"Understanding World Religions" Review

Confused by the varying religious viewpoints in your workplace, neighborhood, even your family?

Understanding World Religions—contrasting 50 world faiths with Christianity—can help.

Christians believe Jesus’ claim to be “the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:6), though dozens of other religions propose varying pathways to God, heaven, or personal fulfillment. Describing these alternate viewpoints fairly and non-judgmentally, Understanding World Religions features major world faiths (Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism), Christian-based religions (Mormonism, Unification Church, Christian Science), traditional religions (African, Chinese, Native American), and various hard-to-categorize beliefs (Gnosticism, Hare Krishna, New Age Spirituality, Wicca). This fully-illustrated guide is a fascinating and useful tool to help you understand others’ beliefs.



Understanding World Religions: A Bible-Based Review of 50 Faiths
by Len Woods
Barbour Publishing
Publication date: December 1, 2013
264 pages


My Take:

My overall thought about this book is that it is very well organized and easy to read. I like how each section for each religion has a table with basic information about that religion including sacred texts and beliefs about God, Jesus, human nature, salvation, and the afterlife.

This book is not meant to go too in-depth into each religion but to give an overview of each of the most common faiths around the world. It is repetitive, since each section covers the same aspects of each religion, but it is also very handy to have as a quick reference when questions come up. Even though it is more of an overview of each religion, it does do a good job of completely describing each.

This book definitely comes from a Christian perspective, but I found myself wanting each section to go a bit deeper into things Christians could say/do when talking to people of each of these different faiths. I realize, though, that this is not the point of the book. It's not so much apologetics as it is just informational.

Understanding World Religions is a good book to keep on hand as a key to understand these 50 religions.





Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from Barbour Publishing through NetGalley. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this is accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: "Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising."