The Handy Islam Answer Book
In The Handy Islam Answer Book by John Rendard, PhD, you’ll find the answers to the things you wonder: history, legal matters, and basic beliefs, all at your fingertips.
Bookworm Sez
Starred Review. This highly accessible and satisfying book ... well-written and captivating resource explains Islam using an accessible and balanced approach … A strong choice for anyone of high school age and above who wishes to know about Islam and for those who provide ready reference.
Library Journal
... a helpful and comprehensive introduction to Islam ... an invaluable asset for schools, libraries, and individuals seeking an informed and organized reference book for those curious about Islam and its role in today’s world.
Publishers Weekly
Renard, a professor in the Department of Theological Studies at Saint Louis University, clearly knows his subject ...
School Library Journal
Reconciling the compassion, caring, and calls for peace from mainstream Muslim leaders with the bloodshed, mayhem, and misogyny spewed by violent extremists in the name of Islam can be difficult and confusing. Understanding the intertwined and complex relationship between Christianity and Islam can also be perplexing. And, yet, appreciating the true spiritual teachings at the core of the world’s second largest religion can be enlightening and encouraging.
The Handy Islam Answer Book is a must-have reference for our changing times. Compiled by a scholar of Islam with more than 40 years of research and teaching experience—he also comes from a western background and is a practicing Christian—this engaging primer brings cross-cultural insights into a religion that many people do not comprehend, and even fear. The history, beliefs, symbols, rituals, art and literature, customs, leadership, traditions, ethnic diversity and so much more on Islam and Muslim culture are covered in this user-friendly guide. It answers nearly 800 commonly-asked questions, including ...
• Do Muhammad and Jesus play similar roles in Islamic and Christian spiritualities?
• Is jihad always about war, or is it also a spiritual value?
• Do Muslims, Christians, and Jews worship the “same God”?
• Why do Jews, Christians, and Muslims all claim parts of Israel/Palestine as “Holy Land”?
• Does Islamic law specifically require women to veil their faces?
• Is it really forbidden to portray the Prophet in art and visual media?
• Why do Muslims pray five times a day while facing Mecca?
About John Renard, PhD
John Renard received his doctorate in Islamic studies from Harvard University. He currently teaches courses in Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism, religion and the arts, and comparative theology in the Department of Theological Studies at Saint Louis University. He authored Visible Ink Press’s popular comparative religion primer, The Handy Religion Answer Book, as well as numerous titles on Islam, including Tales of God’s Friends: Islamic Hagiography in Translation, and Islam and Christianity: Theological Themes in Comparative Perspective. He lives in St. Louis, Missouri.
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