[.ca] The World's Wisdom: Sacred Texts of the World's Religions (ISBN 0060663421)

the best of religion:
Easily the best anthology of religious writings I've seen, and I've seen quite a few. Beautiful and educational; as a teacher, I've found it very useful for religion courses. If you've any interest in religion or spirituality, this book is a must for your collection.

nice concept, poor execution:
The concept of this book--a collection of selections from the world's sacred texts, and a companion text to Huston Smith's wonderful "The World's Relgions"--is great, but I think Novak's execution of it was poor. What bothered me the most about this book was Novak's translations. I was already very familiar with the Western texts (the Bible) that Novak "updated", and I had a hard time getting over the modern, "inclusive" language Novak chose that in my opinion reduced a lot of the majestic beauty of older translations, such as the King James version. Some of Novak's translations "modernized" the language to change the meanings of certain passages radically from what was intended. It would also have been nice if Novak had kept the references to the original sources alongside the text rather than buried at the back of the book so that I could easily look up his selections in the language I was more familiar with, but that is a minor complaint.

Nice research:
Author really has a good study of texts in many ancient books. These books are considered holy in many religions. The passages are from Bhagavat Geeta, Bible, Koran etc. A more information on the background of books is essentials. The author selects the passages wisely. There is so material out there that to select a few 'sacred' text can be real difficult. The book does not explain why some texts are chosen over others though. This can be a personal preference and I think the author has done well. But sometimes its not easy to find the hidden meaning behind the scriptures. It means much more than just a plane translations. The author uses effective and easy language for translation. However since I know a little Sanskrit, I can say the translation could have been more accurate. This book can be helpful to scholars, teachers and public speakers.

Excellent "Cliff Notes" Guide to Sacred Texts:
If you are looking for a sort of all-in-one overview of the sacred texts for most of the world's major religions including Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam and Primal Religions (myths and stories from native peoples throughout the world), "The World's Wisdom" is a unique source. Phillip Novak does a nice job of putting each text into context. He also ends each section with "Grace Notes" which are key sayings or quotes by more contemporary adherents (the section on Christianity includes exerpts from the Gospel of Thomas, St. Francis, Meister Eckhart and Thomas Merton, among others). Including Zoroastrianism, which was arguably the first monotheistic religion and highly influential many of those that came after it, would have made this book truly complete. Still, "The World's Wisdom" will become every bit as essential as Huston Smith's "World Religions" and is a perfect companion to it. Highly recomended.