Encountering Religion

This comprehensive, user-friendly text introduces students to the principal world faiths. This text is cross-referenced to and can be used in conjunction with Markham's World Religions Reader, Second Edition as a complete teaching package for comparative religion courses.

List of Contributors ix

Preface xi

Acknowledgments xiii

1 Studying Religion: Issues in Definition and Method 1

2 Religion and Sociology 21

3 Religion and Psychology 44

4 Religion and Scripture: The Function of the Special Books of Religion 68

5 Religion, Ritual, and Culture 96

6 Religion and the Arts 117

7 Secular Humanism 139

8 Hinduism 163

9 Buddhism 190

10 Sikhism 215

11 Chiness Religion 240

12 Judaism 272

13 Shintoism 297

14 Christianity 309

15 Islam 337

Bibliography 372

Index 375

Ian S. Markham is Professor of Theology at Liverpool Hope University College. His previous publications include Plurality and Christian Ethics (1994), and also numerous articles and reviews. In 1993 he was appointed to the Council of the Advertising Standards Authority.

Dr Tinu Ruperell is Lecturer in Theology at Liverpool Hope University College.

This comprehensive, user-friendly text introduces students to the principal world faiths. Along with the substantial content and information, each chapter includes classroom exercises that are designed to generate certain skills, such as teamwork, evaluation and analysis. Teachers will also welcome the inclusion of a full glossary, annotated bibliography, fact sheets, revision questions and comparative questions. A helpful introduction looks at ways the teacher can use the book in the classroom and explains its structure and purpose.

This text is cross-referenced to and can be used in conjunction with Markham's World Religions Reader, Second Edition as a complete teaching package for comparative religion courses. The two texts follow a similar structure, so that for each religion they look at the Spirit of a Tradition, Worldviews, Institutions and Rituals, Ethical Expression and Modern Expressions. This structure enables cross-religious comparison. Each chapter of Encountering Religion also includes a substantial historical survey so the student understands the origins of the beliefs, rituals, and ethics which are then described. To set the scene for examining different religious traditions, initial chapters look at what religion is and at different approaches to studying religion.