Resources in studying religion
(Update: You can find this list on Amazon.com now!)
Before I get into the nitty-gritty, I’ll remind you that my expertise in religious studies is limited to a background in Christian theology (two years studying at a Reformed seminary) and analytic philosophy. I’ve done a lot of outside reading in order to get a grip on the field, but I’m most definitely a novice.
That said, below are some resources I’ve found useful as starting points. They’re divided into prolegomena/history, philosophy of religion, Buddhism, and Christianity. Of course, there are innumerable ways to skin the (Schroedinger’s) cat of religious studies. These are boxes that I’ve used to jumpstart my own investigation. Experts out there, jump in and add your comments to the mix! The list is not intended to be inclusive of every central text necessary for learning these traditions/approaches.
Prolegomena / History
The Great Transformation : The Beginning of Our Religious Traditions- Karen Armstrong - I enjoy Armstrong’s writing style and ability to tell stories while unfolding the nuances of religious development.
Scripture in the World Religions - Harold Coward - This book is helpful for quite a number of religions including Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, Buddhism.
The Varieties of Religious Experience - William James - A classic, you won’t encounter anyone in religious studies who hasn’t read this book. While not everyone agrees with James’ conclusions, his discussion of beliefs, mystical experience and religious worldviews are important to know.
Theories of Religion: A Reader - If you want to learn about the ways in which “religion” has been defined and studied, this is a great introductory text.
Philosophy of Religion
A Concise Encyclopedia of the Philosophy of Religion - Anthony C. Thisleton - this is a reference tool, more or less, with entries on prominent philosophers and topics.
A Comparative History of World Philosophy: From the Upanishads to Kant - Ben-Ami Scharfstein - This text aligns figures like Kant and Dharmakirti, so it assumes familiarity with at least one (most readers will know the Western philosophers) but despite being technical, is clearly written.
Religious Pluralism
Four Views on Salvation in a Pluralistic World - Alistair E. McGrath - Although published by Zondervan and revolving around responses to Christianity, this is a good introduction to the basic positions in pluralism.
Religious Pluralism and Truth: Essays on Cross-Cultural Philosophy of Religion - edited by Thomas Dean and the result of a series by the American Academy of Religion. Lots of views are represented here, along with discussions of the particulars of religions like Buddhism and Christianity. It’s more detailed than Four Views and presumes some prior expertise, but is a great compilation.
Buddhism / Indian Philosophy
Buddhist Scriptures (Penguin Classics) - this paperback book gives a wide variety of scriptures and is a nice introduction to varying Buddhist traditions
A Source Book in Indian Philosophy - Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan - major works in Buddhism, Hinduism, Jainism are excerpted here, with brief critical introductions.
A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy - useful for the Chinese Buddhist traditions (along with Taoism and Confucianism, of course)
The Foundations of Buddhism - Rupus Gethin - this book is topical, rather than focused on the subtleties of a particular tradition. He does, however, provide an overview of the geographical expansion of Buddhism.
Indian Philosophy: A Very Short Introduction - Sue Hamilton - like the Source Book, not limited to Buddhism, but a bit more technical and devoted to the philosophical questions.
Outlines of Indian Philosophy - M. Hiriyanna - can be read as follow-up to the Very Short Introduction (once you’ve been acquainted with the big picture), this classic work goes into detail about the debates between Indian religious traditions.
Christianity
The Bible -I have used the English Standard Version for the past several years, although you will want to have a few different translations on hand. Obviously, anyone who wants to study Christianity in much depth will need to learn Koine Greek (as opposed to Attic, the dialect used by Greek philosophers) and biblical Hebrew. It’s not usually necessary, though, to understand what the text is “saying”, if you have access to a variety of commentaries.
The Story of Christianity (volumes 1 and 2) - Justo Gonzalez - This is the text I used in seminary and I recommend it for anyone interested in getting their feet wet in Christian church history.
Christianity: Essence, History, and Future - Hans Kung - while Kung has a definite axe to grind in this thick book (a pseudo-Kuhnian vision of historical-theological paradigms), it’s easy to dig into a chapter and get a basic overview of any period of church history.
Doxology: A Systematic Theology by Geoffrey Wainwright isn’t a standard text (as far as I know) for studying Christianity. However, he organizes the typical systematics topics (soteriology, ecclesiology, pneumatology) around the way various Christian traditions understand them in worship. It’s theoretical and practical (in the sense of examining ritual) at the same time.
If you’re interested in the study of Jesus, you will probably want to pick up Dominic Crossan’s The Birth of Christianity as well as N.T. Wright’s books, Jesus and the Victory of God and The Resurrection of the Son of God. Both writers discuss the background to studying the historical Jesus, although they come to some drastically different conclusions.
Last in the series “All Religion, All the Time!“