I thought I would introduce a helpful resource for Christians studying other religions. The Encyclopedic Dictionary of Cults, Sects, and World Religions: Revised and Updated Edition provides a helpful resources of both prominent and obscure world religions and cults. The book has two major sections that many will find useful: an encyclopedic article on the religion, cult, or sect, and a dictionary section that defines important terms found throughout the book.
The encyclopedic section provides details on a religious group's history, organization, teachings and beliefs (that includes a Christian evaluation of the beliefs held by the group), concluding remarks, contact information, the sacred text, and statistics about the group.
The dictionary section provides an alphabetized list of terms that have their associated religion in brackets [e.g. "Sura/Surah (ISLAM). The name for chapter divisions in the Koran. There are 114 suras in the Koran; each ne appears in a descending order of length, the longest first and the shortest last" (Encyclopedic Dictionary, 452).]
There are several advantages that readers will find in using this book:
- It is unashamedly Christian and the authors write from a biblical perspective. If, for instance, you have recently been in a discussion with a Mormon on your doorstep or a Wiccan at work, the authors attempt to highlight certain areas where non-Christian religions are different from Christianity. Larry Nichol, one of the authors, writes in the introduction, "The authors of this volume are committed to the belief that there is, in fact, objective truth that can be discovered and encountered. We know that Christianity's claim that the Bible is God's inspired Word, providentially preserved in the sacred texts of both the Old and New Testaments, is the truth... The answer we moderns of the early twenty-first century give is that Jesus Christ is 'the way, the truth and the life' (John 14:6). Our volume attempts to present this central truth to those who believe a host of other competing claims, whether it be the vague spirituality of the New Age Movement, the various 'enlightenments' of Hindu and Buddhist gurus, the utopia of Mormonism, or the dark world of magic, neopaganism, satanism, and witchcraft" (Encyclopedic Dictionary, 11). In this way it is a helpful apologetic tool.
- The breadth of religions, cults and sects that the book covers is also helpful. The authors, while including major religions, also provide material on smaller religious groups like the Unification Church, UFO cults, Satanism, and Transcendental Meditation.
- The book is laid out clearly and serves as an excellent quick reference.
- The book is (relatively) recent. The revised edition was published in 2006.
I have not read this book cover-to-cover, but I have used it on several occasions and found what material I did use was quite helpful. For those interested, Christianbooks.com is selling here for $26.99.
