The World Religions Reader

by Beckerlegge, Gwilym

• ISBN13: 9780415174886
• ISBN10: 0415174880
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1998-03-01
• Publisher: Routledge

Summary

The World Religions Reader includes materials relating to six of the world's most influential religious traditions: Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism and Sikhism. These religions are considered in their global setting, and the selection of readings strikes a balance between providing an account of their historical development and exploring their beliefs and practices in the context of the latter half of the twentieth century. A study of three thematic topics - sacred place, women in religion, and making moral decisions - provides another perspective on the same faiths.
The World Religions Reader includes examples from the foundational and classical sources of each religion, readings that signpost significant developments within the faiths, and more recent statements from those within these traditions.

Table of Contents

Preface
Acknowledgements
Judaism
Torah: The Five Books of Moses	p. 3
The Prophets	p. 8
The Writings	p. 16
The Sanhedrin from the Mishnah	p. 22
Laws of prayer from the Shulkhan Arukh	p. 23
Laws concerning the Seven Days of Mourning	p. 24
Readings from The Authorised Daily Prayer Book	p. 25
Prayer from Service of the Heart	p. 28
Kol Nidre Prayer	p. 29
Hasidic: Sayings of the Bratzlaver	p. 31
Jewish poets of Spain	p. 32
Maimonides	p. 35
Judaism as a 'revealed legislation'	p. 39
The rock of Judaism	p. 43
Yossel Rakover's appeal to God	p. 48
The concept of man after Auschwitz	p. 50
Survival and memory	p. 51
The redemption of Israel	p. 53
Muslims, Jews, and the Western world - A Jewish view	p. 54
The current role of Halakhah	p. 57
The concept of Torah	p. 60
The people and the Book	p. 61
The Pharisaic movement	p. 62
The law is not a burden	p. 63
A priest-people	p. 64
The chosen people	p. 65
Reclaiming the covenant: A Jewish feminist's search for meaning	p. 69
Domestic observances	p. 70
Christianity
Creation and the original condition of humanity according to the Old Testament	p. 75
The Kingdom of God	p. 77
The Sermon on the Mount - Matthew 5-7	p. 78
The Resurrection	p. 82
The work of Christ	p. 87
Baptism	p. 88
Origen on the baptism of infants	p. 89
St Ignatius on the ministry and sacraments	p. 89
St Irenaeus on tradition and succession	p. 90
The 'Nicene' or Constantinopolitan Creed (325 CE)	p. 91
The Athanasian Creed	p. 92
A declaration of the Second Vatican Council (1964)	p. 93
Anglican attitudes to the creeds (1976)	p. 94
Hymns	p. 96
A joint declaration by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of Rome, 1989	p. 99
The Primacy of the Bishop of Rome from a homily by Pope John Paul II, 1989	p. 100
Confessions of faith: The St Hilda community	p. 102
On abortion from Evangelium Vitae	p. 103
God as Mother and Father	p. 104
The Intifada, nonviolence and the Bible	p. 105
Mary as one of the bases of feminist theology	p. 107
Theological perspectives of a religious woman today	p. 108
An attempt at synthesis: solidarity and poverty	p. 110
The black Messiah and black humanity	p. 112
Reflections on liberation theology	p. 116
Declaration of the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church, April 1990	p. 117
A statement in support of Lithuanian independence, Easter eve, 1990	p. 120
Islam
The Cow (extract)	p. 125
The Night Journey (extract)	p. 129
The Believers (extract)	p. 131
Light (extract)	p. 137
Ya Sin (extract)	p. 138
The Mount (extract)	p. 139
Iron (extract)	p. 140
The Mustering (extract)	p. 143
The Land	p. 144
The Sun	p. 145
The Night	p. 145
The Forenoon	p. 146
The Expanding	p. 146
The Fig	p. 147
The Blood-Clot	p. 147
Power	p. 148
The Clear Sign	p. 148
The Earthquake	p. 149
The Chargers	p. 149
The Clatterer	p. 149
Rivalry	p. 150
Afternoon	p. 150
The Backbiter	p. 150
The Elephant	p. 150
Koraish	p. 151
Charity	p. 151
Abundance	p. 151
The Unbelievers	p. 151
Help	p. 152
Perish	p. 152
Sincere Religion	p. 152
Daybreak	p. 152
Men	p. 153
From Abu Hamid al-Ghazali	p. 154
Muhyi al-Din Ibn Arabi on the Beautiful Names	p. 158
From Edwin Arnold's Pearls of Faith	p. 159
The living thoughts of the Prophet Muhammad	p. 164
On birth control	p. 167
The character of Islamic Law	p. 172
'The Blemishes of the Soul'	p. 175
'Poem of the Way'	p. 178
Shaikh Abu-l-Abbas al-Alawi	p. 179
A statement by the Islamic Council of Europe, 1976	p. 182
Veiled threats	p. 187
Disaggregating 'Islam': Four guidelines	p. 191
Hinduism
The concept 'Hinduism'	p. 199
The problem of Village Hinduism	p. 200
Caste, food and commensality	p. 217
Status evaluation in the Hindu caste system	p. 222
Theodicy and the doctrine of Karma	p. 223
From the Upanishads	p. 242
From the Bhagavad Gita	p. 252
From the Laws of Manu: Duties of husband and wife	p. 282
The meaning of moksha in contemporary Hindu thought and life	p. 285
The unity of religions	p. 292
A modern interpretation of Advaita	p. 295
The coming of a spiritual age: Sri Aurobindo and Auroville	p. 296
M. K. Gandhi's Experiments with Truth	p. 302
'Hindu-ness'	p. 314
A modern Hindu philosopher's understanding of caste	p. 315
New wine, old skins: The Sangh Parivar and the transformation of 'Hinduism'	p. 318
Buddhism
The Baddha	p. 329
The Dhamma	p. 338
The Sangha	p. 350
The Magga	p. 355
Meditation	p. 366
Personal devotion	p. 385
Militant Buddhism: The determination of Nichiren	p. 394
Magic and ritual	p. 396
The benefits of Nichiren's teaching	p. 399
Zen hardship versus 'instant enlightenment'	p. 401
Western clothes for Zen Buddhism?	p. 402
Helping others	p. 403
Buddhist grass-roots activism	p. 406
Sarvodaya: self-help in Sri Lanka	p. 411
See the suffering	p. 414
Sikhism
A selection of the hymns of Guru Nanak	p. 419
From the Dasam Granth of Guru Gobind Singh	p. 437
Sikhism	p. 442
The Code of Sikh Conduct and Conventions: from Sikh Rahit Maryada	p. 450
'We are not Hindus'	p. 456
Characteristics of Sikh Fundamentalism	p. 458
What is and what is not anti-Sikh	p. 461
Sikhism and politics	p. 462
The status and position of the Golden Temple	p. 464
Sikhism, love, Amrit	p. 466
Index	p. 469
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