The Illustrated Worlds Religions: A
Guide to Our Wisdom Traditions by
Huston Smith
Valuable At Both Scholarly And Spiritual Levels
Retaining all the beloved qualities of Huston Smiths classic The Religions
of Man and the current fully revised and updated The Worlds Religions,
this stunning pictorial presentation refines the text to its wonderful
essentials. In detailed, absorbing, richly illustrated, and highly readable
chapters on Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, Taoism, Islam, Judaism,
Christianity and primal religions, we find refreshing and fascinating
presentations of both the differences and the similarities among the
worldwide religious traditions. The approach is at once classic and
contemporary, retaining all the empathy, eloquence and erudition that
millions of readers love about the earlier editions, while being edited and
designed for a contemporary general readership. This delightful marriage
of winsome text and remarkable pictures vividly brings to life the scope and
vision of Huston Smiths expertise and insight.

Personal Review: The Illustrated Worlds Religions: A Guide to
Our Wisdom Traditions by Huston Smith
This book provides a nice balance between scholarly rigor and an open-
minded effort to reach out and understand the religious worldviews of
others on their own terms. As he states up front, Smith tries to present
each religion (wisdom tradition) in a favorable light, in some sense trying
the "make the case" for it. This enables us to better understand why each
religion might make sense and be compelling for its believers, and why we
ourselves might even learn from it. Because of this approach, this isn't
really a book on comparative religion nor critical analysis of religions
(particularly with regard to truth claims, evidence, arguments, doctrinal
coherence, etc.).
The illustrations in the book are chosen well and enhance the book,
particularly if one takes time to really observe and reflect on them, but the
book's narrative works well without the illustrations also, so the illustrations
and narrative could be described as independent but complementary.
The narrative itself isn't highly detailed, so the book is by no means
encyclopedic or exhaustive, but Smith has the discernment to bring out the
main ideas of each religion and thereby convey its essence. The brevity of
the book also makes it fairly easy to read and finish, and a chapter a day is
a nice gentle pace to consider.
Highly recommended for anyone interested in world religions and spiritual
growth, ranging from "beginners" to those who have explored this territory
for quite some time and are therefore seeking a refresher or renewal.
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