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World Religions

Belief, Culture, and Controversy (Academic)

This comprehensive reference resource provides a virtual textbook that covers religion across the globe, making student research on faith and belief across humanity easier, and enabling a deeper understanding of the complex issues facing us in the 21st century.

  • Topic:

    Religion and Mythology

  • Subtopic:

    Religion (General)
ISBN
978-1-61069-122-2
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This comprehensive reference resource provides a virtual textbook that covers religion across the globe, making student research on faith and belief across humanity easier, and enabling a deeper understanding of the complex issues facing us in the 21st century.

The diversity of faiths and beliefs in human experience makes the study of religion uniquely fascinating and valuable. Religion plays an essential role in societies worldwide, motivating decisions in every facet of life. Religion isn't simply an aspect of human culture—our beliefs define who we are and directly affect how we view the world.

ABC-CLIO's World Religions provides a powerful combination of reference and research components like no other database, comprising thousands of reference items that cover matters of belief, practice, celebrations, and holidays; important individuals and events; significant and sacred places; and much more. It contains thousands of authoritative reference items from leading experts, all specifically written to enhance student research and understanding, as well as engaging essays from scholars that present multiple perspectives on enduring dilemmas to provide students with models of sound critical thinking—all in one place.

The advisor for this collection of dynamic, regularly updated content is J. Gordon Melton, PhD, author of more than 40 scholarly texts and reference books on the topic of religion, and a Distinguished Senior Fellow of the Institute for Religious Studies at Baylor University in Texas..

Features
• More than 50 religion overviews, covering such topics as agnosticism, Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, and Shinto
• Extensive reference entries on religion in every country, including statistics on the number of followers of various beliefs in the past, present, and projections for the future
• Thousands of primary sources, including images, video, and documents

Highlights
• Constitutes the first database to cover the religions of the world for the academic market
• Updated daily with new reference content and regularly updated feature stories that examine the role of religion in current events
• Enduring Questions provide users with peer-reviewed perspectives on long-standing or current debates surrounding the topic of religion, allowing readers to examine and learn from the argument essays of professional scholars in the field of religion
• User-friendly interface makes searching or browsing quick and effective
Reviews
"The unbiased delivery of the information is impressive: it conveys plenty of facts but injects no bias or prejudice, a valuable trait, especially when dealing with religious subjects. Each subsection includes an Overview article with a clear, succinct introduction to the faiths, along with links (at screen left) to Articles; Media, Visuals, Maps, and Flags; a Time Line; and Glossary Terms. I particularly appreciate the Glossary—terms in it provide context as well as common links among religions (for example, the entry for dharma begins, “Dharma is a central concept in the major philosophies and religions of India, including Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Sikhism”). The CLIOview link on the home­page leads to an especially useful feature: the capability to easily compare multiple religions or countries on a variety of points (e.g., number of adherents, percentage of population) within the database. In advanced-search mode, students can do a text search and limit it by category (articles, media, etc.), religions (the 12 subsections), countries, and time periods.
BOTTOMLINE: WRBCC is heartily recommended to public libraries as well as academic libraries serving religious studies courses. The superb scholarship is combined with the uninflected 'voice' of the signed articles, ease of comparing and contrasting aspects of different religions, and attractive and practical design. An unqualified ten, this is one for the ages."
—Library Journal





Other Titles Of Interest
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Ecology, Justice, and Christian Faith Cover Image
Ecology, Justice, and Christian Faith
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Discovering the Parables Cover Image
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Desmond Tutu Cover Image
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Death and Dying Cover Image
Death and Dying
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Confessing Christ in a Post-Holocaust World Cover Image
Confessing Christ in a Post-Holocaust World
A Midrashic Experiment

Henry F. Knight

2000 / Praeger

 

Hardcover $119.95

 

 

Clergywomen and Their Worldviews Cover Image
Clergywomen and Their Worldviews
Calling For A New Age

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Hardcover $106.95

 

 

Clergy Worldviews Cover Image
Clergy Worldviews
Now the Men's Voices

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1995 / Praeger

 

Hardcover $98.95

 

 

Church and Social Action Cover Image
Church and Social Action
A Critical Assessment and Bibliographical Survey

Roger T. Wolcott, comp., Dorita F. olger, comp.

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Christianity in South Africa Cover Image
Christianity in South Africa
An Annotated Bibliography

David Chidester, Judy Tobler, Darrel Wratten

1997 / Greenwood

 

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Choosing the Dream Cover Image
Choosing the Dream
The Future of Religion in American Public Life

Frederick Mark Gedicks, Roger Hendrix

1991 / Praeger

 

Hardcover $101.95

 

 

Bystanders Cover Image
Bystanders
Conscience and Complicity During the Holocaust

Victoria J. Barnett

1999 / Praeger

 

Hardcover $115.00

 

 

Business and Religion in the American 1920s Cover Image
Business and Religion in the American 1920s

Rolf Lunden

1988 / Praeger

 

Hardcover $117.95

 

 

Buddhist Behavioral Codes and the Modern World Cover Image
Buddhist Behavioral Codes and the Modern World
An International Symposium

Charles Wei-Fu, Sandra A. Wawrytko

1994 / Praeger

 

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Bless Me Father for I Have Sinned Cover Image
Bless Me Father for I Have Sinned
Perspectives on Sexual Abuse Committed by Roman Catholic Priests

Thomas G. Plante, ed.

1999 / Praeger

 

Hardcover $110.95

 

 

Black Theology Cover Image
Black Theology
A Critical Assessment and Annotated Bibliography

Gorman, H. /s Jr. vans Jr. /r comp. /b JAMES H. EVANS, JR., comp.

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Biographical Dictionary of Contemporary Catholic American Writing Cover Image
Biographical Dictionary of Contemporary Catholic American Writing

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Atheism and Secularity Cover Image
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Edited by Phil Zuckerman

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Art and Architecture of the World's Religions Cover Image
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An Integrated Theory of Moral Development Cover Image
An Integrated Theory of Moral Development

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America and the Holy Land Cover Image
America and the Holy Land

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1995 / Praeger

 

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