Religion: A Discovery in Comics

Outstanding Dutch comics artist de Heer follows her previous books in the Discovery series on philosophy and science with this lively, intelligent survey of the world’s major religions: Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Hinduism, and Buddhism. Believing that religion should be taken seriously but not fanatically, de Heer maintains a calm and respectful attitude throughout as she describes the history of each religion and lists its major written texts, practices, and conflicts. She also interjects self-deprecating personal anecdotes from her own spiritual quest. Meanwhile, an impish little cartoon character who represents de Heer dances on eggshells as she anticipates queries and objections from less-tolerant members of one faith or another. She concludes that shared human needs make the religions more fundamentally similar than different. Though the results of her investigation may not be especially profound, the physical product still is wonderful; she has produced a beautiful little book, with clever design, witty cartooning, and splendid use of color. (Oct.)