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Library Journal Review

Some 60 scholars provide brief biographical sketches of approximately 1500 prominent religious leaders. Their survey is worldwide, and the chronology stretches from earliest recorded history to the present. The coverage of non-Judeo-Christian religions is quite extensive. The format and content resembles that of J. Gordon Melton's Religious Leaders of America ( LJ 11/1/91), though Melton's work has a narrower geographic and chronologic focus. Where coverage overlaps between the two works, Melton's entries tend to be longer than Hinnells's. The contributors provide objective and authoritative information, some of which is difficult to obtain elsewhere.-- Richard S. Watts, San Bernardino Cty. Lib., Cal. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

CHOICE Review

Useful, but overpriced, this book is a companion volume to the editor's Facts on File Dictionary of Religions (CH, Dec'84; also published in paperback as the Penguin Dictionary of Religions, 1984), which covered religious terms and deities. Following the same format, this new volume focuses on religious leaders, reformers, and thinkers, living or dead, throughout the world. Many entries can be found in more authoritative works, but the value of this compilation lies in its coverage of non-Western religious figures underrepresented in other sources. The signed articles are short sketches rather than in-depth treatments, and the bibliographic references, many of which will be found only in extensive collections, are not intended to be exhaustive. The appendixes include a bibliography, a set of maps, an index of entries by religious genus, and a general index. The black-and-white line maps are of poor quality and little help. Since this volume is three times the cost of the Facts on File Dictionary of Religions, many libraries would do well to wait and hope for a paperback edition.-W. Fontaine, Dartmouth College