Worldviews: Cross Cultural Explorations of Human Beliefs - Softcover

Smart, Ninian

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0024120316 ISBN 13: 9780024120311

Publisher: Prentice Hall, 1994

Synopsis

This book offers a balanced, wide-ranging, and realistic approach to the full range of worldviews, showing how, whether religious or secular, they define the human values that drive the engines of both continuity and change worldwide. It shows readers the dynamics of each tradition, and emphasizes that although the various traditions may all share similar aspects, they each assign varying levels of importance to specific areas. Explores the major religious traditions and secular ideologies (Marxism, nationalisms, scientific humanism) from six dimensions: experiential/emotional; narrative/mythic; doctrinal/philosophical; ethical/legal; ritual/practical; and social/organizational. For anyone interested in comparative worldviews, religious and secular.

About this title

From the Publisher:

This text offers a balanced, wide-ranging, and realistic approach to the study of modern religion. It explores and analyzes the many dimensions not only of the major religious traditions, but also those of the civil religions (e.g., nationalism) that often compete and combine with them in the modern world.

From the Back Cover:

This book covers the six dimensions of human-belief in religion- doctrinal, mythic, ethical, ritual, experiential, and social-in great detail and explores how and why people are religious. This book can be used as a supplement to world religions, intro. to religion, or philosophy of religion curses. Smart is a well-known theologian and author. The text market.

About this edition

• Publisher: Prentice Hall
• Publication date: 1994
• ISBN 10: 0024120316
• ISBN 13: 9780024120311
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 192