Exploring the Spirituality of the World Religions: The Quest for Personal, Spiritual and Social Transformation

Description

This book is an insightful guide to the diverse ways that religious faith is practiced and spirituality is understood. Discussing contemporary issues such as post-modernism and the emergence of a "new paradigm," the new realities of geopolitics, globalization and global warming, this book explores the importance of religion in people's lives to provide direction in the society today. This book demonstrates the common quest among the world religions for a deeper and more profound spirituality. Describing the spiritual pathways of the various world religions, it assesses the ways that the beliefs, values and practices of these traditions can be life-giving, leading to personal and social responsibility and transformation, but also sometimes harmful and divisive, even used for dangerous purposes. Promoting constructive engagements between the world's religions, this book will connect social justice and ethical engagements with core religious practices and spiritualities. This is an ideal introductory text for students of world religions, spirituality and interfaith relations, broadening their understanding of these lived faiths.

Duncan S. Ferguson is an educator, author and consultant. He has served as Professor of Religious Studies and Director at the Center for Spiritual Life at Eckerd College, St Petersburg, Florida, USA. He received his PhD from The University of Edinburgh, UK.

"A wise and seasoned guide, Duncan Ferguson leads readers through the dense and often confusing thicket of the world's religions into spaces of understanding and appreciation. With unparalleled clarity and insight, this work lays bare the life-affirming and the life-denying potential of the world's great religious traditions. This lucid exploration of spiritual pathways from animism to Zoroaster shows how religious traditions can and should contribute to the development of world peace. Ferguson's book is a must read for those who desire to build bridges of understanding between the religious communities of the world rather than to throw up dividing walls of hostility." - Rev. Dr. Gordon S. Mikoski, Assistant Professor of Christian Education, Princeton Theological Seminary, USA, and President, Association of Practical Theology Duncan Ferguson is similarly captivated by the best that religions have to offer, but also challenges naive readers to take seriously the less-than-best aspects. -- Theology Today (Volume 68, No. 4)