Book Review: Understanding World Religions in 15 Minutes a Day

Book Review: Understanding World Religions in 15 Minutes a Day

The book's title is quite ambitious. Trying to describe any religious movement or cult in about 15 minutes is an enormous challenge. Overall, I'd say Garry Morgan succeeds in giving an overview of each religion. Where more than 15 minutes were needed, he breaks up a religion in more than one chapter (e.g. Islam). I think he does that wisely. Some chapters spend too much time on side issues (or pet peeves?). In the end, more than 15 minutes are really needed to address some cults.

For anyone that has absolutely no background knowledge (or time for research) on a specific cult, the book will be helpful. Anyone that has been involved in apologetics for any amount of time will find the book too basic.

Each chapter reads like a fair introduction to a larger work on the movements addressed. It would be great for the author to develop each into a full-fledged book.

If you are not interested in investing too much time on learning what each religious cult teaches, this book will give you a sufficient overview. It is always recommended that you read more than one author's take, however, to overcome author's biases (and we all have them!). For a more thorough treatment on the subject, Walter Martin's updated Kingdom of the Cults is a must for every library.

Disclosure: The book was received for free from BethanyHouse. The program does not require a positive review, only an honest one.