The Handy Religion Answer Book (The Handy Answer Book Series)

Author: John Renard
Published: 2001-08-01

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Customer comments on this selection.

Very Useful for Sorting Through Relgions
Great book that answers most of the questions rationale people have about religion. Great reference for settling disputes about religious practices. It's the "bible" of relgious FAQs.

Poorly researched
I like the question-and-answer format, but too many of the answers are wrong.

The brief section "What about Baha'i and Ahmadiyya" is an example. The author has a sentence or so about the origin of the Baha'i faith, about its founder Baha'u'llah and his claims to be a Prophet. OK so far, though not too detailed. Then he goes on to say that after Baha'u'llah's death in 1892, "his followers took on the mantle" -- this is absolutely wrong and there is no credible source where the author could have gotten that idea. After Baha'u'llah's death, Baha'i leadership fell to his son Abdul-Baha and today Baha'is are governed by elected assemblies. But none of them ever "took on the mantle" of prophethood, because Baha'u'llah was very explicit that the next prophet would be only after 1000 years. It states that Baha'is are considered as non-Moslems -- this is obvious. No Baha'i or Moslem would ever claim otherwise, Baha'i beliefs and practices are far outside of Islam, and most Baha'is today are in non-Islamic countries.

The same section also discusses the Ahmadiyya movement, because both originated from Islamic backgrounds in the 19th century, though otherwise they have little in common. The author said that Ahmadiyya members are considered as "non-Moslems" but fails to point out that this is only the opinion of some mainstream Moslems. Ahmadiyya members -- unlike Baha'is -- claim to be within Islam and deny that their founder claimed a station equal to Muhammed. The author mentions that the Ahmadiyya movement has about 500,000 to 1 million members, but fails to mention that Baha'is have 5 million to 6 million members in over 300 countries, including over 100,000 in the US.

There is not a word about the beliefs and practices of either religion.

So, in summary, the author has only three facts about an important world religion; and of those three facts one is flat wrong and another is obvious.

Sections about Chinese religion and about Islam are little better.

Religious

A Bit Short on Extreme Islamic Views
I like the idea of sort of a summary of the major religions. It is pretty informative. Unfortunately, no mention is made of the Wahabi movement in Islam which is responsible for at least some of the terrorism attributed to the midle east region. While I agree with the author that the vast majority of Muslims view their faith peacefully readers need to know what is expected under the most extreme practices and the relationship of those practices with the law in an Islamic nation ruled by the law of Sharia.

AN OUTSTANDING OVERVIEW
__ THE HANDY RELIGION ANSWER BOOK __ is broken down in such a way that it makes finding specific information about various aspects of the religions covered very accessible. Overall it is structured as follows:

RELIGIOUS TRADITIONS OF MIDDLE EASTERN ORIGIN

. . . . . Judaism

. . . . . Christianity

. . . . . Islam

RELIGIOUS TRADITIONS OF SOUTH ASIAN ORIGINS

. . . . . Hinduism

. . . . . Buddhism

RELIGIOUS TRADITIONS OF EAST ASIAN ORIGIN

. . . . . Daoism and Chinease Community Traditions

. . . . . Confucianism, The Literati, and Chinese Imperial Tradition

. . . . . Shinto

Under each religion, several questions are posed, having answers that serve to explain the traditions, philosophies, and religious practices of each. A few typical questions are: How does Jewish tradition interpret history? What is Christian Fundamentalism? and Do Muslims believe in miracles. These are just a sampling of the hundreds of subjects covered.

In addition to the information given for each of the various religions, there is a General Information section which includes a CHRONOLOGY OF MAJOR EVENTS covering a period of from 4000 BCE to 2001 AD and a section of DEFINITIONS AND METHODS

If you want a good overview of the major religious traditions of our world, you can't go wrong with __ THE HANDY RELIGION ANSWER BOOK __. Of course if you want to go into any subject more deeply, there is a list of resources included which will lead you to more in depth information.

Not nearly as good as the other Handy Guides
I love this series but this one was rather disappointing didn't go into enough detail about the "minor" religions and was overkill on the "major" ones.

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