Looking for catechisms or introductions to religions for total noobs

October 22, 2019 4:48 PM

I have accidentally found myself to be the advisor to Lutheran friends' church library. The "Other Faiths" shelf is pretty empty. Given that I am dealing with Lutherans, explainers for other religions that take something close to the form of Luther's Small Catechism would be good (i.e., explicitly designed for children or those who are woefully ignorant of religious details).

I would like to cover the obvious big targets of Roman Catholicism, Orthodox Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Buddhism, and Hinduism. Knowing that the subgroupings of some of these are almost fractal, any "big tent" resources you can think of that go into any detail on some of the major sects and their distinctions would be a plus.

In the interests of limited space, I'm trying to avoid some of the awesome historical-overview books by Reza Aslan or Karen Armstrong, and in the interests of tact, I'm trying to avoid things more in the "For Dummies" genre.

Thank you in advance.

previously, , previously

posted by ivan ivanych samovar to Religion & Philosophy (10 answers total)

Best answer: Is the issue with 'for dummies' literally the title, such that similar introductions could work? Oxford's Very Short Introduction series economizes on space pretty well and has 76 titles in the Religion category.
posted by Wobbuffet at 5:03 PM on October 22, 2019 [4 favorites]

Oh, for Hinduism, something you might find especially on target are a few Amar Chitra Katha comic books like the one for The Gita, which has the simple Q&A format you're looking for in the form of the conversation between Krishna and Arjun--a key moment. I don't see that one on their website, but individual titles are usually easy to find on eBay.
posted by Wobbuffet at 5:23 PM on October 22, 2019 [2 favorites]

Best answer: My Friend's Beliefs is a collection of very short description of different world religions written for roughly junior high aged readers. "Major" religions (Jewish, Buddist, Islam, Hindu and 8 kinds of Christians) get about 10 pages each, "other" religions (American variation on Christian including Mormons and Amish) get about a page each.
posted by metahawk at 5:26 PM on October 22, 2019 [1 favorite]

For Buddhism, a little volume of the Dhammapada would be good. All the various Buddhisms accept it as a collection of sayings and teachings of the Buddha.
posted by soren_lorensen at 5:42 PM on October 22, 2019

Response by poster: oh, you guys are awesome! keep them coming!
posted by ivan ivanych samovar at 6:55 PM on October 22, 2019

Best answer: It's billed more as an etiquette handbook, but maybe How to be a perfect stranger? Its thrust is more about "I've been randomly invited to a worship service at a faith I don't know about, how should I behave", but "what are the basic beliefs" is covered as well.
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 7:00 PM on October 22, 2019

For the church I belong to, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, there is a website that is dedicated to this. It is called ComeUntoChrist.org. They even have a short 60 second video that explains our basic beliefs.
posted by bove at 8:09 AM on October 23, 2019

Response by poster: Thank you everyone for your help!

If the mods don't mind, I'm going to leave this unresolved for another week or two in case any other excellent advice comes in, and then pass on your suggestions to my Lutheran homies.
posted by ivan ivanych samovar at 9:03 PM on October 27, 2019

Best answer: Walpola Rahula "What the Buddha Taught" is a text on Buddhist fundamentals stylistically oriented toward Western Protestant readers.
posted by nixon's meatloaf at 3:33 PM on November 4, 2019

Response by poster: Okay, I'm calling it. Thanks for all the great suggestions, everybody!
posted by ivan ivanych samovar at 4:41 PM on November 5, 2019