First, apologies if this should have gone into IMHO or something; I rarely venture out of GQ nowadays so I get flummoxed easily in some subtle forum delineations.
I’m looking for a book, for adults with no to minor knowledge, that describes and, hopefully, compares at least the major religions of the world today (thinking Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism), and perhaps even some of the smaller/dead ones (like the Nordic stuff, maybe Dreamtime…). Descriptions of how the religion came to be, what, if any, apocalyptic future they foresee, that sort of thing.
Does anyone have any good recommendations for books that are like that? I don’t even know any authors that are good to look for, and I’m hesitant to take an hour drive to the nearest good bookstore to try to find something that I may miss entirely. (And I know bookstore workers wouldn’t have read every book, so I wouldn’t want to just ask, as they’d do the same as I would, and sit down in the section and look through all the potential books.) So I was hoping to get some nudges in the right direction here, if anyone might know of some that are well-written, have correct information, that sort of thing.
I’ll add my recommendation for that book. Read it myself under the original title and learned a lot about other religions. Very good.
OTOH my brother sent me a book by a CHristian author Called " What’s the Difference" Just sorta okay. It’s a christian telling why these other religions are wrong. I don’t recommend it. Stick with H.Smith
What’s truly amazing is that there really is only one answer to the question (what’s the best overview?) – and that it’s been the answer to the question for about a half century now. I can’t imagine another field where one book has been that dominant for that long.
So What’s the Difference by Fritz Ridenour- I have it 2 feet away from me.
A surprisingly good one which deals with the world’s major religions is Man’s Search for God, published by the Watchtower Bible & Tract Society- the one big problem with it is a less-than-objective examination of historical C’nity. When dealing with the other faiths, it’s reasonable & fair.
That’s the one. How did you find it? I only skimmed. I spotted the bias early on and really didn’t want to read much more. Rather than offering information and letting the reader decide he starts from the position of “this is whats right and now I’ll tell you why they’re wrong” It didn’t seem malicious and hateful. It just assumed too much for my taste.
Karen Armstrong wrote “A History of God” which provides an overview of the development of the three great monotheisms. She has a follow-up book called “The Battle for God” which describes the rise of fundamentalism in those same three monotheisms.
I am not a scholar, so I don’t know what her failings are, if any, but I found them quite interesting.
Thanks, folks.