50 Religious Ideas You Really Need To Know

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

50 Religious Ideas You Really Need To Know

 

At a time when religion stands accused of dividing the world and causing conflict, an everyman's overview of the great faiths, how they evolved, their key beliefs, what they have in common with each other, what separates them, and how they relate to the modern world.

 

 

 

 

Contents

 

Introduction

 

COMMON GROUND

1. The God-shaped hole

2. Sacred texts

3. Good and evil

4. Life and death

5. The Golden Rule

6. Rites and rituals

 

CHRISTIANITY

7. The life of Christ

8. God and Mammon

9. Reformation

10. The papacy

11. Guilt and misogyny

12. The Holy Spirit

13. Saints and sinners

14. Orthodoxy

 

THE REFORMED TRADITION

15. Luther and his successors

16. Anglicanism

17. Methodism

18. Baptists

19. Presbyterians

20. Sects and cults

21. Rapture

 

JUDAISM

22. Being Jewish

23. Jewish rites of passage

24. Kabbalah

25. Anti-Semitism

 

ISLAM

26. The birth of Islam

27. The pillars of Islam

28. Sunni and Shi'a

29. The heart of Islam

30. Militant Islam

 

EASTERN TRADITIONS

31. The many faces of Hinduism

32. Hindu worship

33. Samsara

34. Jainism

35. Sikhism

36. Buddha and the Bodhi tree

37. Schools of Buddhism

38. Buddhist wheel of life

39. Confusianism

40. Confucius and the Communists

41. Taoism

42. Shintoism

 

MORDERN DILEMMAS

43. Contemporary credos

44. Religion and science

45. Atheism

46. Stewards of creation

47. The just war

48. The missionary impulse

49. Spirituality

50. The future of religion

 

Glossary

Index

 

 

 

 

Published in London by Quercus in May 2010 and in New York by Chartwell in June 2010.

ISBN 9781848660595  Separate Dutch edition (Veen Magazines)

 

 

 

 

 

 

Peter Stanford is a writer, journalist and broadcaster. His books include biographies of the Labour Cabinet minister, Lord Longford; the Poet Laureate, C Day-Lewis; Bronwen Astor; and Cardinal Basil Hume. His writings on religion range from The Devil: A Biography, Heaven: A Traveller's Guide, The She-Pope: The Legend of Pope Joan to Catholics and Sex.

His books have been translated into eleven languages. A former editor of the Catholic Herald (1988-1992), he writes for papers including The Independent on Sunday, Observer and Daily Telegraph. He presents television and radio documentaries including the award-winning Channel 4 series, Catholics and Sex, BBC 1's The She Pope, Channel 5's The Mission and has appeared as a regular panelist on the BBC's The Moral Maze, Vice or Virtue? and FutureWatch. He was one of the BBC commentary team for the recent papal visit to Britain. His biography of Lord Longford was the basis for Channel 4's 2006 multi-award winning drama, Longford. Born in 1961 and raised in Birkenhead, he is chairman of the spinal injuries charity, Aspire, and director of the Longford Trust for penal reform.

He lives in London with his wife, Siobhan Cross, and their two children.  He is currently working on a follow-up to The Extra Mile: The Twenty First Century Pilgrim,  an account of his travels round Britain's sacred places, published to great acclaim in March 2010. The new book will take him on a journey round cemeteries, war memorials and anywhere we remember the dead, and will look at how past societies have regarded death, and how we cope with it now.  A paperback version and an e-book version of The Extra Mile will both appear at Easter of 2011. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

http://www.peterstanford.co.uk