The Concise Dictionary of Religion

This wonderful book in an excellent dictionary of religious words and phrases. In a remarkably short space, it defines the terms in a concise and highly informative way, often explaining how different groups differ on them. I have found that every word that I have been interested in is indeed covered in this book. I highly recommend this resource!

As a religious studies professor to undergraduate students, Irving Hexham understands the sense of bewilderment that can accompany any study of the world's religions. In this concise and helpful volume, he gives us short insights into an amazing array of topics: western religions, eastern religions, new religious movements, personalities, sacred texts, religious ideas and much more. If you seek depth, this is not the book for you. But it is extremely useful if you need short descriptions to help you become oriented in topics you encounter while studying or reading. I use it often to determine if a subject is something that I wish to pursue further in more detailed texts.