About the Book

This magisterial Norton Anthology, edited by world-renowned scholars under the direction of Pulitzer Prize winner Jack Miles, offers a portable library of more than 1,000 primary texts from the world's major religions: Hinduism, Buddhism, and Daoism (Volume 1); Judaism, Christianity, and Islam (Volume 2). The anthology brings together foundational works--the Bhagavad Gita, the Daodejing, the Bible, the Qur'an--with the writings of scholars, seekers, believers, and skeptics whose voices over centuries have kept these religions vital. To help readers encounter strikingly unfamiliar texts with pleasure, this Norton Anthology provides accessible introductions, headnotes, annotations, pronouncing glossaries, maps, illustrations, and chronologies. It also includes a dazzling general introduction by Jack Miles that questions whether religion can be defined and illuminates how world religions came to be acknowledged and studied, absorbed and altered, understood and misunderstood.

For readers of any religion or none, The Norton Anthology of World Religions opens new worlds that, as Miles writes, invite us all "to see others with a measure of openness, empathy, and good will...In that capacity lies the foundation of human sympathy and cultural wisdom."

Table of Contents:
Volume 1 : Hinduism, Buddhism, Daoism General Introduction: Art, Play and the Comparative Study of Religion HINDUISM • Introduction: The Zen Diagram of Hinduism - WENDY DONIGER CHRONOLOGY The Age of Ferment,m 300BCE -400CE HINDUISM IN SANSKRIT, 1500 B.c.E.-1200 C.E. The Synthesis of Hinduism, 400-1200 C.E. VERNACULAR HINDUISM IN SOUTH INDIA, 800-1800 C.E Tamil FInds its Many VOice, 810 to 1300. Shiva’s Warriors and Wives in Kannada, 800-1700 Passion for God in Telugu, 1100-1300 Falling at Shiva’s Feet and Rama’s Feet in Malayalam, 1850-1950 VERNACULAR HINDUISM IN NORTH INDIA, 800-1900 Tukaram of Maharashtra Says No! 1608-1649 Love and Anger in Bengal. 1500-1872 THE HINDU AUTHORS OF MODERNITY, 1900 AND AFTER Hinduism and the Twentieth-Century Writer BUDDHISM Introduction: In the World of the Buddha • DONALD S. LOPEZ, JR. CHRONOLOGY Buddhism in India • Buddhism in China • Buddhism in Korea • Buddhism in Japan • Buddhism in Tibet • Modern Buddhism DAOISM - Introduction: Daoism Lost and Found • JAMES ROBSON CHRONOLOGY The Dawn of Daolsm. From the Zhou Dynasty (1046-256 B.C.E.) through the Qin Dynasty (221-206 B.C.Eo) Classical Daoism Takes Shape: From the Han Dynasty (202 B.C.E.-220 C.E.) through the Six Dynasties Period (220-589 C.E.) The Consolidation and Expansion of Daoism: From the Sui Dynasty (581-618 C.E.) through the Tang Dynasty (618-907 C.E.) The Resurgence and Diversification of Daoism: The Song (960-1279 C.E.) and Yuan (1260-1368 c.e.) Dynasties The New Standardization and Unification of Daoism: From the Ming Dynasty (1368-1644 C.E) through the Qing Dynasty (1644-1912 c.e.) Modern Chinese History and the Remaking of Daoism From the Republican Era (1912-1949) to the Early Twenty-First Century VOLUME TWO: Judaism, Christianity, Islam General Introduction: Art, Play and the Comparative Study of Religion: Jack Miles Judaism: Introduction: Israel among the Nations- David Biale Second Temple Literature. 538 B.C.E.