World Religions Western Traditions

World Religions: Western Traditions, Fifth Edition, provides students with a thought-provoking survey of Jewish, Christian, Muslim, ancient, indigenous, and new religious traditions. The expert contributors offer an authoritative examination of the origins, central teachings, divisions and branches, rituals and practices, influences on culture, and responses to modern challenges for each tradition.

Ideal for courses in Western religions and comparative religions, World Religions: Western Traditions, Fifth Edition, combines a historically descriptive perspective with a spirit of sympathetic fascination.

Amir Hussain is Professor of Theological Studies at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles.

Roy C. Amore is Professor in the Department of Political Science at the University of Windsor in Ontario, Canada.

The late Willard G. Oxtoby, the original editor of this work, was Professor Emeritus at the University of Toronto.

Contributors
Preface
1. Studying Western Religions
Basic Human Religion: Looking Both Ways from Stonehenge
Looking Back from Stonehenge
Looking Forward from Stonehenge
What Is Religion?
Why Study Religion?
2. Religions of Antiquity
Introduction
Terminology
Prehistory
Common Features of the Religions of Antiquity
Mesopotamian Tradition
Egyptian Tradition
Greek Tradition
Roman Tradition
Iranian Tradition (Zoroastrianism)
Manichaean Tradition
The End of Paganism
Recent Developments
Summary
3. Jewish Traditions
Jewish Identity as Ethnicity and Religion
Earliest Jewish History: The Biblical Story
The Second Temple Period (515 BCE-70 CE)
Enter the Romans (63 BCE)
Jewish Life Under Islam: Seventh-Twelfth Century
Jews in the Christian World: Seventh to Fifteenth Century
The Modern Period
The Holocaust (1933-1945)
Life-Cycle Events
Recent Developments
Summary
4. Christian Traditions
Origins
Relations Between Church and Society
Authority in the Early Church
The Development of Orthodoxy
Practice
Eastern Orthodoxy
Medieval Christianity
The Early Modern Era
The Modern Era
Recent Developments
Summary
5. Muslim Traditions
Beginnings
Foundations
Practice
Variations
The Spread of Islam
Cultural Expressions
Toward the Modern World
Recent Developments
Summary
6. Indigenous Traditions
First Thoughts
"Indigenous Religion"
Transmission
Practice
Cultural Expressions
Colonialism
Recent Developments
Summary
7. New Religions and Movements
Defining New Religions, Sects, and Cults
New Religions from the East
Religions Arising from the Abrahamic Lineage
Religions Inspired by Other Forms of Spirituality
The New Age Movement
Summary
8. Current Issues in Western Traditions
Religion and Politics
Fundamentalism
Bioethics
The Environment
Gender and Sexuality
Religious Diversity
Index