Charts of World Religions provides an invaluable resource for students and anyone interested in understanding today's complex religious mosaic. It allows quick comparison and contrast of numerous religions.In clear, easy-to-understand charts, this book provides vital information on such topics as the origins of different religions, the nature of deity or ultimate spiritual reality, the source of spiritual truth, the nature of the human predicament, and the nature of salvation/enlightenment/liberation. Similarities and differences between various beliefs are brought out, and subdivisions of broad categories, such as various branches of Christianity and Islam, are detailed.More than ninety charts appear in six major sections:- Prolegomena to World Religions- Comparison of World Religions- Ancient Mediterranean Religionso Egyptian pantheon, Graeco-Roman deities, and more- Western Religionso Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Baha'i, and Secular Humanism- Eastern Religionso Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Jainism, Zoroastrianism, Shintoism, Confucianism, and Sikhism- Indigenous Religionso African, Caribbean, and Native American"Wayne House's Charts of World Religions is an excellent resource for both the overall picture and the painstaking details of religious belief around the world."-Win Corduan, professor of philosophy and religion, Taylor University

Charts of World Religions
Copyright © 2006 by H. Wayne House
Requests for information should be addressed to:
Zondervan, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49530
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
House, H. Wayne.
Charts of world religions / H. Wayne House.
p. cm. (ZondervanCharts)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
Summary: This collection of charts shows what the major religions of the world have in common and how they
differ in terms of beliefs, practices, and understanding of human nature and the supernatural — Provided by publisher.
ISBN-13: 978-0-310-20495-4 (softcover)
ISBN-10: 0-310-20495-X (softcover)
1. Religions — Charts, diagrams, etc. I. Title. II. Series.
BL82.H68 2005
200'.22'3 — dc22
2005016025
All Scripture quotations, unless otherwise noted, are taken from the Holy Bible: New International Version®. Copyright ©
1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved.
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Part 1
Prolegomena
to
World Religions
Friedrich
Schleiermacher
(1768–1834)
“The essence of religion consists in the feeling of absolute dependence.”
James Martineau
(1805–1900)
“Religion is the belief in … a Divine mind and will ruling the universe and
holding moral relations with mankind.”
C. P. Tiele
(1830–1902)
“Religion is … that pure and reverential disposition or frame of mind
which we call piety.”
F. H. Bradley
(1846–1924)
“Religion is … the attempt to express the complete reality of goodness
through every aspect of our being.”
James Frazier
(1854–1941) “[Religion is] … a propitiation or conciliation of powers superior to man.”
Emile Durkheim
(1858–1917)
“[Religion is] … a unified system of beliefs and practices relative to sacred
things, … which unite into one single moral community.”
Rudolf Otto
(1869–1937)
“Religion is that which grows out of, and gives expression to, experience of
the holy in its various aspects.”
Paul Tillich
(1886–1965)
“Religion is the state of being grasped by an ultimate concern, a concern
which qualifies all other concerns as preliminary and which itself contains
the answer to the question of the meaning of our life.”
J. Milton Yinger
(1916– )
“Religion is a system of beliefs and practices by means of which a group of
people struggle with the ultimate problem of human life.”
John Hick
(1922– ) “Religion constitutes our varied human response to transcendent Reality.”
Ninian Smart
(1927–2001)
Six characteristics or dimensions of religion: “the ritual, the mythological,
the doctrinal, the ethical, the social, and the experiential.”
Peter Berger
(1929– )
“[Religion is] … the establishment through human activity of an allembracing
sacred order, that is, of a sacred cosmos that will be capable of
maintaining itself in the ever-present face of chaos.”
James C. Livingston
(1930– )
“Religion is that system of activities and beliefs directed toward that which
is perceived to be of sacred value and transforming power.”
Roy A. Clouser
(1937– )
“A religious belief is any belief in something or other as divine. ‘Divine’
means having the status of not depending on anything else.”
Roland Robertson
(1938– )
“[Religion pertains] to a distinction between an empirical and a superempirical,
transcendent reality: the affairs of the empirical being subordinated
in significance to the non-empirical.”
What Is Religion?
Chart 1
Existential Faith and religious experience
Intellectual Formal statements of belief (a religion’s central beliefs or truth claims)
Institutional Organizations advocating and transmitting beliefs
Ethical Teachings and beliefs that relate to moral conduct
Four Functional Modes of Religion
Strong Rationalism
In order for a religious belief system to be properly and rationally
accepted, conclusive evidence must be provided that proves the belief system
in question to be true.
Fideism
(Faith-ism)
Religious belief systems cannot (or ought not) be subjected to rational
evaluation.
Critical Rationalism Religious belief systems can and should be rationally criticized and
evaluated, even though conclusive proof of such systems is impossible.
Three Basic Views on Faith and Reason
Belief A statement that is taken to be true; a truth claim.
Experience
An event one lives through (either as a participant or as an observer) and
about which one is conscious or aware. Such events are not merely emotional
states; rather, they involve concepts and beliefs about the Being or Reality that
is experienced.
Religious Statement A truth claim about God or Ultimate Reality and his or its relationship to
the world.
Miracle
An event that is (1) contrary to ordinary human experience, and (2)
the result of divine activity. On one view, this divine activity “breaks,”
“suspends,” or “counteracts via a supernatural force” the laws of nature. On
another, this divine activity causes occurrences that do not conform to the
way in which reality is normally experienced.
Terms Relating to Religion
Charts 2, 3, 4
Experiential Personal spiritual experiences
Ritual Sacred activities expressed in worship, sacrifice, and other formalized practices
Myth Stories that encapsulate fundamental beliefs of a group
Social Institutional forms of religion
Ethics Moral codes and guides to behavior
Doctrine Systematization of beliefs
Six Dimensions of Religion
Position Viewpoint Advocates1
Religious
Exclusivism
There are elements of truth in other religions, but only
one religion is comprehensively and fundamentally true.

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