The Illustrated World's Religions: A Guide to Our Wisdom Traditions - Hardcover

A presentation of the world's predominant religions includes the essential elements and teachings of each, a description of their similarities and differences, and full-color illustrations. 50,000 first printing. $50,000 ad/promo. QPB Main. BOMC, History, & Natural Science Bk Club.

Huston Smith's The World's Religions has sold over two million copies in its current edition and its original version, The Religions of Man, which was based on one of the first successful public television series. This new version of his classic refines the text to its wonderful essentials. Illustrated throughout, it also enriches Smith's remarkably appreciative analysis with splendid full-color and black-and-white images. The approach is at once classic and contemporary, presenting the predominant world religions and primal traditions in a completely up-to-date text with both art and photographs. This new illustrated edition retains all the empathy, eloquence, and erudition that millions of readers love about the earlier editions, while being edited and designed for a contemporary general readership. Its delightful marriage of winsome text and remarkable pictures vividly brings to life the scope and vision of Huston Smith's expertise and insight. Smith's focus is "the enduring religions at their best. Their theological and metaphysical truths are inspired. Institutions are another story. This book skims the cream from religion's churning history by confining itself to its theological claims. When we limit ourselves to these, a cleaner side of the religions emerges. They begin to look like the world's wisdom traditions... like data banks that house the winnowed wisdom of the human race." In the detailed, absorbing, richly illustrated, and highly readable chapters on Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Islam, Judaism, and Christianity, there is a refreshing emphasis on the inner dimensions of these great religious traditions, with highlighting of such topics as Tibetan Buddhism, Sufism, and the teachings of Jesus. The chapter on the primal religions evokes the rich traditions of the Americas, Africa, Australia, and Oceania. The Illustrated World's Religions is a thoroughly researched, informative, and fascinating presentation of both the differences and the similarities among worldwide religious traditions. It is a vital guide for anyone who wants to understand peoples of other lands, cultures, and traditions, as well as his or her own.