An Accessible, Engaging and Provocative Look at the Religions of the World

We all want to find meaning, not only in our individual lives but over the course of the story of humankind through the centuries.

Christians find that meaning in the person of Jesus Christ. And yet I believe we all need to come alongside those who think and feel differently. And our first task is to seek to understand.

Humankind seeks patterns, causations, meaningful connections. Yet we are up against our own folly and selective blindness and the black comedy of the human condition.
Nowhere in the past few years have I found this better expressed than in this book by Richard Holloway.

For one who wishes to know more about the bewildering array of religions human beings have believed in over the course of the centuries, "A Little History of Religion" is written by a man known as "the bishop who lost his faith." Inevitably there is a slight sardonic bias in his treatment, and yet, for someone seeking an "objective" book about religion I do believe this comes pretty close - a book whose writer doesn't have unquestioned "no-go" areas which are his own biassed presumptions underlying the narrative.

Using an accessible, lively, streetwise style, Richard Holloway manages to both convey a panoramic overview of the major shifts in the progress of religion, as well as occasionally stepping into the viewpoint of those individuals who, either in a flash of insight, or a bizarre, self-serving impulse, changed the course of history.

He takes us through Hinduism, Islam, Buddhism, Zoroastrianism and looks at the worldviews of Confucius and Lao Tse; and always with brilliant overviews and penetrating insightful observations. In particular, his overview of the entire story of the Old Testament, and his account of the clash between Mary Queen of Scots and John Knox in Scotland, is superb. And so is his comparison of Martin Luther and Guru Nanak (the first of the ten gurus of Sikhism). 

I also admired his masterly analysis of the fallout from the Reformation, which seems, arguably, as woeful and regrettable as the worse excesses of the system it sought to replace.

As we read this detailed survey showing how "of all the forms of superiority crafted by humans vanity, religious superiority is the most insufferable" we reach the Quakers, and they come as a blessed relief.

In the 1600's "the mighty in church and society gave themselves airs and graces... it went against the clear teaching of Jesus who had told them that self importance had no place among his disciples... but it was unsurprising because it was the world's way, and religion usually goes the world's way, no matter how many sacred robes it hides in."

The Quakers, Holloway tells us, "ended a childish way of reading the bible... maybe it needs to be interpreted and read more intelligently... and maybe we should not fear asserting our own conscience against some of its judgements." The Society of Friends, he notes, remains Christianity's conscience.

Then Holloway moves on through the American Protestant sects: Mormonism, Seventh Day Adventists, Jehovah's Witnesses, Scientology, the Church of Christ Scientist, the Unification Church (Moonies). He also gives us an account of the Native North American Indians, and describes their Ghost Dancing before their race vanished.

"Human discontent," he observes, "is constantly looking for an answer to its troubles. And there's always someone waiting in the wings eager to supply it with yet another new religion."

He then surveys Baha'i - the most ecumenical religion on earth today - prominent in the movement to bring the world's religions together in global ecumenism, most nobably in the World Parliament of Religion which held its most recent meeting in Salt Lake City in October 2015.

He moves on to Charles Darwin. "Modern science," he says, "did religion a favour by helping it to understand itself better and change the way it talked about itself."

Finally he examines Fundamentalism and religion's violent history.

This is an excellent book which I thoroughly recommend to anyone with lots of questions about religion.