The Sacred Paths: Understanding The Religions Of The World (3rd Edition)

The Sacred Paths: Understanding the Religions of the World (3rd Edition)

From the Inside FlapPreface to the Third EditionFor people who are just beginning their study of the world's religions, the sheer immensity of the data-names, vocabulary, historical developments, teachings and practices-can be very daunting. Yet it is important that this encounter result not in perplexity and a sense of being overwhelmed, but in an awakening of interest and a desire to continue to explore and understand.With such readers in mind, the basic approach in this volume is focused on the goal of understanding. And understanding begins with a sense of what a particular religion means for the people who practice it and live by it. It is important to realize that each religious tradition is a living and growing organism stretched out over time, and thus we pay attention to historical and cultural developments. But we also attempt to go beyond historical information and let readers find themselves in the place of the people who live by each religion-viewing the world through their sacred stories, their worldview, their rituals, and their notion of the good life.The procedure used in this volume, then, combines the necessary discussion of historical matters with a thematic approach based on general issues that arise out of human experience-questions about personal identity, human existence and wholeness, and the right way to live. Since the reader can identify with such issues from personal experience, windows are opened toward an understanding of the meaning and guidance people find in their particular religious traditions. Further, this combination of historical and thematic approaches facilitates comparison among the religious traditions, highlighting the main motifs and concerns of that general dimension of human life we call religious experience.Since this is a basic introduction for people who are beginning their exploration of the world's religious paths, the major focus is not on academic questions and theories about religion, nor on technical information about all the movements and historical developments that make up each religious tradition. Such theories and developments are important, of course, and this volume attempts to make readers aware of them in a beginning way. It is important that readers get the sense that each religious tradition is a highly complex living organism, with various movements arising at different points in history. Yet it is helpful for the beginning student of the world's religions to recognize first of all the general mainstream of each religious tradition in constructing an overall picture of the religious world of humankind. The excitement and challenge of this venture will carry over, it is hoped, into a continuing engagement with understanding the complex religious traditions of the world and with the various issues raised in the academic study of these traditions.This third edition of The Sacred Paths has been revised throughout to bring material up to date and to provide the reader with greater clarity in the discussions of complex historical and theoretical materials. The general structure of the book has been retained, focused on major groupings or families of religions. But the structure now more clearly follows a geographical taxonomy, with the major sections devoted to religions arising in India, religions of China and Japan, and religions arising in the Mediterranean world. Within these geographical groupings, family resemblances between the religious traditions can be elaborated and discussed. This structure makes it possible, for example, to study the families of Abraham-Judaism, Christianity, and Islam-in the context of the ancient traditions of Egypt, Mesopotamia, and Greece. To fill out this context, a new chapter on the important Zoroastrian tradition has been added.This edition retains and enhances the characteristic emphases from the previous editions. It is particularly important that readers have some encounter with the sacred texts and scriptures of eac