Organization

Our survey begins in Chapter 1 with an introductory essay on the academic study of religions. After considering what religion is, the chapter identifies some of the other important questions scholars ask: What do religions do? What issues of universal concern do they address? What do scholars mean when they speak of mystical experience or of transcendence? What are the constituent parts of religious traditions? How are religions today being affected by the forces of modernization, urbanization, globalization, and science? What is the relationship between religion and such issues as gender identity and roles, environmental causes, and violence? Finally, the chapter explains why a multidisciplinary approach is necessary in any serious attempt to understand the world’s religions.

Chapter 1 is followed by two chapters on indigenous traditions. The book concludes with a chapter on new religions. The ten chapters in the middle are organized according to geographical and (roughly) chronological order, as follows: first, the religions of South Asian origin (Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism); next, those of East Asian origin (Chinese religions, Japanese religions); and, finally, those of West Asian (or Middle Eastern) origin (Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam). By studying the indigenous traditions first, students will gain an appreciation not only for the many living traditions that continue to thrive but also for certain ways of being religious (such as emphasis on oral transference of myths and other sacred lore) that at one time were predominant in most of today’s major world religions. By studying new religions last, students will likewise gain an appreciation for living traditions, along with glimpsing the sorts of innovations that occur within the old traditions, too, as religions respond to the cultural, technological, social, and cultural changes and challenges of the world around them.