The World's Religions (Plus) Paperback – May 12, 2009

“Six aspects of religion surface so regularly as to suggest that their seeds are in the human makeup.” (Chapter III, p. 92 50th Anniversary Edition)I actually found that sentence buried in the chapter on Buddhism, as a short setup for a line of reasoning much less important than I thought such a statement merited. There’s so much to unpack in such a short sentence like that one that it’s hard to move past it and keep reading. An assertion like that really needs its own chapter.So there are two elements to this statement. The first is the six aspects, and that is fairly straight forward (although the author goes on to assert that Buddhism is a rarity in that it doesn’t initially embrace such concepts).These are the six aspects of religion that surface regularly, according to Huston Smith:AuthorityRitualSpeculationTraditionGraceMysteryI’ll accept the six aspects as they are so we can move to the second element of the assertion. These six key aspects “surface so regularly as to suggest that their seeds are in the human makeup.” This second element is where it really gets interesting for me. In other words, the implication is that we come right out of the package psychologically pre-programmed with these archetypal ideas. This a concept that I’ve been looking into for a number of months now while reading Carl Jung and Jordan B. Peterson and I’ve come to accept it as the truth. In fact, Huston Smith cites Jung several times throughout the book, so it’s not surprising that he’d been reading some of Jung’s work to come to a conclusion like that.Look for other flashes of brilliance like that throughout the book.Just in case you read this in hopes of an actual book review, I guess I can do that, too:The World’s Religions by Huston Smith is considered a classic in the genre by many. It’s such a respected book that it’s often used as a university textbook in World Religion classes. But this book does more than present the history and spirit of the major religions as you might expect from the title and some of the reviews. There are some very sophisticated and thoughtful parts of the book, too.I want to quickly address a criticism I’ve seen while looking through reviews: If you have a version that contains pictures and only a couple hundred pages, you have the abridged, illustrated version instead of the full book. I haven’t seen inside of that one but no wonder you have complaints about the sections being too brief. Do yourself a favor and go buy the genuine article. It’s over four-hundred pages and it’s quite thorough.Final say: Overall, I don’t see how you could pass on this book if you’re the least bit interested in religion or philosophy.RIP Huston SmithBorn: May 31, 1919Died: December 30, 2016

This book by distinguished scholar Huston Smith (1919- ) remains a popular classical introduction to comparative religion. Originally published in 1958 and revised in 1991, Amazon now offers the 2009 re-edition. This 50th Anniversary Edition includes two prefaces by the author (from 1998 and 2009) and a Plus section consisting of a 14-page lecture by Smith and a 16-page interview conducted by Richard Marranca in 1997.The book is a sui generis study of the world's great religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Islam, Judaism, and Christianity. It is not a history of Religions, not a judgmental commentary. It is a knowledgeable presentation of both the differences and similarities in the major religious traditions. In a direct and entertaining dialogue with the reader, Smith delivers his instruction mixing it with anecdotes and references taken from literature or popular culture. A college teacher by profession, Smith explains that he learned the style used in his book from PBS series he participated in: he was told repeatedly by the director that the TV audience was not a captive classroom audience, but an audience in which if the viewers loose the attention for thirty seconds will switch stations without coming back.The book explains, simply and sympathetically, the basic tenets of each religion and the reasons why it attracts millions of devout followers. By request of his publishers, Smith abridged his treatise to provide the text for The Illustrated World's Religions (1995).For an update of the views of the now 94-year old scholar it is useful to watch the 1996 Bill Moyers 5-part PBS special to Smith's life and work, "The Wisdom of Faith with Huston Smith". Both the illustrated book and the DVD special are offered by Amazon sellers.

I had to write many papers and essays based on the chapters in this book. Huston Smith does a fine job of taking comprehensive, complex religions and synopsizing each one into manageable chunks.

Good summary of the world's great religions from a man that has great respect for and experience in many of these religions. It's refreshing to read about the great religions from someone that has made a lifetime of studying them with a true desire to understand them. I definitely recommend this book for those wanting a quick look at what makes them different from each other. There is a lot to admire in each one.Of course, where only one chapter is dedicated to each religion, you will not learn everything, but it will give you a start and the author recommends good books for more in depth study.I found the Plus section quite interesting, which is where I found out more about the author's life and perspective.I studied this book with a group of friends, and the major complaint we had was on his section on Judaism. The one Jew in the group didn't think he caught the essence too well. It turns out that Smith admitted that Judaism is one of the religions that he knew the least about, since he had never seriously investigated it has he had most of the others.

It gets so good.

Received a used book in quick order, in condition promised. Very pleased.

Purchased for a college course, and appreciate the effort and work put into this book, but the writer goes out of his way with purposely PhD terminology and can be overly wordy most of the time. In research or educational text this reader would prefer a writer stick to the topic and avoid using pompous, wordy details clearly intended to show he is more intelligent than the reader. This is the kind of book that gives the highly educated a bad name. It is insightful and educational at times, but goes off course, topic and uses unnecessary verbiage at times.