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Robert A. Segal questions the assumptions behind a wide-ranging survey of world religions
This book could scarcely be more reader-friendly. It is written pellucidly and contains an almost endless number of charts, maps, vignettes and lists of terms. The colour is so splashy that I would not recommend it to the colour-blind.
Stephen Prothero, a well-known populariser who teaches at Boston University, discusses nine religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Confucianism, Daoism and Navaho Religion. He has a final chapter on atheism. He classifies the first three as religions of “release”, the next three as religions of “repair” and the last three as religions of “reversion”. Religions of release seek escape from the present world to a better one. Religions of repair seek to undo the damage done by past and present practitioners. Religions of reversion seek to...