The Oxford Handbook of Global Religions

This is a reference for understanding world religious societies in their contemporary global diversity. Comprising 60 essays, the volume focuses on communities rather than beliefs, symbols, or rites. It is organised into six sections corresponding to the major living religious traditions: the Indic cultural region, the Buddhist/Confucian, the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim regions, and the African cultural region. In each section an introductory essay discusses the social development of that religious tradition historically. The other essays cover the basic social facts - the community's size, location, organizational and pilgrimage centres, authority figures, patterns of governance, major subgroups and schisms - as well as issues regarding boundary maintenance, political involvement, role in providing cultural identity, and encounters with modernity.