American Academy of Religion

Buddhist Monk, Buddhist Layman: A Study of Urban Monastic Organization in CentralThailand by Jane BunnagReview by: Roy C. AmoreJournal of the American Academy of Religion, Vol. 43, No. 2, Book Review Supplement (Jun.,1975), p. 424Published by: Oxford University PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1461272 .

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JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF RELIGION JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF RELIGION JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN ACADEMY OF RELIGION

essays on the Fourth Gospel discuss the prologue and the dialectical theology of (especially) John 6. Three essays on Acts examine Luke's understanding of "apostle," his picture of Paul and his view (in the nineties) of the origins of Christianity. His conclusions are generally in the Vielhauer-Conzelmann tradition.

On his (surprisingly widespread) view that Luke limits "apostles" to the twelve, a view that I too once accepted, one can only say that exegetically it will not wash. (Cf. my review essay in Interpretation 28 [1974], pp. 95-96.) The date given to Acts also seems to me to be mistaken, for reasons detailed in the forthcoming revised edition of my Luke.

The closing essay, a perceptive comment on "theology in the world of learning," will assist colleagues in responding to critics of that proposition.

New Brunswick Theological Seminary E. EARLE ELLIS

Buddhist Monk, Buddhist Layman: A Study of Urban Monastic Organization in Central Thailand (Cambridge Studies in Social Anthropology, no. 6). By JANE BUNNAG. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1973. xii+219 pages. $16.50. L.C. No. 72-86420.

"A person's income, educational qualifications, and present life-style provide fairly reliable indicators as to how he will conceive of his role as a Buddhist," the author of this monograph on contemporary Thai Buddhism argues.

In this anthropological study Jane Bunnag presents considerable data on the social and financial relations of Buddhist life in Ayutthaya. She introduces the reader to Thai culture and nicely sets Buddhism within its social framework of kinship lines and social hierarchies.

Ms. Bunnag finds that because his pastoral contacts are all by invitation, the monk's relatives and previous acquaintances are his link to laymen. Also, merit- making and social obligations are unabashedly intertwined in Thailand, where typically a layman attends but gives little to a social superior's merit-making ceremony, attends and gives moderately to an equal's, and gives large amounts without attending an inferior's ceremony. Her final discussion, challenging the notion that Thailand has a loosely-structured social system, seems facile and out of place in the book.

The value of the book lies in its data on the financial and personal affairs of monastic life in a Thai town, since most studies have dealt with villages. The major weakness is the absence of a coherent perspective which the history of Buddhism and the sociology of religion could provide.

University of Windsor Roy C. AMORE

Gospel Message and Hellenistic Culture (A History of Early Christian Doctrine before the Council of Nicaea, vol. 2). By JEAN DANIELOU. Translated, edited and with a Postscript by John Austin Baker. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1973. x+540 pages. $17.50.

The appearance in English dress of the second volume of Pere Danielou's masterfully-written history of doctrinal development in the Western Church is a significant event for students of theology in this country and Great Britain. In the first volume, The Theology of Jewish Christianity, the author undertook to illuminate the profile and thought of that form of ante-Nicene Christianity which was particularly influenced by late Judaism. In this second volume he examines the appropriations from and reactions to Hellenistic literature and conceptuality which characterized the work of Christian thinkers from ca. 150-250 A.D. The third volume which Danielou

essays on the Fourth Gospel discuss the prologue and the dialectical theology of (especially) John 6. Three essays on Acts examine Luke's understanding of "apostle," his picture of Paul and his view (in the nineties) of the origins of Christianity. His conclusions are generally in the Vielhauer-Conzelmann tradition.

On his (surprisingly widespread) view that Luke limits "apostles" to the twelve, a view that I too once accepted, one can only say that exegetically it will not wash. (Cf. my review essay in Interpretation 28 [1974], pp. 95-96.) The date given to Acts also seems to me to be mistaken, for reasons detailed in the forthcoming revised edition of my Luke.

The closing essay, a perceptive comment on "theology in the world of learning," will assist colleagues in responding to critics of that proposition.

New Brunswick Theological Seminary E. EARLE ELLIS

Buddhist Monk, Buddhist Layman: A Study of Urban Monastic Organization in Central Thailand (Cambridge Studies in Social Anthropology, no. 6). By JANE BUNNAG. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1973. xii+219 pages. $16.50. L.C. No. 72-86420.

"A person's income, educational qualifications, and present life-style provide fairly reliable indicators as to how he will conceive of his role as a Buddhist," the author of this monograph on contemporary Thai Buddhism argues.

