Understanding World Religions: A Road Map for Justice and Peace

by David Whitten Smith, Elizabeth Geraldine Burr

Overview

Understanding World Religions introduces students to major worldviews—including Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, Jewish, Christian, Native American, and Marxist—through the lens of justice and peace. The second edition has been updated and revised throughout.

After an introduction to key themes in studying world religion, chapters help students explore major traditions today. Each chapter takes a similar approach, examining several dimensions of each tradition—experiential and emotional, social and institutional, narrative or mythic, doctrinal and philosophical, practical and ritual, and ethical and legal. Chapters feature profiles of major peacemakers or groups to bring the traditions to life. Profiles range from Gandhi and Martin Luther King to Thich Nhat Hanh and Dorothy Day. Further chapters explore liberation theologies, active nonviolence, and just war theory.

The second edition features a broader framework than the first edition and includes new material on non-religious ethical norms, Islamophobia, colonial evangelization, religion in China, and an updated examination of the Israel-Palestine conflict. Understanding World Religions remains a powerful introduction to major worldviews with an emphasis on practical connections to peace and justice.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781442226425
Publisher:	Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Inc.
Publication date:	08/21/2014
Edition description:	Second Edition
Pages:	488
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.00(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

David Whitten Smith is the founding director of the Justice and Peace Studies program at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Elizabeth Geraldine Burr teaches in the Ethnic and Religious Studies Department at Metropolitan State University in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Table of Contents

Preface
Introduction
1: Hindu Worldviews
2: Buddhist Worldviews
3: Jewish Worldviews
4: Christian Worldviews
5: Muslim Worldviews
6: Native American Worldviews
7: Marxist Worldviews
8: The Israeli-Palestinian Conflict
9: Religious Social Teachings: Christian and Beyond
10: Liberation Theologies
11: Active Nonviolence
12: Just War Theory
Glossary
Bibliography

Editorial Reviews

Unquestionably, we are teaching children/young adults who have grown up fearing and misunderstanding our Muslim sisters and brothers in the wake of 9/11. Understanding World Religions is a readable text that goes a little deeper with the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. I, also, appreciate their goal of working toward justice, peace and understanding. In a sense, why else do we study the world’s religions if not to grow respect for the "dignity of difference."

Christine Billups

[This] book easily stands out as the most up-to-date, approachable, and comprehensive volume with its mission and with the necessary admittance in its preface and advertised description as being conceived and written from a normative, values-based perspective that invalidates impartiality and advances social action-in the form of writing-for peace.

Conflict and Peace Journal Of Religion

David Whitten Smith and Elizabeth Geraldine Burr...are to be commended for writing a text covering many world religions and world views from the perspective of peace and justice....The book's attempt to introduce various religious and non-religious worldviews from a universal moral perspective is a worthy one....Understanding World Religions is a passionate and timely text.

Peace and Justice Studies

The strengths of the book are multi-fold: a robust introduction with the plan for each chapter, followed by extensive accounts of different world views with summary, key terms, discussion questions, notes and suggestions for further reading. The style of writing and choice of topics are absorbing and at the same time challenging to those who would delve further into the issues raised…. Understanding World Religions is an indispensable and rich resource for not only students of justice and peace studies but also for any reader who has an inclination towards the advancement of social justice, world peace and the enhancement of human welfare.

International Journal on World Peace

Along with very accessible descriptions of the various sets of beliefs, which the authors manage to deliver with a remarkable lack of bias, they also provide a very good bibliography that includes significant materials on comparative religion, peace work and justice issues. They also include a comprehensive glossary.

American Reference Books Annual

This second edition is an excellent book and a must-read for students interested in a full-scope overview of the competing worldviews—both religious and secular—that compete with one another in the current marketplace of ideas and ideologies. The book is beautifully written, expertly researched, and replete with helpful diagrams, lists of terms, and bibliography. Written from a humane and ethically nuanced perspective, the book demonstrates why a thoroughgoing and critical understanding of the animating worldviews that shape our era are crucial for a well-informed and engaged citizenry. Original and highly recommended

Mark I. Wallace Mark I. Wallace

Smith does a really good job of summarizing the major world religions, including Marxism, liberation theology, and views on just war and the Israel-Palestine conflict. This made for a good textbook.

Good Reads Reviews

Finally a book on worldviews that provides an honest and comprehensive discussion of issues that are most critical to the very survival of religion and civilization. The book’s focus on justice and peace as its guiding themes has greatly enhanced the value of studying world religions.

Irfan A. Omar

This second edition is an excellent book and a must-read for students interested in a full-scope overview of the competing worldviews—both religious and secular—that compete with one another in the current marketplace of ideas and ideologies. The book is beautifully written, expertly researched, and replete with helpful diagrams, lists of terms, and bibliography. Written from a humane and ethically nuanced perspective, the book demonstrates why a thoroughgoing and critical understanding of the animating worldviews that shape our era are crucial for a well-informed and engaged citizenry. Original and highly recommended

Mark I. Wallace

This second edition is an excellent book and a must-read for students interested in a full-scope overview of the competing worldviews—both religious and secular—that compete with one another in the current marketplace of ideas and ideologies. The book is beautifully written, expertly researched, and replete with helpful diagrams, lists of terms, and bibliography. Written from a humane and ethically nuanced perspective, the book demonstrates why a thoroughgoing and critical understanding of the animating worldviews that shape our era are crucial for a well-informed and engaged citizenry. Original and highly recommended

Mark Wallace