World Religions (2003): A Voyage of Discovery (Student Text)

The Ad Hoc Committee to Oversee the Use of the Catechism has judged that the text falls outside the scope of the types of materials they review for conformity to the Catechism.*

"Why do Muslims face Mecca to pray? Why do Buddhists chant?" The major religions of the world are a mystery to many high school teens. Now you can help them unlock the doors of these traditions with our new text, World Religions: A Voyage of Discovery. The book is an introductory survey that helps eleventh and twelfth graders understand the people, dimensions, and religious principles of the world's major religions.

The textbook includes a chapter on each of eleven major world religions, including Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, and others. The text offers the Catholic perspective on interreligious dialogue, an overview of basic questions that religions address, and Ninian Smart's seven dimensions of religion. A glossary and word pronunciations in each chapter help students learn unfamiliar terms. In addition, the second edition of this text incorporates the following new features:

a new chapter on modern trends in religion

new, more detailed maps

a new section on the Aztec religion of Mesoamerica

a sidebar in each chapter offering examples of the seven dimensions of religion in each chapter

review questions at the end of each chapter

*The Ad Hoc Committee to Oversee the Use of the Catechism reviews only materials which are catechetical in nature and which teach the beliefs, practices, and doctrine of the Catholic Faith. World Religions falls outside the scope of the types of materials the Committee reviews. This text outlines the basic beliefs and practices of the major religions of the world, taking a comparative approach, as do most texts on this topic, to identify the distinctive elements of the various religions.

This edition of World Religions, however, also includes a very important forward that introduces "The Roman Catholic Church and Non-Christian Religions," and references documents of the Second Vatican Council. This forward explains the Catholic viewpoint on the importance of learning about and coming to a basic understanding of the other major religions of the world.