OUP: UK General Catalogue

NEVER MISS AN OXFORD SALE (SIGN UP HERE) |

VIEW BASKET

UK and Europe

Book Catalogue

	Help with online ordering
	How to order
	Postage
	Returns policy
	Search the catalogue
	VAT rates

	Authors
	Description
	Table of Contents

World Religions Today

Second Edition

John L. Esposito, Darrell J. Fasching, and Todd Lewis

Price: £43.00 (paper)
ISBN-13: 978-0-19-517699-5
Publication date: 26 January 2006
592 pages, 214 illus. & 16 maps,

Ordering

Individual customers:

order by phone, post, or fax

Teachers in UK and European schools (and FE colleges in the UK):

order by phone, post, or fax

Description

The twenty-first century is witnessing a resurgence and globalization of religion. Around the world, religion has become an increasingly more important and pervasive force in personal and public life, and faith and politics now play a powerful role in international affairs.
Revealing the significance of religion in contemporary life, the second edition of World Religions Today adds new chapters on primal religions and new religions. Featuring revised chapters on the traditions discussed in the first edition--Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, and East Asian Religions--it covers historical details more succinctly and adds material on the Iraq War and other recent world events to the chapter on Islam. The book explores each tradition as a dynamic, ongoing force in the lives of individuals and in the collective experience of modern societies. Moving beyond the almost exclusively historical perspective of many books in the field, this text takes a fresh approach, using solid historical coverage of the various religious traditions as a framework to help students understand how faiths have evolved to the present day. It connects today's religions to their classical beliefs and practices but also shows how these religions have responded to and been transformed by the modern world. To help students grasp what might be "new" about the emerging era of religious life in the twenty-first century, the authors open each discussion with a contemporary scenario of religious experience that illustrates the tension between premodern views and modernity.

Contents

Preface

1. Introduction

Globalization: World Religions in Everyone's Hometown

Understanding Religious Experience and Its Expressions

The Great Transition

The Great Religious Stories of the World

Modernization in Global Perspective

Modern Colonialism, the Socialist Challenge, and the End of Modernity

Postmodern Trends in a Postcolonial World

Discussion Questions

Key Terms

Notes

2. Primal Religions

The Modern Human as Homo Religiosus

Hunter-Gatherers and the Prehistoric Origins of Religion

Animism and Afterlife

The Shaman

Primal Religions and the Cataclysms of Colonialism

Primal Religions Today

3. The Many Stories of Judaism: Sacred and Secular

Encounter with Modernity: Modern Judaisms and the Challenge of Ultra-Orthodoxy

Premodern Judaism: The Formative Era

Premodern Judaism: The Classical Era

Judaism and Modernity

Judaism and Postmodern Trends in a Postcolonial World

4. Christian Diversity and the Road to Modernity

Encounter with Modernity: The Fundamentalist-Modernist Controversy

Premodern Christianity: The Formative Era

Premodern Christianity: The Classical Era

Christianity and Modernity

Christianity and Postmodern Trends in a Postcolonial World

5. Islam: The Many Faces of the Muslim Experience

Encounter with Modernity: The Challenge of Western Colonialism

Premodern Islam: The Formative Era

Premodern Islam: The Classical Era

Islam and Modernity

Islam and Postmodern Trends in a Postcolonial World

Islam: Postmodern Challenges

6. Hinduism: Myriad Paths to Salvation

A Far-Ranging Spiritual Tradition

Encountering Modernity: Hindu Challenges to India as a Secular State

Premodern Hinduism: The Formative Era

Premodern Hinduism: The Classical Era (180 BCE-900 CE)

Premodern Hinduism: The Postclassical Era (1500 BCE-900 CE)

Hinduism and Modernity

Hinduism and Postmodern Trends in a Postcolonial World

Hinduism in Practice

7. Buddhism: Ways to Nirvana

Encounter with Modernity: Socially Engaged Buddhism

Premodern Buddhism: The Formative Era

Premodern Buddhism: The Classical Era

Premodern Buddhism: Buddhist Expansion

Buddhism and Modernity

Buddhism and Postmodern Trends in a Postcolonial World

8. East Asian Religions: Traditions of Human Cultivation and Natural Harmony

Encounter With Modernity: Postcolonial Confucian Economics

East Asian Religions in the Premodern Era

East Asian Religions in the Early Modern Era

East Asian Religions and Postmodern Trends in a Postcolonial World

9. Globalization: From New to New Age Religions

New Religions

New Age Religions

Religious Postmodernism and Global Ethics

Glossary

Art Credits

Index

Chapters 2-8 open with an Overview and end with a Conclusion, Discussion Questions, Key Terms, and Suggested Readings. Chapter 9 opens with an Overview and includes Discussion Questions and Suggested Readings. All chapters with the exception of Chapter 4 also include Notes.

Authors, editors, and contributors

John L. Esposito, University Professor of Religion and International Affairs, Founding Director of the Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding, Georgetown University,
Darrell J. Fasching, Professor of Religious Studies, University of South Florida, and
Todd Lewis, Professor of World Religions, College of the Holy Cross

Links to web resources and related information

More in the same subject area:
Non-Christian religions
Christianity
Religion: general

The specification in this catalogue, including without limitation price, format, extent, number of illustrations, and month of publication, was as accurate as possible at the time the catalogue was compiled. Occasionally, due to the nature of some contractual restrictions, we are unable to ship a specific product to a particular territory. Jacket images are provisional and liable to change before publication.