other faith traditions. Overall, the authors take a traditionalist, conservative approach. For instance, they list Moses as the author of the Pentateuch (the first five books of the Hebrew Bible) without making mention of claims to the contrary. When comparing various Christian sects and world religions, the emphasis is on doctrine and orthodox theology. Some chapters, however, may not completely align with the needs of Catholic and Orthodox churches. But the authors’ leanings are muted enough and do not detract from the work’s usefulness. As a resource, it’s well organized, inviting and visually stimulating. Even the most seasoned reader will learn something while browsing.
Worthwhile reference stuffed with facts and illustrations.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2005
ISBN: 978-1-5963-6022-8
Page Count: -
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 23, 2010
Review Program: Kirkus Indie
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