The Religions of the World and the World-Religion
An Outline for Personal and Class Use (Classic Reprint)

Excerpt from The Religions of the World and the World-Religion: An Outline for Personal and Class Use<br><br>In view of the unmanageable mass of material to be dealt with, every teacher whose task it is to present the nature and the chief historic forms of religion, has felt the need of printed helps which, without hampering him in the free shaping of his own lectures or lecture courses, will prove time-saving and helpful when placed in the hands of his students. It is hoped and believed that the present volume will be found such a help. In any case, it is the fruit of long experience.<br><br>In the year 1873, in Boston University, was established the first chair ever instituted in an American university for instruction in religions and religion in the widest possible sense. xt the outset its occupant saw that, whatever the scope, and whatever the method of the work about to be attempted, the student would need for his orientation, first of all, a general introduction to the total field. It was also plain that, without waiting to complete this preliminary survey, the teacher could profitably start the student on helpful courses of reading, and even on independent investigations of historic questions in many fields. Moreover, as the experiment went on, it was quickly seen that, with classes often exceeding fifty in number, it was desirable to conduct the students along several lines of research at once; for the reason that no library could be expected to provide the referred-to books in such numbers that half a hundred men could simultaneously work on the same questions.<br><br>About the Publisher<br><br>Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com<br><br>This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.