Religious Foundations of Western Civilization: Juaism, Christianity, and Islam » (Trade Paperback)

World Religions

Religious Foundations of Western Civilization introduces students to the major Western world religions—Judaism, Christianity, and Islam—their beliefs, key concepts, history, as well as the fundamental role they have played, and continue to play, in Western culture.

Contributors include: Jacob Neusner, Alan J. Avery-Peck, Bruce D. Chilton, Th. Emil Homerin, Jon D. Levenson, William Scott Green, Seymour Feldman, Elliot R. Wolfson, James A. Brundage, Olivia Remie Constable, and Amila Buturovic.

"This book provides a superb source of information for scientists and scholars from all disciplines who are trying to understand religion in the context of human cultural evolution."

David Sloan Wilson, Professor, Departments of Biology and Anthropology, Binghamton University, Binghamton, New York

This is the right book at the right time. Globalization, religious revivalism, and international politics have made it more important than ever to appreciate the significant contributions of the Children of Abraham to the formation and development of Western civilization.

John L. Esposito, University Professor and Founding Director of the Center for Muslm-Christian Understanding, Georgetown University, Washington, D.C.

Jacob Neusner is Research Professor of Religion and Theology, and Senior Fellow of the Institute of Advanced Theology at Bard College, Annandale-on-Hudson, New York.

General Interest/Other Religions/Comparative Religion

Library Journal

This work defines not only the three major religious systems of the West-Judaism, Christianity, and Islam-but also Western civilization as a whole. Editor Neusner (religion & theology, Bard Coll.), who has assembled a team of contributors well known in their respective areas of religious study, divides the book into six parts that profile the three faiths; show how they hold common interests in such areas as philosophy, law, politics, and culture; and explore their modernization and their places in the 21st century. Particularly compelling is the section on the historic encounters between these faiths, e.g., the Crusades, the Inquisition, Zionism, and Nationalism. A time line that spans 1300 B.C.E. (the Exodus) to 2003 C.E. (the American invasion of Iraq) rounds out the text. This work is essential reading for students of comparative religion and, although scholarly, is also accessible to general readers with an interest in religions. Recommended without reservation for academic and public libraries.-C. Brian Smith, Arlington Heights Memorial Lib., IL Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.