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especially Hubert and Mauss. Bastide had littlepatience with grand theoretical systems, ques-tions of origins, or naïve evolutionary views:“in the beginning there is variety and compli-cation.” He offered an interesting account ofmagic as a social, traditionalist (and fundamen-tally phonic) “externalization of desire,” andhe foreshadowed themes prominent in recentwork. Occasionally he overgeneralizes: forexample, “The feudal system . . . [is] a result ofreligion”; “Sacrificial gifts . . . result from theunion of religious beliefs with the initially sec-ular practice of tithes. . . .” A dated but thought-provoking work in the sociology and theory ofreligion.

Steven EnglerMount Royal College

RELIGIØS MANGFOLDIGHED. ENKORTLÆGNING AF RELIGION OGSPIRITUALET I AARHUS.

Edited byMarianne C. Qvortrup Fibiger. Aarhus:Systime, 2004. Pp. 502. N.p., ISBN 87-616-0882-3.

In 1994, the undersigned, together withvarious Danish specialists, published

Religionsguiden—En vejviser til flygtninge oginvandreres religioner og trossamfund i Dan-mark

, a brief mapping of and introductoryguide to the religious institutions, Christian andnon-Christian, in Denmark.

Religiøs mangfol-dighed

is of the same kind, although on agrander and, at the same time, smaller scale. Agroup of scholars attached to the departmentsof theology and the science of religion at theUniversity of Aarhus has mapped the religiouslandscape of Aarhus, the second largest city inDenmark. Besides the introduction by the edi-tor, the volume deals with all the religious com-munities as well as with organized so-calledspirituality and alternative therapies found inthe city and its surroundings. Each chapter hasa general introduction to the religious traditionto which the various denominations/groupsbelong, followed by information on the history,economy, number of members, activities andpeculiarities of the group in question. The larg-est chapter is devoted to the Lutheran Danishstate church, characteristically named the“Folkchurch.” The chapter introduces and mapsthe field, and it also discusses the present prob-lems and challenges of the state church, which,despite the relatively stable number of mem-bers, and the unflinching support by the state,is often said to be in a crisis. The rest of thechapters deal with Islam; other religious tradi-tions from the Middle East (Bahá’i, Judaism,Mandeism, Yezidi); Hinduism; Buddhism; newspiritual and religious groups; and alternativetherapy and spirituality. Two appendices pro-vide maps of the city and the locations of thereligious communities, as well as a list of thoselocal religious communities that are recognizedby the state as having the right to perform mar-riages. The team succeeds in establishing acommon perspective. All the contributors

depend on the results from standard question-naires and fieldwork carried out in accordanceto a set of common rules and aims. The bookis meant to be an example of research on “reli-gion in locality” as well as a reference bookmeant for the general reader. And so it is. It isalso a manifestation of how times have changedand yet not changed in Denmark in less thanten years: in 1994, non-Christian religiouscommunities in Denmark were almost as manyas in 2004, and adherents to these were veryfew. The same can be said about the status ofthe majority church: equally big and equallypowerful. What has changed, however, is thatthe public attention paid to religion, especiallyto the state church and Islam, has grown.

Tim JensenUniversity of Southern Denmark

Gender Studies

MISSING MARY: THE QUEEN OFHEAVEN AND HER RE-EMERGENCE INTHE MODERN CHURCH.

By CharleneSpretnak. New York: Palgrave Macmillan,2004. Pp. 280. $24.95, ISBN 1-4039-6398-3.

A somewhat popularized, and somewhatdefensive, argument for a retrieval of Mariansymbolism and devotion. Spretnak correctlyobserves that

Lumen gentium

’s “correction” toMarian devotion led to a wholesale reactionagainst Marian piety in both mainstream andprogressive circles following Vatican II. ForSpretnak, Mary is “a symbol of the MaternalMatrix,” with effects not limited to ecclesiol-ogy or even anthropology, but more clearlyrealized in ecology and cosmology (thus thebook’s subtitle). For example, Spretnak doesnot quite endorse the recent movement to nameMary as the “Co-Redemptrix,” yet she findsthis spirituality to be kin to her retrieval of both“pagan” and premodern celebrations of thefemale and the maternal, a retrieval that resultsin Mary as a figure with a “partial ‘goddessnature,’ ” one that acts with “the fullness of herown integrity.” Unfortunately, while Spretnakappreciates the variety of ways in whichMarian symbols have functioned, she seemsunaware of the way in which the same Marianpiety has also been used as an extraordinarytool of internal repression, a repression that hashad much more serious repercussions than aproblematic reduction of Mary to a model doc-ile housewife. It is unfortunate that her fair cri-tique of feminist scholarship’s reduction of thesymbol of Mary becomes a rejection of femi-nist scholarship’s multivalent analysis of thefunctioning of gendered symbols. Nonetheless,Spretnak’s appreciative pastiche is interestingin its happy juxtaposition of traditional devo-tion and “the earth-honoring Motherline.” Forgeneral readers.

