[.ca] The Compact Guide To World Religions (ISBN 1556617046)

Succinct Book on World Religions:
This is a wonderful book explaining a variety of worldviews comparatively to Christianity. If is excellent for christians and non-christians alike. Unfortunately, not everyone will find this book useful, because not all people are open to hearing the truth. If you have any doubts and want to grasp a better understanding of world religions without being inundated with details, pick up this succinct little book.

Reader Be Aware:
The book is okay. It has some good information. *BUT the Reader should be aware that the book is not a "fair and balanced" guide to the world's religions. I guess most things that say "fair and balanced" really aren't that at all-at least not today. The book is saturated with bias. The whole goal of the book is to show how Christianity is the better religion or at least how Christianity differs from all the other world religions and tries to point out where the other religions go wrong. I found that the author makes generalizations and misses many of the deeper meanings and beliefs of some of the world's other relgions. If one were to take an intro cultural anthropology class, one of the first words one would learn is ethnocentrism. This book is a classic example of that type of bias. If you are looking for a Compact Guide To World Religions without bias don't buy this book. If you are looking to find a book that points out some differences but often distorts facts and uses quotes out of context to support his agenda-get this one. I don't have anything against any religion, but it seems this guy does. That is my problem with the book.

Insightful, very helpful, and highly recommended:
The Compact Guide to World Religions has a very simple format yet it says a lot in a few pages. It goes through the major world religions, gathering the expertise from a number of qualified Christians. I have spoken to adherents from all of the faiths that are talked about in this book, and I must say that I was thoroughly impressed with the information the writers were able to give with an average of only 20 pages for each religion. I especially liked the "answering the objections" sections, with practical advice on how to effectively communicate with these groups. If you are a Christian who would like to better understand the religions of the world, I highly recommend this book!

If you're not an evangelical, skip it:
Although this book has interesting comparative charts of various world religions and christianity, and basically good summaries of those other religions, the entire slant is toward evangelizing people of those other faiths. This is evident in the text, but you needn't go that far: praises on the back cover come from two individuals that sound like they represent evangelical agencies, one man from Jews for Jesus, and the pastor of Southern Gables Church. The book contains hints on how to "witness" to those of other religions, ie., try to convert them, and attacks on things "secular" including the theory of evolution. I'm a modernist, I don't live in the 8th-century, and am not into such things, so I'll keep this on the back of the book shelf and avoid much of it to get at the basic summaries of the non-christian religions.

Good basic overview:
I use this book as one of the texts in a class that I teach on World Religions, Cults, and Christianity - Building a Bridge to the Lost. The evangelical nature of the book is an excellent tool for classroom discussion. It also summarizes the major world religions without being too "in depth" for the beginning student, nor too "shallow" for a more advanced student.