On Common Ground emerged from questions raised by Professor Diana Eck and her students at Harvard University in their research as part of the Pluralism Project. These questions focused on how the religious landscape of America is changing as immigrants from all over the world settle here, how religious traditions change as immigrants become assimilated into the population, and how the country is changing along with this new religious diversity.
The title uses three interrelated sections to approach the topics. Each section begins by offering both an introductory essay and a movie (narrated slide show) to set the tone for the topics. A New Religious Landscape covers over 400 profiles of mosques, temples, churches, synagogues, and other places of worship. It shows a map of the United States with buttons for eighteen cities and regions. Each button provides introductions to the world religions in that particular city or region. A list of the religious centers appears in a box for easy selection to view a photo and a brief essay. A regional map provides the same information with the added benefit of showing the location of a religious center in relation to the others in the city or region. A directory button displays name, religious affiliation, address, and telephone number for each center.
America’s Many Religions lets the student learn about fifteen religious traditions currently practiced in the United States. These include Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism, Native American religions, Baha’i, Confucianism, Jainism, Shinto, Taoism, Zoroastrianism, Paganism, and Afro‐Caribbean traditions. Each tradition has several essays and timelines to explore its history in the world and in the United States. A profiles button highlights a few of the people, organizations, and resources of each tradition. A Multimedia section presents the songs and devotions, festivals and ritual, programs of religious education and social action of the various traditions.
Encountering Religious Diversity focuses on what the diversity of religious traditions means for the United States. A section called Historical Perspectives explores the history of interreligious encounter through text, images, and historical documents. Another section, Today’s Challenges, looks at questions the country’s religious diversity poses today.
On Common Ground will run on a 486 33 MHz or better computer with 8 MB RAM, 640 x 480 256 color display, double‐speed CD‐ROM drive, Windows 3.x or Windows 95, and 16‐bit sound card with speakers or headphones. The program will not run with more than 256 colors and will prompt to re‐set the display to 256 colors. It also requires 32‐bit QuickTime for Windows which it will install if needed. The Macintosh version, on the same disc, requires a 68030 processor or faster, System 7.1 or later, 8 MB RAM, color monitor, and double‐speed CD‐ROM drive.
The interface is visually appealing despite the small print size which can be difficult to read at times, particularly with captions which can sometimes blend with background graphics. Readers cannot cut, copy, or paste information; but they may print some (but not all ) of the essays. They can also place bookmarks for later reference.
Navigating On Common Ground is very easy. While the icons and buttons provide the main access tools, all options display on the menu bar at the top with pull down menus. Sometimes, selecting from these pull down menus can be quicker than using the navigation buttons on the side to go home, back, or to the thematic index or the arrows at the bottom to go to the next or previous topic. The program identifies the path to the topic at the bottom of the screen so a reader does not get lost. A Connections button displays a small window containing a list of related materials on the CD. Clicking on one of the items goes to the appropriate screen.
Representatives of each tradition speak about their own faith and experience throughout this title. In this way, it is more personal and impressionistic than most titles dealing with comparative religions. On the other hand, it’s not very easy to get a clear understanding of the basic tenets of a given tradition or to understand what makes them different from another group. For example, we learn that Judaism comprises Hasidic, Orthodox, and Reformed Jews but not what makes one Orthodox rather than Reformed. Similarly, the Christian tradition does not make any distinctions into denominations, such as Methodists, Baptists, Lutherans, United Church of Christ, Mennonites, Catholics, etc. nor does it explore the variety of thought among the sub‐groups of a particular denomination. For this reason, On Common Ground will be better suited for social studies courses, particularly sociology of religion, or courses that deal with multiculturalism.