Nancy A. DallavalleFairfield University

Religion and

Science

A RELIGIÃO DO CÉREBRO: AS NOVASDESCOBERTAS DA NEUROCIÊNCIA ARESPEITO DA FÉ HUMANA.

By RaulMarino, Jr. São Paulo: Editora Gente, 2005. Pp.169. R$31.90, ISBN 85-7312-466-0.

A Brazilian contribution to the recent waveof books on neuropsychology and religiousexperience. Marino, a University of São Pauloneurosurgeon, offers an excellent summary ofcurrent research, setting out correlationsbetween 1) brain states, and 2) subjective “reli-gious” experiences. The move from correlationto cause here is the hard part: some theists (e.g.,Marino) have faith that God causes (1) and,hence, (2); some atheists have faith that thesecause belief in God. One of Marino’s tentativeconclusions—similarly and deliciously ambiv-alent—is that theists and atheists might havedifferent brain structures. The main interest, forsocial-scientific scholars of religion, of thisexplicit contribution to “neurotheology” is itsblunt, bold circularity: it takes as axiomatic thatGod exists and that the Bible is revealed truth;and it concludes that “spiritual” brain states area further mode of revelation. A vague movefrom “subjective phenomena” to “transcendentexperiences” is central to the argument. Ironi-cally, Proudfoot’s

Religious Experience

appears in the bibliography, when a close read-ing of this work is precisely what is missinghere. Marino’s assertion that theology is a “sci-ence of the spirit” highlights the book’s failureto properly clarify the nature, scope, and limitsof scientific method. This book, regardless ofwhether its unscientific core claim is true ornot, is an exemplary case of theology cloakingitself in the perceived authority of science.

Steven EnglerMount Royal College

Philosophy of

Religion

METAPHOR, ANALOGY, AND THEPLACE OF PLACES: WHERE RELIGIONAND PHILOSOPHY MEET.

By Carl G.Vaught. Waco, TX: Baylor University Press,2004. Pp. xv

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206. $29.95, ISBN 1-932792-07-4.

The subtitle of this text indicates its primaryintent: to locate the “Place of Places” where thetwo paths of religion and philosophy converge.This mapping of the crossroads of faith andreason reveals the Augustinian kinetics of “faithseeking understanding,” which moves from the

Confessions

, through Hegelian phenomenol-

106 / Religious Studies Review Volume 32 Number 2 / April 2006

ogy, to Heideggerian hermeneutics, and itsinfluence on Tillich’s ontological philosophy ofreligion. Vaught contends that such an itineraryhas mythology as its terminus a quo and tran-scendence as its terminus ad quem, with reli-gion and philosophy moving between these twopolarities by addressing several significanttriads: mystery, power, and structure; openness,otherness, and intelligibility; silence, power,and speech; time, space, and eternity. Vaughtfocuses his strategy for relating philosophy andreligion on a variant of traditional ontotheol-ogy, with “Being” and “God” as complemen-tary names for “Radical Otherness.” Thiscomplementarity does not reduce Being andGod to a determinate being; however, it alsodoes not deny an analogical unity predicatedupon the dialectic of structure and power.Vaught’s text is obviously the work of a maturescholar who has spent a career investigating theinterstices between religion and philosophy andengaging the influential thinkers who havetraversed those boundaries. Indeed, he writeswith such familiarity with these thinkers that areader without prior exposure might find her-self or himself a bit lost. Consequently, the textis best suited for someone already conversantwith traditional ontotheology and who desiresto encounter a contemporary rapprochementbetween the God of Abraham and the god ofthe philosophers.

B. Keith PuttSamford University

FAITH AND FREEDOM: AN INTER-FAITH PERSPECTIVE (CHALLENGESIN CONTEMPORARY THEOLOGY).

ByDavid Burrell. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing,2004. Pp. xxi

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266. Cloth, $69.95, ISBN 1-4051-2170-X; paper, $32.95, ISBN 1-4051-2171-8.

Burrell, a distinguished professor of philos-ophy and theology at Notre Dame, is one of theworld’s leading Christian philosophical theolo-gians, and an expert on Islamic intellectual tra-ditions.

Faith and Freedom

is a wide-rangingcollection of sixteen essays, written from 1984to 2000, more or less revolving around the topicof the relation between divine and human free-dom. Drawing especially on Aquinas, Mai-monides, and al-Ghazali, the first two sectionsessentially argue that the Creator is distinctfrom but not entirely separate from Creation,and that human freedom should not be equatedwith autonomy—that is, “an act totally initiatedby the self”—as has been the case with so-called libertarian theories. Rather, creaturelyfreedom is itself created and exists only in adialectical relation to its creator—God, the freesource and ground of all being and freedom.The third section focuses on the various dimen-sions of interfaith encounter, with Burrell argu-ing for a vigorous engagement of Christianswith a wide diversity of alternative traditionswith the goal of developing mutual respect foreach others’ convictions, mutual regard for

each other as persons (i.e., friends) in a com-mon quest for truth, and mutual transformation.Burrell’s formidable abilities as a writer andthinker are evident throughout the book, almostas impressive as the deftness with which heworks across a range of religious and intellec-tual traditions. However, this book is clearlywritten for a scholarly audience; the generalreader or theological/philosophical novitiatewill likely find it rather pedantic.

