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April 2015 Vol. 52 No. 8


Baker Academic


The following review appeared in the April 2015 issue of CHOICE. The review is for your internal use only. Please review our Permission and Reprints Guidelines or email permissions@ala-choice.org.

Humanities
Religion

52-4154
BR127
2014-18019 MARC
Handbook of religion: a Christian engagement with traditions, teachings, and practices, ed. by Terry C. Muck, Harold A. Netland, and Gerald R. McDermott. Baker Academic, 2014. 812p bibl index ISBN 9780801037764, $44.00.

Containing 134 articles by 56 essayists, this tome is an excellent reference work written largely by Christians for Christians who are open to learning from and appreciating other religions and their practices but are not necessarily looking to convert.  Several articles, however, are penned by adherents to other religions, featuring Hinduism; Buddhism; Judaism; Islam; the Latter-day Saint movement; the Church of Christ, Scientist; Soka Gakkai; paganism; environmentalism; atheism; and Marxism.  These articles are made applicable to readers with the addition of 239 study guides, most of which ask questions for further reflection. The book also contains current issues articles on many movements.  Therefore, it will prove to be an appropriate and useful guide to the variegated religious scene in the world (particularly America), primarily for Christian readers, but for others as well.  Its goal appears not to be to settle the issue of whether there is salvation in other religions but to inform thoughtful Christian readers about those religions.  Apart from the first four articles by the editors, explicitly theological or Christian treatment of the topics is minimal.  Given the book's breadth, no topic is handled in any depth, but short bibliographies point readers to sources for further study.

--P. L. Redditt, Georgetown College

Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-division undergraduates and above; general readers.