Book offers excellent overview on religions' take on today's issues

(CNS photo)

"World Religious and Contemporary Issues" is, overall, an excellent text suitable for use in adult education classes or undergraduate studies. Brennan R. Hill, the author, is professor emeritus in theology at Xavier University and his experience in teaching shows in the format and ease of use and readability of the book.
Hill begins with an overview of various approaches to the study of religion -- sociological, psychological and theological -- and the major components shared by all religions -- beliefs, rituals and morality. The book examines in some depth these aspects of the five major world systems of belief, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam.
For each, he narrates its history, insofar as this is known to contemporary scholarship, its core beliefs and hopes for how its followers can achieve its religious goals, personally and societally.
He speaks of the modern movements of each tradition as it has coped with factors such as rational, scientific thought, the massive migrations of peoples over the globe resulting in an intermingling and encounter of their followers with those of other faiths, often a reality not envisioned by the founders or the sacred texts upon which their traditions are based.