Learning about Religion

In this book you will learn about a variety of religions. You will be able to indicate where they can be found today, where they come from and how they came to South Africa and developed further once they were here. You will also be able to give a rough estimate of how many members each religion has and how people from different religions interact with one another. By the time you have finished reading this book, you will know the "what", the "where", the "when" and the "how many" of the world's religions.

You will be able to apply your knowledge to specific issues and you will have gained an appreciation for the wide diversity of religious thought. You will explore new worlds, from the fertile plains of Africa to the burning sands of Arabia, from the cathedrals of Europe to the pagodas of Asia.

Together we will walk alongside the acknowledged greatest of our species: Christ, Mohammed, the Buddha, Moses, Freud, Luther, Nagarjuna, Shankara, Marx ... you will already recognise some of these names, and the others too will become known to you as deep and profound thinkers. Some you will agree with, others not - but you will undoubtedly learn to appreciate how their efforts to understand and explain reality have influenced the history and development of humankind.

Some of the religions we will explore together will be well known to you already. In fact. you might even belong to one of them yourself! Others will be new and strange to you. Nevertheless, even if you think you already know a religion, try to approach it with an open mind and see if you can learn something new.