-70 C.E. CHRONOLOGY THE BIBLE AFTER THE BIBLE World of the Rabbis. First-Seventh Century C.E. CHRONOLOGY THE ORAL TORAH LAW AND LEGEND THE RABBIS AMONG PAGANS AND JEWS The Jewish Middle Ages. 637-1789 CHRONOLOGY MEDIEVAL CURRICULUM JOSEPH BEN JUDAH IBN AQNIN (ca. 1150-ca. 1220) •Tibb al-Nufus • A Course of Study PHILOSOPHY SAADYA GAON (881-942) LAW BIBLE COMMENTARY POETRY-SACRED AND SECULAR PIETY BEYOND THE LAW WOMEN’S SPIRITUALITY MYSTICISM ISAAC LURIA AND THE TRANSFORMATION OF KABBALAH IN PALESTINE MEDIEVAL MESSIANISM: BETWEEN POLITICS AND MYSTICISM HASIDISM AND ITS OPPONENTS HASIDISM’S OPPONENTS Modern Judaism. 1789 to the Present CHRONOLOGY HARBINGERS OF MODERNITY THE SCIENCE OF JUDAISM: THE NEW HISTORICISM NINETEENTH-CENTURY RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS REFORM REFORM BEGETS ORTHODOXY A MIDDLE PATH WOMEN’S VOICES THE TRADITION IN TWENTIETH-CENTURY JEWISH THOUGHT FEMINIST THINKERS CONFRONT THE TRADITION SHOAH POETS ZIONISM AND THE STATE OF ISRAEL SECULAR JEWS CONFRONT THE TRADITION CHRISTIANITY Introduction: The Words and the Word Made Flesh LAWRENCE S. CUNNINGHAM The Apostolic Era. 4 BCE.-100 CE THE OLD TESTAMENT THE NEW TESTAMENT The Patristic Era, 100-600 C.E. CHRONOLOGY EARLY CHRISTIAN WORSHIP •SAINT JUSTIN MARTYR (ca. 100-165) From The Apology OTHER CHRISTIAN GOSPELS ARTICULATIONS OF CHRISTIAN BELIEF BIOGRAPHICAL AND AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL TEXTS EARLY CHRISTIAN HYMNODY THE ASCETIC TRADITION The Middle Ages. 600-1300 CHRONOLOGY MISSIONARY EXPANSION SAINT BEDE THE VENERABLE (673?-735) •Ecclesiastical History of the English People • From Book Two THE MENDICANT TRADITION The Late Middle Ages and the Renaissance.1300-1517 CHRONOLOGY VISIONS OF HELL AND HEAVEN, CREATION AND CREATOR OUTSPOKEN WOMEN AND THE FIRST STIRRINGS OF REFORM Reformations and the Wars of Religion, 1517-1700 DUELING MARTYROLOGIES: • CHRISTIAN CONTRA CHRISTIAN SPANISH MYSTICS OF THE CATHOLIC REFORMATION CHRISTIANITY REACHES THE NEW WORLD AND CHINA • BARTOLOME DE LAS CASAS (1484-1556) • Rules for Confessors BAROQUE DEVOTION IN A CENTURY OF CONVERSION AND COUNTERCONVERSION EPICS OF SALVATION • JOHN MILTON (1608-1674) • Paradise Lost • From Book I • From Book XII PROTESTANT CATHOLICS, • CATHOLIC PROTESTANTS, AND BEYOND Encounters with Modernity, 1700-1914 CHRONOLOGY THE BIBLE WITHIN THE LIMITS OF REASON ALONE ROMANTICISM, NATURE, AND THE CHRISTIANITY OF THE HEART SCANDAL AND PARADOX, FEAR AND FAITH THE SEA OF FAITH: EBB OR FLOOD? The Twentieth Century, 1914-2001 The New Millennium. 2001-the Present JANE DAMMEN McAULIFFE QUR’AN • GOD’S CULMINATING GIFT TO HUMANKIND SIRA: THE LIFE STORY OF THE PROPHET HADITH AND SUNNA SHARI’A AND FIQH: DIVINE WILL AND HUMAN INTERPRETATION THE INTELLECTUAL ELABORATION OF THE CLASSICAL SYNTHESIS FALSAFA: PHILOSOPHY ULUM AL-QUMtN: SCRIPTURE SCHOLARSHIP OR "QURANIC SCIENCES" ‘lLM AL-AKHLAQ: • PRIVATE ETHICS AND PUBLIC GOVERNANCE BELLES LETTRES: THE FINE ARTS OF POETRY AND PROSE QASIDA: THE ARABIC ODE • ‘ALQAMA (fl. sixth century) • Is What You Knew Kept Secret The Classical Synthesis Encounters • Modernity, 1765 to the Present CHRONOLOGY COLONIALISM AND POSTCOLONIALISM • AL-JABARTI (1753-1825/26) • From The History of the Period of the French •THE EMERGENCE OF WOMEN’S VOICES NEGOTIATING RELIGIOUS PLURALISM