Hinduism: A Cultural Perspective (2nd Edition)

Rating:
Summary: Concise and comprehensible
Review: This book is a concise introduction to Hinduism for Westerners. It covers the early history and development of the religion, Hindu sects, Hinduism and the arts, central beliefs, worship practices, social structure, and symbolism. The book is illustrated with high quality black-and-white photos. It includes a glossary, a bibliography of further readings organized by topic, and an index.

I searched for a comprehensible introduction to Hinduism without success until I stumbled across this book. I've read everything I could find on Hinduism from Huston Smith to Klaus Klostermaier and was still left scratching my head, wondering what the central tenets in the Hindu religion are. I found Klostermaier informative in some aspects, but his description tends to be so detailed and technical that I lost the forest through the trees. In contrast, Kinsley is quite succinct and writes on a level that interested Western general readers can easily understand. He covers the central tension in the religion, the struggle to choose between serving one's earthly duties and seeking personal release from the cycle of rebirth, as well as the main religious texts exceptionally well. He also describes many facets of the cultural connections to the religion quite well- -I found his observations on the importance of ornamentation and idealism in the arts to be especially illuminating. Not only does it help make sense of Hindu graphic arts, but it has also helped me make more sense of the focus on ornamentation in Indian classical music. Kinsley doesn't explain the Hindu Gods as clearly as some of the other topics that he discusses, and I find that I am still a little hazy on who's who in the pantheon, and how they are related to each other. But over all, despite its brevity, this book has given me a much firmer grasp of Hinduism than any other books I have read to date on the topic.

Rating:
Summary: Concise and comprehensible
Review: This book is a concise introduction to Hinduism for Westerners. It covers the early history and development of the religion, Hindu sects, Hinduism and the arts, central beliefs, worship practices, social structure, and symbolism. The book is illustrated with high quality black-and-white photos. It includes a glossary, a bibliography of further readings organized by topic, and an index.

I searched for a comprehensible introduction to Hinduism without success until I stumbled across this book. I've read everything I could find on Hinduism from Huston Smith to Klaus Klostermaier and was still left scratching my head, wondering what the central tenets in the Hindu religion are. I found Klostermaier informative in some aspects, but his description tends to be so detailed and technical that I lost the forest through the trees. In contrast, Kinsley is quite succinct and writes on a level that interested Western general readers can easily understand. He covers the central tension in the religion, the struggle to choose between serving one's earthly duties and seeking personal release from the cycle of rebirth, as well as the main religious texts exceptionally well. He also describes many facets of the cultural connections to the religion quite well- -I found his observations on the importance of ornamentation and idealism in the arts to be especially illuminating. Not only does it help make sense of Hindu graphic arts, but it has also helped me make more sense of the focus on ornamentation in Indian classical music. Kinsley doesn't explain the Hindu Gods as clearly as some of the other topics that he discusses, and I find that I am still a little hazy on who's who in the pantheon, and how they are related to each other. But over all, despite its brevity, this book has given me a much firmer grasp of Hinduism than any other books I have read to date on the topic.

Rating:
Summary: An excellent introduction to Hinduism
Review: This book is an excellent, brief introduction to Hinduism. It centers on the often conflicting demands of dharma (duty) and moksha (release) and various Hindu reconcilliations of these two ideals. In doing so it contains many brief stories from various Hindu texts, especially the Mahabharata. It also contains chapters on Hindu social structure, women and Hinduism, and Hindu temple architecture and its relation to worship.