I have spent just a few hours, so far, with the new Norton Anthology of World Religions, but what I have seen thus far is quite encouraging. It is a massive work, its two volumes weighing in at a total of almost 4,500 pages (and, according to Amazon, 8.4 pounds); and it is beautifully produced, to the point that I hesitated before actually reading it. (Its size and beauty risk relegating it to the coffee table, as opposed to one’s lap; perhaps a four-volume set would have been better than a two-volume one.)

Its task is ambitious: to portray the beliefs and cultures of Hinduism, Buddhism, Taoism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam both through the scriptures they hold sacred and through other writings by their adherents. Each of these faith traditions is a highly complex and contested reality, so almost every choice an anthologist makes is prone to endless second-guessing. Which parts of which Upanishads? Which Buddhist sutras? Which parts of the Bible, the Talmud, and the Koran? And then, which poets and epic writers; which mystics, ministers, and theologians?

Most of the decisions I have encountered thus far in the book are sensible, and give an accurate sense of the diversity within these faiths. Within Christianity, for example, there are selections from the Church Fathers, Aquinas, Dante, Luther, Calvin, Harnack, Kierkegaard, Chesterton, C. S. Lewis, Barth, and Martin Luther King Jr., among many others. I was disappointed at the absence of St. John of the Cross, but the Spanish mystical tradition of the Counterreformation is represented here by St. Teresa of Ávila; and I’m delighted that space was also found for the lovable medieval English mystic Julian of Norwich. One does not expect to, but one does, find the great Polish poet Czeslaw Milosz right next to the Guatemalan activist Rigoberta Menchú; the editors, to their credit, mention the controversy surrounding the latter’s famous book.

At a time when there is great pressure in academia to be politically correct about Islam, I am relieved to see that the Islam section of the book includes not just noble and starkly moving verses from the Koran about monotheism and “God, the beneficent, the merciful,” and some of the beautiful poetry of the Sufi mystics, but also passages from the writings of Sayyid Qutb, Ayatollah Khomeini, and Osama bin Laden. People like to mock those who of us who call Islam a “religion of peace,” but in fact it is exactly that, for very many Muslims. But it does not do to pretend that it is not, also, for many other Muslims — among them, Muslims who hold far too much power in their communities and in the world at large — a religion of war, bigotry, and oppression.

The editors have provided a generous amount of introductory material for all the sections of the book, and for all of the excerpts within the sections — vastly increasing the volumes’ value as a textbook for religious-studies courses. But for those of us who are not in school, and whose interest in religion is more spiritual than academic, these books can serve as an all-purpose interreligious devotional resource. The list price is $100, but Amazon is selling it for $63.25.

(I think I’ll be spending many months, or perhaps years, with these volumes, and I’ll report back if a more detailed acquaintance with them causes me to revise my judgment.)