World Scripture: A Comparative Anthology of Sacred Texts

I was hesitating to give this book a five stars or a four stars, so let's make it in truth a four and a half. As the name suggests, it's the world scripture and a comparative anthology of sacred texts. Various scholars from many parts of the world contribute to writing about, selecting the passages, and making footnote-like explanations. It would make any soul well worth the travail with under such headings as Ultimate Reality and the Purpose of Human Existence (Part One) which is further subdivided into such topics as Ultimate Reality, The Purpose of Life for the Individual, Life Beyond Death and the Spiritual world. And another sample heading: Providence, Society, and the Kingdom of Heaven (Part Five) which is further subdivided into Good Government and the Welfare of Society, Eschatology and Messianic Hope. Lots of scriptures are quoted in parts under these headings and topics. Below are the examples. Part One: Ultimate Reality...(Topic: The Purpose of Life in the Family and Society, Subtopic: Unity and Community) "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." Christianity, Galatians 3.28 "The pebbles are the strength of the wall." African Traditional Religions. Buji Proverb (Nigeria) Part Five: Providence...(Topic: Eschatology and Messianic Hope, Subtopic:The Messiah) "Whenever the Law declines and the purpose of life is forgotten, I manifest myself on earth. I am born in every age to protect the good, to destroy evil, and to reestablish the Law." Hinduism. Bhagavad Gita 4.7-8 "Listen attentively with one heart. A man whose spirit shines brightly, a man whose mind is completely unified, a man whose virtue excels everyone--such a man will truly appear in this world. When he preaches precious laws, all the people will totally be satisfied as if the thirsty drink sweet drops of rain from heaven. And each and everyone will attain the path of liberation from struggles." Buddhism. Sutra of the Great Accomplishment of the Maitreya The actual many, mostly passage quotings are much longer of course. But each quote is really, really deep, and is really, really meaningful as what scriptures usually are. The quotes are from various religions such as African Traditional Religions, Buddhism (Theravada and Mahayana), Christian Science, Christianity, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Confucianism, Hinduism, Taoism, Islam, Judaism, Native American Religions, Shinto, Theosophy, Unification Church and many more. The reason I haven't given it a full five stars is because of all those headings, topics and subtopics. Why are there so many separations and diversifications? I know that people nowadays are still squabbling around a lot and mostly, mainly on religions and beliefs. But there might be a way to coalesce all the scriptures into one whole lump without banging the head in between as is done in this gigantic work for both editing (A. Wilson) and reading (myself and others). For example, the biggest heading might alone be 'mysticism' and then describe it in term of degrees and kinds. But the drift of this book is from the Judeo-Christian tradition.

I liked the way the book is organized by topics. The quotes of different religious scriptures side by side on the same topic make for a very fascinating and engaging presentation. A great volume for a source of information of world religions. Sourced from an army of different religious scholars from around the world. One of a kind resource.

I had read parts of this book online but it's so nice to have the book itself. I have been reading a few pages every morning to start my day. What a testimony both to God's love and human brother- and sisterhood to see how much different religions really have in common. I am learning so much and am challenged to become a better person.

I haven't seen anything like this anywhere. If you want a great overview of the convergences of the Great Spiritual Traditions, this is a great place to start. The weakness, of course, is that a work like this masks the divergence between Religious Traditions. But a book like this, paired with something like Prothero's "God is not One" (which emphasizes the differences between Religious traditions), would give the reader a phenomenal introduction to the convergences and divergences in World Religions.

Great for presentations and sermons to use all of the sacred writtings the world has to offer in a logical manner.

this text was incredibly helpful in finding those hard to place verses from various religions and it helped establish a sound base for my book in its religious aspects. It is clear, concise and edited by experts in their fields and makes its credibility knotches above so many others of its genre.

Great compilation of Holy Books on mutual understanding between religions, a great effort for unification and harmony. When it comes to ethics, values, faith, prayer, goals and whole virtues the Holy Scriptures of all the Great Religions bring all human beings to one Original Source, God.

I bought this as a gift for a friend who loves studying world religions and how they are related. She really enjoyed this book and gave it her thumbs up. She's basically my life guru, so I trust her and would say that this book must be super amazing.

I got the book with good situation and good timing more than I expected. Thank you for the service and Good Luck.

This is a must have for every thinker. This book shows how all religions have the same message. Man gives each religion a name and separates humankind by doing so. The entire book is online at <...>

An excellent resume of sayings and beliefs from a wide variety of religious backgrounds, giving a clear comparison that shows how much different religions actually have in common and how positive they basically are [eat your heart out, Dawkins] but without giving the impression that 'all religions are the same'. Easy to use and well worth it if you're interested in anything to do with comparative religion.

The Book"World Scripture" is like a dictionary, so i expected that it has no damages on pages at least. Unfortunately , the front cover and a few more pages had a strong crease . 20 more pages were badly wet. I knew it was the second hand book, but it should mentioned that it had a some damaged pages. Then I would not purchased it.

Useful reference.