In this anthropological study Jane Bunnag presents considerable data on the social and financial relations of Buddhist life in Ayutthaya. She introduces the reader to Thai culture and nicely sets Buddhism within its social framework of kinship lines and social hierarchies.

Ms. Bunnag finds that because his pastoral contacts are all by invitation, the monk's relatives and previous acquaintances are his link to laymen. Also, merit- making and social obligations are unabashedly intertwined in Thailand, where typically a layman attends but gives little to a social superior's merit-making ceremony, attends and gives moderately to an equal's, and gives large amounts without attending an inferior's ceremony. Her final discussion, challenging the notion that Thailand has a loosely-structured social system, seems facile and out of place in the book.

The value of the book lies in its data on the financial and personal affairs of monastic life in a Thai town, since most studies have dealt with villages. The major weakness is the absence of a coherent perspective which the history of Buddhism and the sociology of religion could provide.

University of Windsor Roy C. AMORE

Gospel Message and Hellenistic Culture (A History of Early Christian Doctrine before the Council of Nicaea, vol. 2). By JEAN DANIELOU. Translated, edited and with a Postscript by John Austin Baker. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1973. x+540 pages. $17.50.

The appearance in English dress of the second volume of Pere Danielou's masterfully-written history of doctrinal development in the Western Church is a significant event for students of theology in this country and Great Britain. In the first volume, The Theology of Jewish Christianity, the author undertook to illuminate the profile and thought of that form of ante-Nicene Christianity which was particularly influenced by late Judaism. In this second volume he examines the appropriations from and reactions to Hellenistic literature and conceptuality which characterized the work of Christian thinkers from ca. 150-250 A.D. The third volume which Danielou

essays on the Fourth Gospel discuss the prologue and the dialectical theology of (especially) John 6. Three essays on Acts examine Luke's understanding of "apostle," his picture of Paul and his view (in the nineties) of the origins of Christianity. His conclusions are generally in the Vielhauer-Conzelmann tradition.

On his (surprisingly widespread) view that Luke limits "apostles" to the twelve, a view that I too once accepted, one can only say that exegetically it will not wash. (Cf. my review essay in Interpretation 28 [1974], pp. 95-96.) The date given to Acts also seems to me to be mistaken, for reasons detailed in the forthcoming revised edition of my Luke.

The closing essay, a perceptive comment on "theology in the world of learning," will assist colleagues in responding to critics of that proposition.

New Brunswick Theological Seminary E. EARLE ELLIS

Buddhist Monk, Buddhist Layman: A Study of Urban Monastic Organization in Central Thailand (Cambridge Studies in Social Anthropology, no. 6). By JANE BUNNAG. New York: Cambridge University Press, 1973. xii+219 pages. $16.50. L.C. No. 72-86420.

"A person's income, educational qualifications, and present life-style provide fairly reliable indicators as to how he will conceive of his role as a Buddhist," the author of this monograph on contemporary Thai Buddhism argues.

In this anthropological study Jane Bunnag presents considerable data on the social and financial relations of Buddhist life in Ayutthaya. She introduces the reader to Thai culture and nicely sets Buddhism within its social framework of kinship lines and social hierarchies.

Ms. Bunnag finds that because his pastoral contacts are all by invitation, the monk's relatives and previous acquaintances are his link to laymen. Also, merit- making and social obligations are unabashedly intertwined in Thailand, where typically a layman attends but gives little to a social superior's merit-making ceremony, attends and gives moderately to an equal's, and gives large amounts without attending an inferior's ceremony. Her final discussion, challenging the notion that Thailand has a loosely-structured social system, seems facile and out of place in the book.

The value of the book lies in its data on the financial and personal affairs of monastic life in a Thai town, since most studies have dealt with villages. The major weakness is the absence of a coherent perspective which the history of Buddhism and the sociology of religion could provide.

University of Windsor Roy C. AMORE

Gospel Message and Hellenistic Culture (A History of Early Christian Doctrine before the Council of Nicaea, vol. 2). By JEAN DANIELOU. Translated, edited and with a Postscript by John Austin Baker. Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1973. x+540 pages. $17.50.

The appearance in English dress of the second volume of Pere Danielou's masterfully-written history of doctrinal development in the Western Church is a significant event for students of theology in this country and Great Britain. In the first volume, The Theology of Jewish Christianity, the author undertook to illuminate the profile and thought of that form of ante-Nicene Christianity which was particularly influenced by late Judaism. In this second volume he examines the appropriations from and reactions to Hellenistic literature and conceptuality which characterized the work of Christian thinkers from ca. 150-250 A.D. The third volume which Danielou

424 424 424

This content downloaded from 62.122.73.86 on Sat, 14 Jun 2014 05:30:13 AMAll use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions