This is an extraordinary reference work representing a new, holistic approach to understanding world religions. Commissioned by the Reverend Sun Myung Moon in 1985, it required the labors of more than 40 scholars and religious leaders from every faith.
Sacred scripture lies at the very heart of religion.
As the standard of truth and bearer of the founder's revelation, sacred scripture gives religion its stability and identity. As the starting-point of education, sacred scripture conserves cultural identity and is the basis for ethics. But sacred scripture also promotes exclusivism and separateness. Based on a narrow-minded reading of scripture, each religion can assert that it is the sole possessor of truth. Yet as long as the world remained divided into discrete spheres of culture with little interchange among the different regions and cultures, it was fitting that within each cultural sphere, its scriptures be affirmed as absolute and their teachings as unique.