In the book of Genesis, God bestows a new name upon Abram--Abraham, a father of many nations. With this name and his Covenant, Abraham would become the patriarch of three of the world's major religions: Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Connected by their mutual--if differentiated--veneration of the One God proclaimed by Abraham, these traditions share much beyond their origins in the ancient Israel of the Old Testament. This Very Short Introduction...

A thorough, objective resource covering the history, traditions and worldviews of dominant and less prominent religions and their sects and offshoots.

Provides numerous entries covering world religions including gods and other holy figures, concepts, historical figures, places, rites, and festivals.

"Who believes what: The big book of world religions introduces young readers to the five major religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, in a simple, visually engaging book that combines a search-and-find aspect with thoroughly researched information about the histories, places of worship, festivals and celebrations, gods, and religious leaders and more of each major religion. Each religion is introduced in a double-page spread...

The Zulu Independent Churches in South Africa. When Christian missionaries took the Gospel to Africa they also tried to suppress African religion and subvert African culture with their own. But since World War I, and with increasing vigor in the last 20 years, Africans have been rediscovering their lost religious identity and have been forming independent churches with their own festivals, prophets and rituals and greater or lesser devotion to Christ....

These 24 extraordinary lectures offer you the rare opportunity to relate your own spiritual questions to a variety of ancient quests for meaning and transcendence. Professor Muesse looks at the historical conditions in which the world religions arose and explores how they answered shared metaphysical and human dilemmas. The Axial Age - a pivotal era between 800 and 200 B.C.E. - saw the rise of many of the world's religions in Iran, South Asia,

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What is religion? How does it reflect the culture in which it exists? And what functions does it serve? There are key questions asked by virtually every human culture. Those questions, and the way different religions go about revealing the answers, shine a light on what all people and cultures have in common. Explore the differences between religion and spirituality and see how they often work hand-in-hand. Discover how religious practices, religious...

How do the major religions answer unanswerable questions? What can we gain from their answers? Why are we here? Will we ever discover the source of the mystery? Each of these questions raises countless more, and these eight eye-opening lectures are an ideal starting point for gaining some progress in considering them. Professor Oden's lectures approach religious belief and ritual as possible answers to these most difficult and enduring questions,

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In late antiquity, even after the initial emergence of Christianity, the majority in Rome and Italy held to the traditional religion and ancient gods. Explore the relationships between paganism, Manichaeism, and Isis worship at the time of the rise of Christianity and learn why Rome's rulers could not accept or tolerate Christianity.