Introducing World Religions: A Christian Engagement - Paperback

by Charles E. Farhadian (Author)

This textbook offers a comprehensive introduction to the world's religions, including history, beliefs, worship practices, and contemporary expressions. Charles Farhadian, a seasoned teacher and recognized expert on world religions, provides an empathetic account that both affirms Christian uniqueness and encourages openness to various religious traditions. His nuanced, ecumenical perspective enables readers to appreciate both Christianity and the world's religions in new ways. The book highlights similarities, dissimilarities, and challenging issues for Christians and includes significant selections from sacred texts to enhance learning. Pedagogical features include sidebars, charts, key terms, an extensive glossary, illustrations, and about a dozen maps. This book is supplemented with helpful web materials for both students and professors through Baker Academic's Textbook eSources. Resources include self quizzes, discussion questions, additional further readings, a sample syllabus, and a test bank.

Back Jacket

This volume offers a comprehensive introduction to the world's religions, including history, beliefs, practices, and contemporary expressions.

"This volume is a teacher's dream. It explains theories of religion in accessible language, describes the practices and beliefs of major religions, includes numerous photos and charts to hold student interest, and exhibits a fine balance between detail and overview. Farhadian has written an excellent introduction to world religions for the undergraduate Christian perspective. It will remain a textbook of choice for years to come."
--Dana L. Robert, Boston University; author of Christian Mission: How Christianity Became a World Religion

"What Introducing World Religions does best is to illustrate in the person of the author himself a model for 'Christian engagement' with the world's religions, old and new. Exemplifying how to be both grounded and open, Farhadian wants us to learn about the religions so that we can learn from them and with them as well. Not only that, he also realizes that learning without a location--a perspective from nowhere in particular--is an impossibility. Interspersed throughout, the author's 'Christian Reflections' will prove meaningful to Christians of all persuasions."
--Richard Fox Young, Princeton Theological Seminary

"Farhadian has produced an excellent and long-awaited book with a well-balanced coverage on East Asian religions (Taoism and Confucianism) and East Asian Christianity, which have been very much neglected in the past. This is an indispensable text for college and other courses related to introducing world religions not only in the West but also in the East. Timely and properly written in this global age of cross-cultural necessity."
--Heup Young Kim, Kangnam University, South Korea (emeritus)

"We are more than machines. We have spirits that long for meaning, for justice, for relationships. In this clearly organized book, Farhadian shows how each of the great religions offers paths for our quests. In today's connected world, this book is a treasure."
--Miriam Adeney, Seattle Pacific University

"Farhadian succeeds in providing a digestible overview of world religions from an ecumenical Christian perspective, avoiding any value judgments, a point of view that distinguishes the book from other reference offerings on the subject. A worthy addition for such collections supporting undergraduate studies in religion or theology."
--Samantha Schmehl Hines, Library Journal

Author Biography

Charles E. Farhadian (PhD, Boston University) is professor of world religions and Christian mission at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, California. He is the editor of Introducing World Christianity and Christian Worship Worldwide and coeditor of The Oxford Handbook of Religious Conversion. He has done fieldwork in Southeast Asia and the Pacific, where he has investigated themes of worship, social history, and nation making.