The definitive guide to our world's religions. Comprehensive and authoritative, The Penguin Handbook of the World's Living Religions is compiled by a team of international scholars. This in-depth survey of active religions, fully updated to include modern developments and the most recent scholarship, now features chapters on twenty-first-century America, Britain, Canada, and Australia. Ranging across the globe, contributors explain the sources and history of today's religious systems, from Buddhism, Christianity, Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, and Islam, to regional groups in Africa, China, and Japan. Readers will find a wealth of detail on doctrines, practices, rites of passage, rituals, and the role of gender in modern faiths.