This work is the culmination of a five‐year project at Thomson Gale to create an encyclopedia of contemporary religious practice in every country of the world, such a resource having previously not existed.
The work consists of three volumes: Volume 1 is a collection of extended essays on 13 major faith groups, namely “African traditional religions, Baha'i, Buddhism, Christianity, Confucianism, Hinduism, Islam, Jainism, Judaism, Shinto, Sikhism, Taoism, and Zoroastrianism – and 28 of their sub‐groups, such as Anglicanism, Reform Judaism, Mahayana Buddhism, and Vaishnavism”. Volumes 2 and 3 consist of 193 essays on specific countries. Some more general information precedes the treatments of specific faiths, with sections for chronology, a list of holy days to the end of 2009, a small (and not terribly useful) selection of quotations, and a general glossary, as well as a comparative table of the main features of the faiths. An introductory essay considers some of the common elements in religious practice, geographical variations in practice, and some contemporary religious trends.
A total of 245 scholars and subject specialists have contributed to the work, under an editorial board of ten advisors. The Advisory Board consists of academics, although it is not clear to what extent they represent a broad spectrum of faiths, or indeed, any. Biographical notes are provided for all the contributors, and peer reviewers for the work; details include their appointments, publications, and the entries for which they are responsible. It is clear that the contributors are mainly academics, and have considerable expertise in their respective areas, although any personal religious affiliations are again not indicated. The impression created is that the authors are objective commentators, and, although this cannot absolutely be determined, certainly there are no participants from seminaries or theological colleges, as is often the case with reference works for religion. The majority of them are American, with a good minority from Europe, and a few from other locations, although entries for individual countries are not necessarily written by anyone from that country.
Faiths have been included on the basis of numbers of adherents, and also for their historical, cultural or theological impact, but the editors acknowledge that lack of space has prevented the selection of other groups worthy of discussion. In Volume l, religions are listed alphabetically, with essays on sub‐groups also arranged alphabetically, immediately after that for the religion generally. A standard format has been adopted for each entry, with subsections including date of origin, numbers of followers, history, leaders, holy places, festivals, dietary practices, rituals, membership, and social, political, and cultural aspects; these allow for easy comparison of different religions. Within these sections, the information is presented in the form of continuous prose, although glossaries of important terms are listed in shaded figures. Similar figures are also used occasionally to present other short sections of text, such as The Bodhisattva, or Numbers of Pentecostal Groups.
The volumes devoted to individual countries take a similar approach, with a standard set of headings used to divide the discussion of the principal religion(s) (based on number of followers); a section is allocated to other religions. The length of entries varies somewhat according to the number of religions covered, but normally runs to several pages; an effort has been made to keep the entries of comparable size, so that larger or more populous places do not have correspondingly long essays.
Despite some slight variation that must be expected from such a number of contributors, there is a very even editorial style; the general tenor of language is accessible, and evidently intended for the lay reader, rather than for academic or scholarly use. There is little use of technical terminology, and foreign language terms are translated and explained. An older child could reasonably easily understand most of the text, and the work would certainly prove useful in a school library, as well as in a college or public library. Given the potential for accusations of misrepresentation or bias, the editor has achieved a neutral and factual feel to the text, for which he must be congratulated.
The work is clearly laid out, if rather unexciting in its presentation. Black and white photographs, and maps showing the distribution and numbers of followers illustrate the entries, but the photographs lend a slightly dated feel, and a sense of having been taken from archives. More effort could perhaps have been made to present information visually, through line drawing and diagrams or charts. Although generally the design is good, a mix of fonts (serif and sans‐serif) have been used to distinguish between headings and sub‐headings on the contents pages, that are so similar in size as to be unhelpful. Another visual irritation is the persistent use of what appears to be an upper case “i” in the place of the number 1. There are some slight editorial inconsistencies. Numbers are not always managed in the same way; for example, in the glossary we read of the “10 paramitas (Buddhism)” but the “Five Pillars of Islam”, and names of deities and beliefs are variously provided with initial capitals or not.
Helpfully, the contents pages and the index are reproduced in every volume, as are the general introductory sections. Bibliographies are attached to each essay, and a good number of references are provided, these being mainly to books, thus making them more accessible to the layperson, than would be the case for journal articles.
Overall, this is a workmanlike product, and a reliable source of factual information about contemporary religion. It would prove a useful addition to a general library, although it does not offer a great deal in the way of deeper analysis or discussion, so is less likely to appeal to a reader beyond first‐year undergraduate level. At $350 it is relatively expensive, and despite the lack of competition in this field, I imagine that many libraries might not consider it wonderful value for money.
