Charts of World Religions

by H. Wayne House

Overview

A quick and easy visual study aid for students and anyone interested in understanding today's complex religious mosaic.

Charts of World Religions allows for quick comparison and contrast of numerous systems of faith, beliefs, deities, and traditions. In clear, easy-to-understand charts, this book provides vital information on such topics as the origins of different religions, the nature of deity or ultimate spiritual reality, the source of spiritual truth, the nature of the human predicament, and the nature of salvation/enlightenment/liberation.

Highlights the differences between various beliefs, and details subdivisions of broad categories, such as various branches of Christianity and Islam. More than 90 charts appear in six major sections:

• Prolegomena to World Religions
• Comparison of World Religions
• Ancient Mediterranean Religions (including the Egyptian pantheon, Graeco-Roman deities)
• Western Religions (including Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Baha'i, and Secular Humanism)
• Eastern Religions (including Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Jainism, Zoroastrianism, Shintoism, Confucianism, and Sikhism)
• Indigenous Religions (including African, Caribbean, and Native American)

This volume is perfect for enhancing every type of teaching and learning situation and style, including classroom use, homeschooling curricula and tutoring, church classes and Sunday school.

ZondervanCharts are ready references for those who need the essential information at their fingertips. Accessible and highly useful, the books in this library offer clear organization and thorough summaries of issues, subjects, and topics that are key for Christian students and learners. The visuals and captions will cater to any teaching methodology, style, or program.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780310204954
Publisher:	Zondervan Academic
Publication date:	02/26/2006
Series:	ZondervanCharts
Edition description:	Layflat
Pages:	336
Sales rank:	233,129
Product dimensions:	8.50(w) x 11.00(h) x 0.75(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

H. Wayne House (ThD, JD) is distinguished research professor of theology, law, and culture at Faith Evangelical Seminary, Tacoma, Washington. He is the author of numerous books, including Charts of Cults, Sects, and Religious Movements; and Charts of Christian Theology and Doctrine; and Charts of Apologetics and Christian Evidences. Dr. House is past president of the Evangelical Theological Society. He and his wife Irina reside in Silverton, Oregon.

Read an Excerpt

Charts of World Religions

Part 1
Prolegomena to
World Religions
Friedrich
Schleiermacher
(1768--1834)
'The essence of religion consists in the feeling of absolute dependence.'
James Martineau
(1805--1900)
'Religion is the belief in ... a Divine mind and will ruling the universe and holding moral relations with mankind.'
C. P. Tiele
(1830--1902)
'Religion is ... that pure and reverential disposition or frame of mind which we call piety.'
F. H. Bradley
(1846--1924)
'Religion is ... the attempt to express the complete reality of goodness through every aspect of our being.'
James Frazier
(1854--1941) '[Religion is] ... a propitiation or conciliation of powers superior to man.'
Emile Durkheim
(1858--1917)
'[Religion is] ... a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred things, ... which unite into one single moral community.'
Rudolf Otto
(1869--1937)
'Religion is that which grows out of, and gives expression to, experience of the holy in its various aspects.'
Paul Tillich
(1886--1965)
'Religion is the state of being grasped by an ultimate concern, a concern which qualifies all other concerns as preliminary and which itself contains the answer to the question of the meaning of our life.'
J. Milton Yinger
(1916-- )
'Religion is a system of beliefs and practices by means of which a group of people struggle with the ultimate problem of human life.'
John Hick
(1922-- ) 'Religion constitutes our varied human response to transcendent Reality.'
Ninian Smart
(1927--2001)
Six characteristics or dimensions of religion: 'the ritual, the mythological,
the doctrinal, the ethical, the social, and the experiential.'
Peter Berger
(1929-- )
'[Religion is] ... the establishment through human activity of an allembracing sacred order, that is, of a sacred cosmos that will be capable of maintaining itself in the ever-present face of chaos.'
James C. Livingston
(1930-- )
'Religion is that system of activities and beliefs directed toward that which is perceived to be of sacred value and transforming power.'
Roy A. Clouser
(1937-- )
'A religious belief is any belief in something or other as divine. 'Divine'
means having the status of not depending on anything else.'
Roland Robertson
(1938-- )
'[Religion pertains] to a distinction between an empirical and a superempirical,
transcendent reality: the affairs of the empirical being subordinated in significance to the non-empirical.'
What Is Religion?
Chart 1
Existential Faith and religious experience
Intellectual Formal statements of belief (a religion's central beliefs or truth claims)
Institutional Organizations advocating and transmitting beliefs
Ethical Teachings and beliefs that relate to moral conduct
Four Functional Modes of Religion
Strong Rationalism
In order for a religious belief system to be properly and rationally accepted, conclusive evidence must be provided that proves the belief system in question to be true.
Fideism
(Faith-ism)
Religious belief systems cannot (or ought not) be subjected to rational evaluation.
Critical Rationalism Religious belief systems can and should be rationally criticized and evaluated, even though conclusive proof of such systems is impossible.
Three Basic Views on Faith and Reason
Belief A statement that is taken to be true; a truth claim.
Experience
An event one lives through (either as a participant or as an observer) and about which one is conscious or aware. Such events are not merely emotional states; rather, they involve concepts and beliefs about the Being or Reality that is experienced.
Religious Statement A truth claim about God or Ultimate Reality and his or its relationship to the world.
Miracle
An event that is (1) contrary to ordinary human experience, and (2)
the result of divine activity. On one view, this divine activity 'breaks,'
'suspends,' or 'counteracts via a supernatural force' the laws of nature. On another, this divine activity causes occurrences that do not conform to the way in which reality is normally experienced.
Terms Relating to Religion
Charts 2, 3, 4
Experiential Personal spiritual experiences
Ritual Sacred activities expressed in worship, sacrifice, and other formalized practices
Myth Stories that encapsulate fundamental beliefs of a group
Social Institutional forms of religion
Ethics Moral codes and guides to behavior
Doctrine Systematization of beliefs
Six Dimensions of Religion
Position Viewpoint Advocates1
Religious
Exclusivism
There are elements of truth in other religions, but only one religion is comprehensively and fundamentally true.
One religion alone provides the way of salvation.
Old Testament Judaism
Historic Christianity
Orthodox Islam
Religious
Inclusivism
God might reveal himself and acts graciously in various ways and in diverse places. At the same time, it is affirmed that religious claims are either objectively true or objectively false.
Conservative Judaism
Post-Vatican II Roman
Catholicism
Modern Hindism
(Sarvapalli
Radhakrishnan)2
Religious
Pluralism
There are many valid religions and life-transforming religious experiences. Different religions embody varying responses to the same divine reality. Most religions can successfully facilitate salvation, liberation, or self-fulfillment.
Liberal Protestantism
John Hick3
Vajrayana Buddhism
Do All Religions Lead to God?
1 The list of advocates is only representative, not complete.
2 Sarvapalli Radhakrishnan (1888--1975) was a professor at Oxford University who later became the second president of India.
3 Dr. John Hick (1922-- ) is a philosopher of religion and theology, who taught at Claremont Graduate
University in California and at the University of Birmingham in England.

