Norton’s Latest Anthology Explores World Religion

THE NEW YORK TIMES
By Jennifer Schuessler

Martin Harvey/Corbis

PUBLISHING---Jack Miles has undertaken no less ambitious a project than writing a “biography” of God, winning a Pulitzer Prize in the bargain. But when the publisher W. W. Norton & Company approached him nine years ago about serving as general editor of its inaugural edition of “The Norton Anthology of World Religions,” Mr. Miles, a former Jesuit seminarian, balked. While the timing seemed right, given the continuing post-Sept. 11 hunger for interreligious understanding, the task was dauntingly huge. Still, he was persuaded, and now the anthology — featuring some 4,200 pages of texts spanning roughly 3,500 years — is here. [link]