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发帖数: 7025 | 1 Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, Christianity, Confucianism, Buddhism, Taoism...
Huston Smith handles each of these religions with such care and
understanding one truly believes they are reading the words of a believer of
each and not an outside observer. The title of the book says what's his
approach to religion: as wisdom traditions that are worth understanding,
study, and appreciation.
The World's Religions, by Huston Smith, has been a standard introduction to
its eponymous subject since its first publication in 1958. Smith writes
humbly, forswearing judgment on the validity of world religions. His
introduction asks, "How does it all sound from above? Like bedlam, or do the
strains blend in strange, ethereal harmony? ... We cannot know. All we can
do is try to listen carefully and with full attention to each voice in turn
as it addresses the divine. Such listening defines the purpose of this book.
" His criteria for inclusion and analysis of religions in this book are "
relevance to the modern mind" and "universality," and his interest in each
religion is more concerned with its principles than its context. Therefore,
he avoids cataloging the horrors and crimes of which religions have been
accused, and he attempts to show each "at their best." Yet The World's
Religions is no pollyannaish romp: "It is about religion alive," Huston
writes. "It calls the soul to the highest adventure it can undertake, a
proposed journey across the jungles, peaks, and deserts of the human spirit.
The call is to confront reality." And by translating the voices of Hinduism
, Buddhism, Islam, Confucianism, Christianity, and Judaism, among others,
Smith has amplified the divine call for generations of readers. --Michael
Joseph Gross
http://www.amazon.com/Worlds-Religions-Great-Wisdom-Traditions/
Is Huston too lenient on the stupidity and horrors committed by religious
believers? That is beyond the scope of an introductory text like this one,
and better treated in the context of theology, religious history, political
sciences, and other disciplines. He is more concerned with the question: "
Does religion still matter for modern intellectuals, and why?" and he has
said enough to digest. |
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