This masterful six-volume encyclopedia provides comprehensive, global coverage of religion, emphasizing larger religious communities without neglecting the world's smaller religious outposts.

The multi-volume Encyclopedia of Global Religion provides a comprehensive overview of the globalization of religious culture and society around the world in both its historical and contemporary aspects. The encyclopedia includes topics related to the diaspora of cultures and dispersions of peoples; the transitional aspects of religious ideas and practices; the cultural diversity of religious traditions; and the responses of religion—both negative and positive—to multicultural society. The volumes include essays on the contemporary religious society of every country in the world.

The contributors to the encyclopedia are leading authorities on these topics from around the world. The editors, Mark Juergensmeyer and Wade Clark Roof., are sociologists of religion at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

This single-volume encyclopedia contains over 5,100 entries on religious movements and concepts, historical and legendary figures, divinities and supernatural characters, and important religious places. Get coverage of all religions, including in-depth articles of major religions—Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Islam, Judaism, and more. Discover the religions of our world with Britannica's Encyclopedia of World Religions.

he Encyclopedia of Religion and Nature, originally published in 2005, is a landmark work in the burgeoning field of religion and nature. It covers a vast and interdisciplinary range of material, from thinkers to religious traditions and beyond, with clarity and style. Widely praised by reviewers and the recipient of two reference work awards since its publication, this new, more affordable version is a must-have book for anyone interested in the manifold and fascinating links between religion and nature, in all their many senses.

Miracles give hope to the hopeless and exemplify the intersection of the divine and the mundane. They have shaped world history and continue to influence us through their presence in films, television, novels, and popular culture. This encyclopedia provides a unique resource on the philosophical, historical, religious, and cross-cultural conceptions of miracles that cut across denominational lines.

The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and Law (OEBL) provides the most up-to-date and extensive treatment of the Bible and law yet attempted, both updating and expanding the scope of previous scholarship in the field. In comprehensive overviews, scholars at the forefront of biblical studies and law address three foci: biblical law itself--its nature, collections, and genres; the ancient contexts of biblical law, throughout the ancient Mediterranean (ancient Near Eastern, Greco-Roman, and Early Jewish); and the afterlife and influence of biblical law in antiquity and in modern jurisprudence around the world. Essays include treatments of the Book of the Covenant, the Ten Commandments, the Sermon on the Mount, Greek Law, and the Laws of Hammurapi, but also testimony and witness, property, ritual, rhetoric, gender, and sexual legislation.

Leading scholars present entries on selected controversies and controversial individuals in American religious life from the colonial period to the present. Key figures, themes, terms, institutions and groups, books, and relevant secular topics that have contributed to religious controversy are included. This ambitious volume includes bibliographies for each entry which direct the reader to additional resources for further study. From Ralph David Abernathy to Zionism, this work will prove to be an essential reference tool for scholars, students, and anyone interested in religious issues.

This encyclopedia presents the religious experiences of women across time and cultures. The book includes sections on major religions as well as on spirituality, African religions, prehistoric religions, and other broad topics

The crux of this encyclopedia is its treatment of lesser-known holidays, like Alphabet Day, the Doll Festival, the Day of All Things, Maundy Thursday, and the Butter Lamp Festival. The average article for celebrations—both big and small—is a little over a page in length, complete with a list of references. Several observances by so-called unbelievers are also included: Darwin Day, Indivisible Day, and Freethought Day. Wiccan and neo-pagan groups are not overlooked, either.

Contains general essays that historically trace the major religious families and traditions, as well as directory listings that include contact and descriptive information on individual churches, religious bodies, and spiritual groups.

This landmark reference work is the first of its kind. Featuring 450 articles by an international community of scholars it is the definitive account of what we know about the Dead Sea Scrolls--their history, relevance, meaning, and the controversies that surround them.
Discovered in 1947 by a Bedouin shepherd, the collection of 800 manuscripts is older than any other collection of manuscripts of the Hebrew Scriptures by almost one thousand years. What do the scrolls tell us about the people who wrote them? What do they tell us about early Christianity and Second Temple Judaism? How do they confirm or contradict what we thought we knew about the Bible?

This new edition of the prize-winning Encyclopaedia of Judaism is nearly double the size of the original three-volume edition. It features 52 new entries and includes the two separately published supplementary volumes and bibliographic updates.
This second edition offers an authoritative, comprehensive, and systematic presentation of the current state of scholarship on fundamental issues of Judaism, both past and present. While heavy emphasis is placed on the classical literature of Judaism and its history, this edition also includes principal entries on circumcision, genetic engineering, homosexuality, intermarriage in American Judaism, and other acutely contemporary issues.

Some scholars believe that the influence of Islam in the United States can be traced back to Thomas Jefferson. Today, Islam and American Muslim populations are growing in importance in this country, and demand for information about them is high, especially in the aftermath of September 11, 2001. This A-to-Z encyclopedia will help students and other readers get a fast grip on pertinent holidays, terms, beliefs, practices, notables, and sects of the Islamic faith and Muslim practitioners in the United States. The accompanying primary documents volume provides 93 crucial articles, speeches, essays, poems, songs, and more to flesh out the encyclopedia entries.

