Michael Molloy’s Experiencing the World’s Religions
Michael Molloy’s Experiencing the World’s Religions (Molloy, 2010) is a book rich in captivating and insightful information about historical religions practiced in many parts of the world; Asia, Europe, Africa, America, and the rest of the world. The author, Michael Molloy, uses his vast scholarly experience in the study of religion to present a compelling masterpiece about human religion and belief systems. He brings into perspective the history and characteristics of major religious traditions and practices and how they affect believers’ lives. The main point the author is putting to the reader is to make them understand religion as a living cultural wellspring presented in the form of ceremonies, art, scripture, food, music, clothing, architecture, and pilgrimage. According to the author, as indicated on page 26, the reasons why everyone should read this book is to enable them to gain insight into religious traditions, understand what religions share, understand people’s religious orientations, tolerate and appreciate religions, and finally, develop intellectual questioning of religious principles. The book prepares readers to view religion as dynamic, cultural, and geographically influenced. Additionally, the author is creating an atmosphere of curiosity towards religions beyond the reader’s beliefs. The religions discussed in the book are indigenous, Hinduism, Buddhism, Sikhism, Jainism, Daoism, Confucianism, Shinto, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam.
This book is Michael Molly’s fifth edition of Experiencing the World’s Religions publications. The book focuses on describing and analyzing the tradition, challenge, and change within world religions. The book is a paperback format printed on an acid-free paper. McGraw-Hill, New York in 2010 published it, and its attractive photos captured and edited by Hilgers, T.L. It contains 626 pages, and its ISBN is 978-0-07-340750-0. The author objectively organized the flow of ideas such that each chapter prepares the reader for the next. The reader can personally and easily connect with the discussions. It is guided by expanded discussions, primary source excerpts, pedagogy, and religious controversies, making one glued to its contents from the beginning to the end. Every religious concept is accompanied by clear and high definition photographs making it lively and eye-catching.
Chapter one of the book starts with the author’s personal religious encounter, followed by exploring the meaning, understanding, and different characteristics of religion. Molloy adopts Julian Huxley’s definition of religion as ‘a way of life founded upon the apprehension of sacredness in existence.’ Still, he incorporates the traditional dictionary definition as ‘A system of belief that involves worship of a God or gods, prayer, ritual, and a moral code.’ Based on the definitions, the author identifies eight elements that characterize all religions. These features are belief systems, sacredness, believers’ community, central myths, rituals, Characteristic emotional experiences, religious ethics, and material expression. According to the author, all these elements are used to identify a particular religion and subsequently reinforce and enrich it. For instance, on page 7, the Monks’ dance ritual symbolizes symbolic reenactments of a religion’s key stories. In this chapter, Molloy clearly informs readers of Monotheistic’s distinction (believing in one supreme being as by practiced by Christians, Jews), and polytheistic (believing and worshiping many gods such as indigenous religions). Still, the chapter describes a multidisciplinary approach to religion, which are theology, Psychology, mythology, philosophy, archaeology, arts, anthropology, linguistics, and literary theory.
The next chapters, each starting with the author’s personal encounter, describe different religions in terms of historical origin, traditions, symbols, belief systems, controversies, and related religions and regions where they are popularly practiced. For instance, chapter two describes indigenous religions and their ancient and present practices. The book opines that indigenous religious are synonymous with native or traditional beliefs, including praying facing mountains, rivers, or forests. In most parts of the world, this is the religion of forefathers and some grandfathers. The author presents Hinduism and Buddhism as religions originating in India and encourages meditation as the path to spiritual nourishment and sanctity. The Buddha and Vedas are sacred. Buddhists claim that their beliefs are beyond religion. It is a philosophy, a way of life. The author claims that Hindus and Buddhists strive to achieve true happiness obtained through the truth. This religion’s principles are leading moral lives, being mindful and aware of personal thoughts and actions, and developing wisdom and understanding. It has three marks of reality. The first one changes; people should always expect change. The second reality of no permanent identity; both the body and the soul are not permanent but change. Lastly is suffering; suffering is inevitable, and people must learn how to respond to it. Chapter five talks about Jainism and Sikhism. The author clearly tells the origin of and possible antagonism with Hinduism. They broke away from Hinduism because of differences in faith, specifically rejecting Vedas as the path to Nirvana. The founder of Sikhism is Guru Nanak. However, Jainism does not believe in a Creator. To them, natural forces control the world, and each person has a spiritual potential. Leaders such as Mahatma Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jnr advocated for nonviolent approaches in managing conflicts, which are aspects of Sikhism and Jainism.
Chapter six of this book describes the two traditional Chinese religions; Daoism and Confucianism. These religions’ profound elements are veneration of ancestors, believing in spirits and Tians, divination, and seeing patterns in nature. As earlier indicated, the author transverses continents. In chapter seven, the book presents the Shinto religion. This is Japanese religion with no clear founder but believed to have originated from India or China. Its architecture, poetry, ceramics, art, philosophy, cuisine, clothing design, and city planning are characterized by architecture. Chapter eight of the book discusses Judaism, which one of the oldest and historical religions popular among Jews. It is the most popular religion in Israel. Interestingly, the Christian’s Messiah, Jesus Christ, was born by Jewish parents, grew up in Jewish traditions, and preached there. This chapter gives an insight into Christianity, which revolves around Jesus Christ. Therefore, chapter nine deals with Christianity. The book explains it as a religion dating over 2000 years ago. It is the largest religion in the world. It is believers called Christians who believe in God and Jesus as the Son of God. The bible is the holy scripture, and those who believe in Jesus and God will go to heaven while sinners will go to hell.
Chapter ten explores Islam as a religion that started in the Middle East. Its believers are called Muslims, and the founder is Prophet Muhammad. The holy book is the Quran. The author puts Islam as the second-largest religion after Christianity. Furthermore, the book narrates the ideological controversies surrounding Islam, especially extremism.
In the last chapters, eleven and twelve, the book concludes with a discussion of religious alternative paths. It presents an array of emerging religious orientations such as contemporary paganism, Scientology, Bahai, Rastafarianism, Theosophy, religions of the Yoruba traditions, Cao Dai, and Falun Dong. Lastly, the book closes with an insight into the future of modern religion, and the influence of traditional believes on future belief systems. The author thinks that religion’s future will greatly be influenced by principles such as environmentalism and eclectic spirituality.
The most common sources of materials used by the author in this book are case studies, observations, photographs, and interviewing different respondents on religious matters; in each chapter, the starts with his personal encounter, which describes his journey to different countries and religious places. The book is lively because the author had a personal interaction with the practices described in the book. Additionally, the author secondary sources, such as a dictionary, journal articles, and research books, which enabled him to put up such an extensive book, 646 pages of different ideas is a sign of a comprehensive work.
My assessment of the book is based on the author’s ability to capture reader attention basing on the thesis. I think he successfully delivered whatever he wanted to deliver to the readers, which was to take the reader through a journey of religion, from west to east, north to south. In a nutshell, a reader can understand every bit of the book because of the simplified language, related concepts, and attractive supporting pictorials. It is relevant to students, especially those with limited knowledge of different religions.