50 Religious Ideas You Really Need to Know (50 Ideas You Really Need to Know series) - Hardcover

Stanford, Peter

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1848660596 ISBN 13: 9781848660595

Publisher: Quercus, 2010

Synopsis

Despite frequent prognostications regarding the 'death of God' and the triumph of secular materialism, religion remains a central component in the lives of most people around the world. There are currently thought to be 2 billion Christians, 1.2 billion Muslims, 800 million Hindus, along with some 700 million followers of other religions.
50 Religious Ideas You Really Need to Know offers a clear path through the conceptual and denominational thickets of global religion. Award-winning religious affairs correspondent Peter Stanford begins with an examination of sacred texts, the divine principle and good and evil, before moving on to a discussion of the different traditions within Christianity, Islam, Judaism and the myriad customs of the East.
Contents: The Divine Principle, Baptists, Buddha's teachings, Sacred Texts, Presbyterians, Dhama, Good and Evil, Sects and cults, Forms of Buddhism, Life and Death, Rapture, Confucianism, Golden Rule, God & Torah, Taoism, Rites and Rituals, Anti-Semitism, Shintoism, Life of Christ, Kabbalah, Missionary impulse, God and Mammon, Being Jewish, Just War, Reformation, Mohammed, Church and State, Papacy, Pillars of Islam, Spirituality, Guilt and Misogyny, Shari'ah law, Fundamentalism, Holy Spirit, Sunni & Shia, Darwinist challenge, Saints and sinners, Sufism, People and Creation, Orthodoxy, Islamism, The poor, Lutheranism, Hindu trinity, Sea of faith, Anglicanism, Sansara, Methodism, Sikhs & Jains.

About this title

About the Author

Peter Stanford is a former editor of the Catholic Herald (1988-1992), and now writes for a variety of papers including the Independent on Sunday, Observer, Daily Telegraph, Daily Mail and The Tablet.

From the Back Cover

The God-shaped hole.
Sacred texts.
Good and evil.
Life and death.
The Golden Rule.
Rites and rituals.
The life of Christ.
God and Mammon.
Reformation.
The papacy.
Guilt and misogyny.
The Holy Spirit.
Saints and Sinners.
Orthodoxy.
Luther and his successors.
Anglicanism.
Methodism.
Baptists.
Presbyterians.
Sects and cults.
Rapture.
Being Jewish.
Jewish rites of passage.
Kabbalah.
Anti-Semitism.
The birth of Islam.
The Pillars of Islam.
Sunni and Shi'a.
The heart of Islam.
Militant Islam.
The many faces of Hinduism.
Hindu worship.
Samsara.
Jainism.
Sikhism.
Buddha and the Bodhi tree.
Schools of Buddhism.
Buddhist wheel of life.
Confucianism.
Confucius and the Communists.
Taoism.
Shintoism.
Contemporary credos.
Religion and science.
Atheism.
Stewards of creation.
The just war.
The missionary impulse.
Spirituality.
The future of religion.

From the Inside Flap

The need to understand religion and the role it plays in our world has never been more pressing. The beliefs of the planet's 2 billion Christians, 1.2 billion Muslims, 800 million Hindus and 700 million followers of other religions have an impact on every aspect of war and peace, ethics, politics, reproduction, family and social structure across all civilizations and continents.
Religion: 50 Ideas You Really Need to Know aims to lift the clouds of confusion surrounding religion and to address its key issues.
What is the 'Golden Rule' and how does it unite religious people?
What role do rites and rituals play in bringing together congregations?
How did the divisions arise between Catholics and Protestants and what do they mean for us today?
What are the differences between Anglicanism, Methodism, Baptism and Presbyterianism?
What separates Sunni Muslims from Shi'a Muslims?
What does it mean to be Jewish?
How have various religious traditions interpreted the eternal mysteries of life, death and the problem of how we should live?
Award-winning writer Peter Stanford answers these and a myriad other questions in this readable and informative book. It will appeal to anyone who wants to understand one of the most powerful and enduring forces shaping our world.

Edition details

• Publisher: Quercus
• Publication date: 2010
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1848660596
• ISBN 13: 9781848660595
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 208