The World's Religions: A Study of the Essential Teachings of the World's Major Faiths (Plus)

An outstanding book of comparative religions by the best expert on the subject. Timeless.

Very great place to learn religion, need to learn religion Hudson got you covered.

In this book, Huston Smith provides an objective analysis of the world's most influential religions including Hinduism, Confucianism, Taoism, Islam, Christianity and some primal religions. He succinctly presents the precepts which constitute the foundation of the religions within the scope of this book. This presentation helps the average readers to understand what are the central elements of a specific religion, the meaning of these elements for the adepts, the subtle relationship of these religions. This book does not compare the religions to identify which one is superior, rather focus on understanding them. The book at times can be difficult to read for an average reader because of the complex structure of long sentences and the theological excerpts. However, the author follows up with clear points to help the readers in understanding.

He explains every religion better than a wikipedia page. This book explains everything you need to know about every religion. He writes in a chronological order though. My advice is to read it in book order because he likes to go back to what he had previously discussed. In other words, he ordered all the religions that way on purpose. As he talks about next religion, he will refer back to the previous religion, and the book ends in Christianity, before various primal religions.

First I would like to indicate that I am reading this book for the second time, and i think it won’t be the last. I read several books on world religions, and each offered a different way of introducing the faiths and their themes. This book focuses on the essence of each religion, its sacredness. It dives into the spiritual aspects of each of the religions and interprets them on a high academic scale. If you’re considering this book and expecting to get introduced to the major world religions, their rituals, texts, world distributions and basic theology, then other books can offer a better context. For, i am not sure how much this book describes the "religion of the common people" or if we can say, the "everyday religion". On the other hand, if you are interested in hearing what Huston Smith, one of the leading scholars in this field, has to say about each religion, about its essence and its deepest values then this is the way to go. The chapter on “Judaism” was a bit complicated for me, and hard to follow. Other chapters especially those on Buddhism, Hinduism and Primal Religions were exceptionally innovative. His views on Hinduism are a philosophy of life. If you are buying this book, I would recommend reading it in parallel with another book: “The World’s Wisdom” by Philip Novak, which contains a rich amount of religious texts and was written to accompany Huston Smith’s book. This book is a must read for anyone wishing to have an objective and deep view of the historical and primitive faith of this world.

As thorough a review of the world's religions as you will find in a single volume For the average reader like myself, it is too comprehensive; nearly every sentence contains enough thoughtful comment that I need to pause and digest it. So it's not a fast read. But it is so interesting that I keep coming back to it. It's meant to be read and reread. The amount of learning is very large.

“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: Authority Ritual Speculation Tradition Grace Mystery I’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 Smith Born: May 31, 1919 Died: December 30, 2016

As good as Smith's exposition of each of the world's religions is, the heart of his message comes in the profoundly moving final chapter.of this book.

El libro llegó maltratado

Most interesting and informative and beautifully written book I read in a long time. Narration is so figurative and contextualized and engrossing that interruptions during reading were agonizing. Something to cherish. Thanks Dr Smith.

This book is essential reading for all who wish to ground themselves in the basics of religions. Huston was also one of the participants in the Marsh Chapel Psilocybin experiment conducted by Walter Pahnke on Good Friday 1962. Huston didn't get the Placebo, and has stated that the experience was powerful and left a permanent mark on his expereinced world view. He had already written this book at the time. Read it for a really balanced insight into what makes the various religious persuasions tick!

I have been interested in religions for a long time. Doing my own religious journey through Christianity and Zen Buddhism. I thought I had achieved a level of understanding that gave me an overview of religions that was quite consistent and robust. This book blew my mind. He had super illuminating points about every religion. The book starts with quotations that while science make major contributions to minor [human] needs, it is religion that makes contributions, however small, to things that matter most. That the book is about religion that exists as acute fever not a dull habit. Hinduism chapter was the longest and one that surprised the most. There is a casual mention that Carl Jung was influenced by Hinduism in creating his (mbti) personality types. It mentions how Hinduism caters to different personality types in how people get to know God. One is a spiritual path based on love of God very much like Christianity. Another is a spiritual path of equal validity based on the dissolution of the mind to experience God very much like Zen Buddhism. The book quotes that there comes a time when one asks even of Shakespeare and Beethoven, is this all? The book also mentions that Hindus believe God to be one and universal, appearing in different forms to each group of people. This was good as it is something that I strongly believed without ever having had confirmation. The book was full of such revelations and confirmations as well as brand new insights that took my breath away. (I copied many extracts for easier access in the process learning for the first time that Kindle books have copy limits. Haha.) This book was very valuable to me.

I am pleased to read a book on religions able to delve into the heart of the main religions with Smith's erudition and in-depth understanding. It's simplicity makes for great reading and understanding. However, there is one glaring fault. Although he examines the establishment of each religion with a detailed historical chronology, his discussion of Judaism relies solely on the chronology of Judaism as it is presented in Bible of which there is no record prior to the return of the Jews from captivity in Babylon - 562 BCE. This disconnect skewers his whole argument which gives a lot of credence to biblical myths obtained from other cultures and religions that predate the Bible by thousands of years.