Mark H. MannColgate University

THE TRUTH ABOUT TOLERANCE:PLURALISM, DIVERSITY, AND THECULTURE WARS.

By Brad Stetson andJoseph G. Conti. Downers Grove, IL: InterVar-sity Press, 2005. Pp. 207. $16.00, ISBN 0-8308-2787-0.

If Stetson and Conti are right, then the truthabout tolerance is rather different from what wenormally assume. Given the subtitle of the text,it is not surprising that the showdown hereis between Christianity and secularism. Theauthors contend that Christianity is actuallymore tolerant, for it provides precisely the truthcommitments, enabling true tolerance that sec-ularism lacks. Christianity is also up-front withits commitments, whereas secularism slips itscommitments through the back door of a sup-posedly tolerant relativism. Even for a popularbook, Stetson and Conti sometimes paint inoverly broad strokes, such as setting up toosimple a dichotomy between “secular liberal-ism” and “evangelical Christianity” and bash-ing that amorphous foe “postmodernism.”However, they marshal an impressive casefor how conservative Christians have beenmaligned—often in the name of a secular“tolerance” that holds its commitments just asinflexibly as any religion. They also provide aninsightful and even-handed account of whatthey term a “critical tolerance,” a balancebetween a tolerance of everything and narrow-mindedness. In short, one cannot read this bookwithout being forced to think more carefullyabout the meaning of “tolerance.”

Bruce Ellis BensonWheaton College

RELIGION AND THE DEATH PENALTY:A CALL FOR RECKONING.

Edited byErik C. Owens, John D. Carlson, and Eric P.Elshtain. Foreword by Jean Bethke Elshtain.Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans 2004. Pp. xxiii

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294. $28.00, ISBN 0-8028-2172-3.Politicians, theologians, attorneys, ethicists,

and philosophers contribute to make this adiverse and helpful introduction to the deathpenalty debates in the United States. From Stas-sen and Hauerwas to former Governor Keatingand Wilkinson, the attorney who delivered theclosing arguments in the penalty phase of theT. McVeigh trial, these nineteen varied essaysreveal emotional, cultural, biblical, theological,pragmatic, and political arguments that Ameri-cans employ when arguing for or against capital

punishment. Strengths include the variety ofauthors (Catholic, Baptist, Muslim, Jewish,pacifist, Republican, Democrat) and the sharpdisagreements they express. The contrastingpersuasive methods and presuppositions offaith traditions, theologians, and politicians areabundantly clear. Most of the classic aspects ofthe debate are included: definitions of justice,forgiveness, deterrence, mercy, witness, humannature, responsibility, vengeance, and wisdom.This text is not an argument for or against cap-ital punishment, but a collection of voices thatare arguing many sides of the issue. It will servewell as an undergraduate or graduate introduc-tion to this debate in the American context.

Paul AlexanderSouthwestern Assemblies of God University

Theology

THE HERMENEUTICS OF CHARITY:INTERPRETATION, SELFHOOD, ANDPOSTMODERN FAITH.

Edited by JamesK. A. Smith and Henry Isaac Venema. GrandRapids: Brazos Press, 2004. Pp. 272. $34.99,ISBN 1-58743-113-0.

This book is in honor of J. H. Olthius’sretirement from the Institute for Christian Stud-ies (1968-2004). The essays are both a theolog-ical and philosophical focus on hermeneuticsand love. An introductory essay suggests thatOlthius’s thought has Kuyperian and Dooyewe-erdian connections. In section 1, on hermeneu-tics, Olthius’s essay argues that love should fillin Derrida’s Khora; J. Caputo offers a criticalexamination of Olthius’s appropriation ofDerrida; R. Kearney curiously provides aninterview about some of his own writings; L.Zuidervaart criticizes Heidegger’s view of therole of predication; M. Westphal explains howsin and the hermeneutics of suspicion affectscripture reading; and R. Middleton writes ontheological discourse in 1 Sam 17. In section 2,on love, Olthius’s essay concerns Levinas; D.Goicoechea’s essay is about Olthius, Kristeva,Nietzsche, and Aquinas on love and post-modern uncertainty; C. Boundas writes onRicoeur’s ethics; J. Dudiak discusses Levinasand Kierkegaard on love; Venema comparesOlthius and Derrida; and Smith comparesMarion and Levinas’s view of the subject. B.Walsh and S. Bouma-Prediger seek home in ahomeless postmodern world, finding it, at last,in Sabbath. The third section includes a letterfrom H. Hart and a bibliography of Olthius’sworks. The book is not useful for undergradu-ates, would not work as a cohesive textbook,and is perhaps best aimed at a narrow group ofChristian scholars, namely, those with either aninterest in Olthius’s work or in one of the par-ticular essays because of its author or the par-ticular topic. It is a work of love for Olthius.

Andy GustafsonCreighton University