The Sacred Paths: Understanding the Religions of the World (3rd Edition) - Hardcover

Ludwig, Theodore M.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 013025682X ISBN 13: 9780130256829

Publisher: Prentice Hall, 2000

Synopsis

Unique in approach, this book combines an historical-descriptive presentation of individual religions with a comparative-thematic approach. It begins with a discussion of the basic human questions and concerns behind religion--e.g., origin and identity, ultimate reality, human nature, and the good life--and then uses these essential concepts to help describe the beliefs, practices, and historical development of each religion. As the work of a single scholar--much of it based on original research--this book offers a consistency and depth missing in many of the texts in this field. Covers religions from India (Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism); China and Japan; the Mediterranean world (religions of Ancient Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Greece, the Zoroastrian Tradition, Judaism, Christianity, Islam); and Contemporary Alternative Religious Movements. For anyone interested in the world's religions.

About this title

From the Publisher

By combining a historical-descriptive presentation of individual religions with a comparative-thematic approach, this text accomplishes two important goals. First, it allows students to examine each of the world's major religions as a unique system of meaning. At the same time, it lets them to explore the inner nature of sacred experience by comparing basic themes and issues common to all religions and pertinent to their own personal lives. An introductory chapter discusses the basic human questions and concerns behind religion, such as origin and identity, ultimate reality, human nature, and the good life. These essential concepts are then used to help describe the beliefs, practices, and historical development of each religion. This new edition has been streamlined in several key areas, while including more material on sacred art and the role of women in religion. As the work of a single scholar--much of it based on original research--this book offers a consistency and depth missing in many of the texts in this field.

From the Inside Flap

Preface to the Third Edition

For people who are just beginning their study of the world's religions, the sheer immensity of the data—names, vocabulary, historical developments, teachings and practices—can be very daunting. Yet it is important that this encounter result not in perplexity and a sense of being overwhelmed, but in an awakening of interest and a desire to continue to explore and understand.

With such readers in mind, the basic approach in this volume is focused on the goal of understanding. And understanding begins with a sense of what a particular religion means for the people who practice it and live by it. It is important to realize that each religious tradition is a living and growing organism stretched out over time, and thus we pay attention to historical and cultural developments. But we also attempt to go beyond historical information and let readers find themselves in the place of the people who live by each religion—viewing the world through their sacred stories, their worldview, their rituals, and their notion of the good life.

The procedure used in this volume, then, combines the necessary discussion of historical matters with a thematic approach based on general issues that arise out of human experience—questions about personal identity, human existence and wholeness, and the right way to live. Since the reader can identify with such issues from personal experience, windows are opened toward an understanding of the meaning and guidance people find in their particular religious traditions. Further, this combination of historical and thematic approaches facilitates comparison among the religious traditions, highlighting the main motifs and concerns of that general dimension of human life we call religious experience.

Since this is a basic introduction for people who are beginning their exploration of the world's religious paths, the major focus is not on academic questions and theories about religion, nor on technical information about all the movements and historical developments that make up each religious tradition. Such theories and developments are important, of course, and this volume attempts to make readers aware of them in a beginning way. It is important that readers get the sense that each religious tradition is a highly complex living organism, with various movements arising at different points in history. Yet it is helpful for the beginning student of the world's religions to recognize first of all the general mainstream of each religious tradition in constructing an overall picture of the religious world of humankind. The excitement and challenge of this venture will carry over, it is hoped, into a continuing engagement with understanding the complex religious traditions of the world and with the various issues raised in the academic study of these traditions.

This third edition of The Sacred Paths has been revised throughout to bring material up to date and to provide the reader with greater clarity in the discussions of complex historical and theoretical materials. The general structure of the book has been retained, focused on major groupings or families of religions. But the structure now more clearly follows a geographical taxonomy, with the major sections devoted to religions arising in India, religions of China and Japan, and religions arising in the Mediterranean world. Within these geographical groupings, family resemblances between the religious traditions can be elaborated and discussed. This structure makes it possible, for example, to study the families of Abraham—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—in the context of the ancient traditions of Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Greece. To fill out this context, a new chapter on the important Zoroastrian tradition has been added.

This edition retains and enhances the characteristic emphases from the previous editions. It is particularly important that readers have some encounter with the sacred texts and scriptures of each particular religious tradition—yet the comprehension and appreciation of such sacred texts is notoriously difficult for an outsider. This volume incorporates extensive quotations from the sacred texts of each tradition, providing interpretation so the reader can see the significance of these texts and comprehend what they mean for people of that religious tradition. It will be helpful, of course, if this volume is supplemented with an additional collection of sacred texts, when that is feasible.

The inclusion of material on artistic expression in the different religious traditions helps the reader see that each religion or culture has its own unique aesthetic sense. Thus it is important, for understanding each tradition, to pay attention to the special artistic expressions growing out of that religious experience. Also, this volume gives particular attention to the role of women in each tradition. Greater awareness of women's experiences and leadership roles has made possible many new understandings and insights in all the religious traditions. Further, an important development in the modern western world is the rise of new religious movements, and a special chapter is devoted to understanding some of these alternative movements.

Among the study features in this volume, the discussion questions for each chapter have been revised and expanded. These questions are designed to promote review of the material as well as further reflection on the character of each religious tradition. Other study features include maps, timelines, and a glossary of key terms. The suggestions for further reading for each religious tradition have incorporated many important books that have been published in the last few years.

Many have helped along the way in the development of this book and toward the completion of this third edition. And so I thank all those students and colleagues who have made so many helpful suggestions concerning ways in which this text can become a more helpful means for understanding the religious paths of the world.

Thank you to the reviewers of this edition: K.R. Sundararajan, Saint Bonaventure University; Charles Orzech, University of North Carolina, Greenville; and Bruce M. Sullivan, Northern Arizona University.

Edition details

• Publisher: Prentice Hall
• Publication date: 2000
• ISBN 10: 013025682X
• ISBN 13: 9780130256829
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Edition number: 3
• Number of pages: 564