PTG home
   customer service 
Catalog Search:
 Search
Related Topics:
HUMANITIES/SOCIAL SCIENCE
Humanities
Religion




  
Religious Experience, The 5/e
Ninian Smart
Published February 1996 by Prentice Hall
Copyright 1996, 453 pp., Paper
ISBN: 0-02-412141-X
List Price:
$84.00
Inventory Status:
In-Stock
   
Summary

Well-known and respected, this comprehensive history of religious experience explores the major world religions within a consistent framework based on the author's paradigm six dimensions of religion. KEY TOPICS: It tells the story without entering unduly into technicalities and focuses on how the major religious traditions relate to human experience. It extends beyond information about the traditions to distill the essential patterns of both feelings and ideas that animate religious practice; contains photographs that evoke the flavor of religious rituals or experiences and maps that orient students to the geographic context of religious traditions.
Features

  • begins with an account of the main aspects of religion and the chief kinds of faith found in world history:

    • introduces and develops the six dimensions of religion — the experiential, mythic, doctrinal, ethical, ritual, and social dimensions — as a basis for systematic study of the differing traditions.

  • provides chapter-by-chapter coverage of all the major religions of the world — stressing religious experience.

    • extends beyond information about the traditions to distill the essential patterns of both feelings and ideas that animate religious practice.

  • features unique coverage of humanism, Marxism, and other non-religious value systems.
  • contains a chapter on American religious experience.
  • offers some observations of the present state and future of religion.
  • splits the treatment of Indian religion into two parts:

    • first deals with ancient India, Jainism, and Buddhism in South Asia.

    • then explores the rise of classical and modern Hinduism.

  • adds a personal reflection in the concluding statements.
  • contains photographs that evoke the flavor of religious rituals or experiences and maps that orient students to the geographic context of religious traditions.
  • provides a glossary with pronunciation guides.
  • includes a bibliography and lists for further reading.


Table of Contents



1. Religion and Human Experience.

I. SMALL-SCALE RELIGIONS.

2. Prehistoric and Primal Religions.

II. RELIGIONS OF AFRICA.

3. The African Experience.

III. RELIGIONS OF INDIA.

4. The Early Indian Experience, Jainism, and Buddhism.

Vedic Religion. Jainism. The Buddha. The Upanishads. Indian Buddhism.

5. The Indian Experience: Classical Hinduism.

IV. RELIGIONS OF THE FAR EAST.

6. Chinese and Japanese Religious Experience.

The Three Religions of China. Confucianism. Taoism. Korean Religions. Japanese Religions. Shinto. Buddhism in Japan.

V. RELIGIONS OF THE NEAR EAST.

7. Religion in the Ancient Mediterranean World.

Egyptian Religion. Mesopotamian Religion. Persian Zoroastrianism. Greek Religion. Roman Religion.

8. The Jewish Experience.

9. The Early Christian Experience.

10. The Muslim Experience.

11. The Later Christian Experience.

The Reformation.

VI. RELIGIONS OF THE AMERICAS.

12. The American Experience.

VII. CONTEMPORARY RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE.

13. The Humanist Experience.

14. The Contemporary Experience and the Future.

Decolonization and Religions. New REligious Movements. The Resurgence of Religions. The Future of Religions within a New Global Civilization. Toward a New Vision of the Human Race.

Transliteration of Oriental Words.

Bibliography.

Index.



back to top