Foreword Having grown up as a Roman Catholic in the early 1950s, I was not exposed to any religions outside my tradition Sadly, the prevailing attitude was that the other denominations were Christian but not Catholic, and even the study of their beliefs could harm your spiritual growth I loved the saints and had a devotion to St Therese of the Child Jesus She is called the Little Flower because she encouraged simple everyday spiritual practices Because of my religious fervor, I thought I had a vocation to the religious life and joined a community of Franciscan sisters But after four years, I grew to understand that I was following someone else’s path and not my own, so I chose to leave the community and my spiritual quest began in earnest Four decades later, after studying many traditions, I believe religion to be the external expression of our internal reality Religion lives because it gives a voice to our personal spiritual truth It is diverse because the human race is diverse But there is only one spiritual truth hidden within the many voices Finally, because it has the power to divide or unite humanity, depending on the attitude of the practitioner, it is the most important area of education Robyn Lebron has done an excellent job in encapsulating of the major and many minor schools of religious thought Beyond that, she has organized the material in a systematic way and presented the material in an easy-to-read format Specifically, she examines the history; God/gods; Christ/Christ-figure; basic doctrine; their worship service; practices of baptism, confirmation, and marriage; how each group deals with the subject of death/afterlife; teachings on doctrines of judgment, salvation, and any other special doctrines She highlights the minor differences between closely related religious groups, and groups that have grown out of a previous, shared heritage 15