This complete overview of religious studies provides students with
the essential knowledge and tools they need to explore and
understand the nature of religion.
* Covers the early development of religion, with overviews of
major and minor religions from Islam to Scientology
* Considers recent developments including secularization; the
relationship between religion and science; and scientific studies
on religion, health, and mystical experience
* Uses humor throughout, allowing students to remain open-minded
to the subject
* Explains what it means to study religion academically, and
considers the impact of the study of religion on religion
itself
* Contains numerous student-friendly features including photos,
maps, time lines, side bars, historical profiles, and population
distribution figures
* Provides classroom users with a lively
website, www.wiley.com/go/religiontoolkit, including
questions, quizzes, extra material, and helpful primary and
secondary sources
Table of Content
List of Figures and Maps xiii
Timeline xvi
Acknowledgments xxii
Credits xxiii
1 Introduction: Prepare to Be Surprised 2
Part I the Tools 15
2 An Overview of Religion: Making Sense of Life 16
3 The Early Development of Religious Studies 44
4 Religious Studies in the 20th Century 76
Part II Using the Tools: Surveying World Religions 103
5 Early Traditions 104
6 The Family of Western Monotheisms: Jewish, Christian, and Islamic Traditions 124
Unit I Judaism 126
Unit II Christianity 151
Unit III Islam 167
Unit IV The Impact of Religious Studies on the Western Monotheisms 183
7 330 Million Gods – or None: Two Traditions from India 206
8 Balancing and Blending: Confucianism, Taoism, and Buddhism in China 246
9 Zoroastrianism, Shinto, Baha’i, Scientology, Wicca, and Seneca Traditions: What Makes a ‘World Religion’? 274
10 Closing Questions 308
Glossary 338
Index 344
About the author
John Morreall is Professor of Religious Studies at the College of William and Mary. He has published widely in the philosophy of religion, and on the comic dimensions of world religions. His book Comedy, Tragedy, and Religion (1999) won the Choice Outstanding Academic Book 2000. He is also the author of Comic Relief: A Comprehensive Philosophy of Humor (2009), published by Wiley-Blackwell.
Tamara Sonn is the Wm. R. Kenan Distinguished Professor of Humanities in the Department of Religious Studies at the College of William and Mary. Her books include Comparing Religions through Law: Judaism and Islam (with J. Neusner, 1999) and Islam: A Brief History, 2nd edition (Wiley-Blackwell, 2010). She was senior editor of the Oxford Dictionary of Islam (2003), and associate editor of The Islamic World Past and Present (2004). She is currently an editor of Oxford Islamic Studies Online, and of Encyclopedia of the Islamic World (2009). In addition, Sonn is editor-in-chief of Oxford Bibliographies Online: Islamic Studies, and co-editor-inchief of Wiley-Blackwell’s Religion Compass.
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