The Norton Anthology of World Religions

Miles's (English and religious studies, Univ. of California at Irvine, MacArthur Fellow; author of the Pulitzer Prize-winning God: A Biography) substantial, important text is a compilation of basic writings concerning six contemporary global faiths: Hinduism, Buddhism, Daoism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The preface explains that the work comes from the "desire that six major, living, international world religions should be allowed to speak to you in their own words, rather than only through the words of others about them." Consequently, virtually the entire package consists of primary texts. A secondary consideration is to list the works that help define the field of religious studies; the selections accordingly provide a suggested canon or at least a point of departure for continued discussion. Each chapter covers one of the six religions previously named. The summaries, which are arranged chronologically, are preceded by an ample introduction discussing the historical and cultural development of that particular faith. In the chapter on Christianity, for example, subsections include "The Apostolic Era, 4 B.C.E.-100 C.E.," "The Patristic Era, 100–600 C.E." and so on up to today. Each subsection also contains an introduction plus a chronology of important dates. In addition to the expected excerpts from the Old and New Testaments, one may find the letters of Saint Jerome, the Confessions of Saint Augustine, Dante Alighieri's The Divine Comedy, and Martin Luther's On the Freedom of a Christian, to name just a few. Each volume concludes with a glossary, bibliography, and an index, all organized by religion.