The Oxford Encyclopedia of Islam and Politics provides in-depth coverage of the political dimensions of Islam and the Muslim world. Developments in Muslim societies in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries have highlighted the need for a major reference work focusing primarily on these dimensions. The realization of internal decay and relentless quest for reform, the collapse of the Islamic caliphate, the fall of most parts of the Muslim world under western colonialism, the emergence of nation-states, the dominance of secular ideologies, the rise of Islamic revivalist movements and faith-based political, economic, and social alternatives, the confrontation between Islamic movements and secular inspired regimes have constituted major turning points in the contemporary history of Muslim societies. At no time has the understanding of the nature and implications of these developments been needed more.

Scholarship on Islam and women has expanded exponentially over the past twenty years, with increasing specialization within the field, as well as cross-pollination between other fields and disciplines. With this surge in interest there is a genuine need for a systematic reference work to provide balanced comprehensive coverage of the field.

The second edition of this well-received two-volume study of Islam updates and adds to its predecessor 40 percent new content. It updates and revises most of the original 500+ entries and adds new topics to reflect changes in the Muslim world since 2004, from the emergence/re-emergence of Islamic regimes to challenges to the rule of religious leaders (Iran), to continuing instability across North Africa and the Middle East. The set will build on the first edition's approach to this still-growing religion: documenting and analyzing its history, as well as its doctrinal, legal,
social, and spiritual tenets, while assessing its influence on all areas of human activity in the regions where it is most established--the Middle East, Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas.

The Qur'ān is the primary religious text for one-sixth of the world’s population. Understood by Muslims to contain God's own words, it has been an object of reverence and of intense study for centuries. The thousands of volumes that Muslim scholars have devoted to qur'ānic interpretation and to the linguistic, rhetorical and narrative analysis of the text are sufficient to create entire libraries of qur'ānic studies.
Drawing upon a rich scholarly heritage, Brill's Encyclopaedia of the Qur'ān (EQ) combines alphabetically-arranged articles about the contents of the Qur'ān. It is an encyclopaedic dictionary of qur'ānic terms, concepts, personalities, place names, cultural history and exegesis extended with essays on the most important themes and subjects within qur'ānic studies. With nearly 1000 entries in 5 volumes, the EQ is the first comprehensive, multi-volume reference work on the Qur'ān to appear in a Western language.

This unique multidisciplinary study views Jesus as one of the most central figures in history with a wide-ranging impact on society, literature, art, and philosophy.

• Over 200 wide-ranging A–Z entries on the religious and secular influence of Jesus
• Over 100 contributors, including distinguished international scholars from many religious traditions
• 80 photos, including key works of devotional art from 2,000 years of religious painting and sculpture
• Numerous bibliographic references covering a wide variety of writing about Jesus

This encyclopedia is the first comprehensive survey of Hispanic American religiosity, contextualizing the roles of Latino and Latina Americans within U.S. religious culture.

• More than 100 entries on specific religious and spiritual traditions among Hispanic Americans, detailing the historic development of their distinctive Latino/a character
• Dozens of contributing scholars, each an expert in Hispanic religious traditions

This encyclopaedia documents the historic presence and contributions of Christianity in India and its neighbouring South Asian countries (Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and the Maldives). In addition, the volume includes entries on Afghanistan and Myanmar and on the global South Asian diaspora. Looking at rich archival material, the work documents the extensive apostolic heritage and the growth of the indigenous church in the post-colonial era, including that of the recent upsurge of the Christianity in some regions (for example, in North-East India and in Nepal), and a proliferation of churches of indigenous origin. Broadly covering events, people, institutions, concepts, theological issues, churches, denominations, historical developments, and contemporary themes, the topics have been addressed keeping in view the South Asian context, its nuances and distinctiveness.

This encyclopedia is a collaboration of the leading scholars in the field of Reformation research and the thought, life, and legacy of influence - for good and for ill - of Martin Luther. In 2017 the world marks 500 years since the beginning of the public work of Luther, whose protest against corrupt practices and the way theology was taught captured Europe's attention from 1517 onward. Comprising 125 extensive articles in three volumes, the Oxford Encyclopedia of Martin Luther examines:

This encyclopedia explores the intersection between biblical sources and ethical issues, both historical and modern, through extensive analytical and constructive treatments of a wide range of topics by leading biblical scholars and ethicists. Combining traditional theoretical frameworks, such as comparative religion, with more recent approaches (postmodern, queer and gender theory, etc.), the encyclopedia provides a landmark reference overview of everything from ethics in books of the Bible to modern movements and hot-button issues, such as capital punishment, bioethics, and abortion.

