The Story of Religion

A history of the major world religions is presented in this advanced picture book from prolific author/illustrator team and husband and wife Betsy and Giulio Maestro. Beginning with a discussion of what religion is and is meant to do, the kinds of questions about the world and about life that it is meant to answer, the book proceeds to the nature-centered religions of prehistory, and the different polytheistic faiths found around the world, from ancient Sumer and Egypt to the ancient Americas and the classical Greek and Roman world. Specific attention is then paid to Taoism, Confucianism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The book closes with extensive back matter, including sections on the sacred books of various show more faiths, their festivals and holidays, other religions, the Golden Rule, and an index...

Published in 1996, The Story of Religion is the fifteenth book I have read from Betsy Maestro and the sixteenth from Giulio Maestro. It is an engaging and informative work of non-fiction on an important subject, and with one notable exception, would make an excellent title for use in educational venues, including grade-school classrooms and homeschooling settings. I thought the author did a good job covering a wide range of beliefs and customs, tying them together in a coherent way. The accompanying artwork, done in colored pencil, ink and watercolor, was appealing, and well up to Giulio Maestro's normal high standard. My only critique (the exception noted above), is my disagreement with the philosophical statement at the end of the book, between the main text and the back matter, to the effect that there is no one true way to seek and understand God, and that accepting this is the way to tolerance and peace. While I am inclined to agree with the first part of this on a metaphysical level—I do believe that there are many ways of approaching and understanding the divine—I think it is misguided to expect sincere and pious believers of any specific faith to reject the idea that there is one true way. For many of them, this kind of belief is central to their faith, and to reject it is to reject that faith. I think it is more realistic, and more just, to state that peace and tolerance in this matter rest on accepting and respecting the idea that all people have the right to answer these questions for themselves, and that it is not given to us to try and direct or force them onto any path, even if we sincerely believe it is the one true one. This balances reality—many people wouldn't belong to a religion if they didn't think it offered the correct answers and path—with the requirements of justice. With this criticism noted, and with the exception of that single page, I would recommend this one as a good beginning text on worlds religions, for the study of young students in the primary grades. show less

The Story of Religion serves as an information text that gives its readers a very brief and simplistic explanation of the basic tenets of several major world religions. Given the globe-spanning nature of the information covered, it has been classified as an international book.

This is not a book that is intended to proselytize any one religion to anyone, but rather inform them with information that, unfortunately in public schools, cannot often be discussed.

One of the major problems that I have with this book is that its really dry, i.e. there is no catchy style to the writing.

The big idea here is that the world is peppered with people who have different beliefs. Therefore we must learn and expect tolerance. Towards the conclusion show more there is a somewhat hokey explanation of all religions tying back to God which I feel kind of defeats the purpose of text, i.e. perhaps it is proselytizing, just in a "we're all one in the Matrix" kind of thing. But this is a helpful book. It will be in my son's library. show less

This book is getting to introduce us to the history of different religions. It shows us the uniqueness of all people and what they believe and their values and praises.

I recommend this book to fifth graders because it is a little more complex and a more serious conversation to have with kids. This book is very informational about all the different religions. This can help kids realize that many places in the world do things completely different from their usuals.