Table of Contents

Preface 11 Acknowledgments 13 Part 1. Prolegomena to World Religions 1. What Is Religion? 2. Four Functional Modes of Religion 3. Three Basic Views on Faith and Reason 4. Terms Relating to Religion 5. Six Dimensions of Religion 6. Do All Religions Lead to God? 7. Comparison of Foundational Religious Worldviews Part 2. Comparison of World Religions 8. Major World Religions in Order of Founding 9. Comparison of Beliefs Among Religions 10. Holy Books of World Religions Part 3. Ancient Mediterranean Religions 11. Religions of the Ancient Mediterranean World 12. Ancient Near Eastern Deities (Excluding Egypt) 13. Egyptian Paganism 14. Gods of the Egyptian Pantheon 15. Greek Paganism 16. Roman Paganism 17. Graeco-Roman Deities Part 4. Western Religions 18. Historical Relationships of Western Religions 19. Comparison of Western Religions Judaism 20. Timeline of Judaism 21. Judaism 22. Comparison of Beliefs within Judaism 23. Orthodox Judaism 24. Conservative Judaism 25. Reform Judaism 26. Hasidic Judaism 27. Jewish Scriptures According to Rabbinic Tradition 28. Jewish Holy Days 29. The Jewish Calendar 30. The Jewish Covenants Christianity 31. Timeline of Christianity 32. Christianity 33. Comparison of Beliefs within Christianity 34. Roman Catholicism 35. Eastern Orthodoxy 36. Liberal Protestantism 37. Evangelical Protestantism 38. Fundamentalist Protestantism 39. Pentecostal-Charismatic Protestantism 40. Christian Creeds and Councils 41. Christian Holy Days 42. Christian Scriptures Islam 43. Timeline of Islam 44. Islam 45. Comparison of Beliefs within Islam 46. Sunni Islam 47. Shi’ite Islam 48. Sufi Islam 49. Nation of Islam 50. Islamic Calendar and Holy Days Baha’i 51. Timeline of Baha’i 52. Baha’i Secular Humanism 53. Timeline of Secular Humanism 54. Secular Humanism Part 5. Eastern Religions 55. Historical Relationships of Eastern Religions 56. Comparison of Eastern Religions Hinduism 57. Timeline of Hinduism 58. Hinduism 59. Comparison of Beliefs within Hinduism 60. Brahmanism 61. Advaita Vedanta 62. Bhakti 63. Self-Realization Fellowship, Appendix on Transcendental Meditation 64. Ananda Marga Yoga Society 65. Hare Krishna (ISKCON) Buddhism 66. Timeline of Buddhism 67. Buddhism 68. Comparison of Beliefs within Buddhism 69. Mahayana Buddhism, Appendix on Pure Land Buddhism 70. Theravada Buddhism 71. Vajrayana Buddhism 72. Zen Buddhism 73. Nichiren Shoshu Buddhism Taoism 74. Timeline of Taoism 75. Taoism, Appendix on Religious Taoism Jainism 76. Timeline of Jainism 77. Jainism Zoroastrianism 78. Timeline of Zoroastrianism 79. Zoroastrianism Shintoism 80. Timeline of Shinto 81. Shinto Confucianism 82. Timeline of Confucianism 83. Confucianism Sikhism 84. Timeline of Sikhism 85. Sikhism Part 6. Indigenous Religions 86. Historical Relationships of Indigenous Religions 87. Comparison of Indigenous Religions African 88. Timeline of African Traditional Religion 89. African Traditional Religion Caribbean 90. Caribbean Religions 91. Comparison of Caribbean Religions 92. Timeline of Rastafari 93. Rastafari 94. Timeline of Santeria and Palo Mayombe 95. Santeria, Appendix on Palo Mayombe 96. Timeline of Umbanda and Candomblé 97. Umbanda, Appendix on Candomblé 98. Timeline of Voudon (Voodoo) 99. Voudon (Voodoo) Native American 100. Timeline of Native American Religion 101. Native American Religion Glossary 316 Sources 322 Recommended Reading List 336