Extending the work of 19th and 20th century feminist scholarship and more recent queer studies, the Encyclopedia seeks to advance the scholarly conversation by systematically exploring the ways in which gender is constructed in the diverse texts, cultures, and readers that constitute 'the world of the Bible'. This comprehensive reference work reflects the diverse and interdisciplinary nature of the field and traces both historical and modern conceptions of gender and sexuality in the Bible.

The two-volume Oxford Encyclopedia of Biblical Interpretation (OEBI) fills a crucial need in the field of biblical studies by providing detailed, comprehensive treatments of the latest approaches to and methods for interpretation of the Bible written by expert practitioners. It will provide a single source for authoritative reference overviews of scholarship on some of the most important topics of study in the field of biblical studies. As with all high quality reference works, it provides a solid foundation that students and scholars can use to orientate themselves before venturing into original research.

Offering a wealth of reliable information, The Oxford Guide to People & Places of the Bible provides more than 300 articles that cover everyone from Adam and Eve to Jesus Christ and everywhere from the Garden of Eden to Golgotha and Gethsemane.
Readers will find fascinating, informative entries on virtually every major figure who walked across the biblical stage. Here are Hebrew Bible figures such as Cain and Abel, Noah and Methuselah, Abraham and Isaac, David and Goliath, Solomon and Sheba, Moses and Aaron, Naomi and Ruth, and Samson and Delilah. The New Testament is likewise well covered, with pieces on Peter and Paul, John the Baptist and Mary Magdalene, the apostles (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John), Pontius Pilate and Judas Iscariot, and of course Jesus, Mary, and Joseph.

Founded in 1540 by Ignatius of Loyola, the Society of Jesus (Jesuits) has been praised as a saintly god-send and condemned as the work of Satan. With some 600 entries written by 110 authors - those inside and outside the order - this encyclopedia opens up the complexities of Jesuit history and explores the current life and work of this Catholic religious order and its global vocation. Approximately 230 entries are biographies, focusing on key people in Jesuit history, while the majority of the entries focus on Jesuit ideals, concepts, terminology, places, institutions, and events. With some 70 illustrations highlighting the centrality of visual images in Jesuit life, this encyclopedia is a comprehensive volume providing accessible and authoritative coverage of the Jesuits' life and work across the continents during the last five centuries.

The connection between archaeology and the Bible was forged by the discoveries of the nineteenth century, and archaeological finds became the primary catalyst for changes in biblical studies throughout the twentieth century. A distinct subfield, Biblical Archaeology, as conceived by William Albright, arose in response to a wealth of information recovered from expeditions of importance for biblical studies.

This unique reference is a comprehensive encyclopedia dedicated to the institutions, religion, politics, and culture in Muslim societies throughout the world. Beginning coverage in the sixth century and extending it to the present day, the Encyclopedia covers Muslims in the Arab heartland as well as South and Southeast Asia, Europe, and the Americas.

The Oxford Encyclopedia of the Bible and the Arts (OEBART) is an in-depth, comprehensive reference work that covers the cultural history of biblical texts, themes, characters, images, and the Bible itself in the literary, visual, and musical arts. Appearing in response to the shifting landscape of biblical studies over the last decade, OEBART embraces the broadest possible definition of “interpretation”, one that includes a cultural-historical perspective. Entries are organized primarily according to specific literary, visual, and musical artists, types of works, and periods (e.g., Bach, Johann Sebastian; Shakespeare, William; Children’s Bibles and Literature; Christian Visual Art, Early), revealing how the Bible figures in each. OEBART contains 148 entries ranging in length from 2,000 to 12,000 words.

olume II of Brill's Encyclopedia of Hinduism builds upon the first volume by examining the sacred languages of Hinduism and its major religious texts, literary genres, and scholarly traditions as well as the vernaculars. It further explores the ritual traditions, including domestic rituals, mantras, and intoxication. In addition, performance and the arts such as martial arts, dance, and film feature prominently. The last section extensively investigates the meaning, connotations, and use of some forty leading concepts like karman, the self, renunciation, asceticism, meditation, and liberation. Sacred Texts, Ritual Traditions, Arts, Concepts is the second of ultimately five volumes, which will include an index in the final volume.

This is the first comprehensive resource on the subject of love in the teachings of the world's major religions, cultures, and philosophies. With 300+ entries covering notions of love that include emotions, actions, and relationships as expressed in world religions, philosophies, and cultures. Also with contributions from nearly 200 distinguished international scholars representing diverse religious traditions and cultures.

A resource ideal for students as well as general readers, this two-volume encyclopedia examines the diversity of the Asian American and Pacific Islander spiritual experience.
• Covers both common motifs in Asian American religious culture, such as Chinese New Year festivals and mortuary rituals, as well as many newly established faith traditions
• Contains entries on rarely addressed topics within Asian American religion, such as Hezhen Shamanism

Covers recent and historical phenomena, topics, concepts, cults, personalities, organizations, and publications associated with the fields of occultism and parapsychology. Includes over 2,000 biographies of prominent individuals and personalities in these fields; country entries on the development of occultism and parapsychology; and pro and con narrative on some of the controversial topics