Volume 32 Number 2 / April 2006 Religious Studies Review / 99

© 2006 Council of Societies for the Study of Religion

Recent Publications

Notes on Recent Publications

Editor’s Note: Listed below in the orderof appearance are the section titles inwhich notes appear. No single issue of RSRwill likely include every section; however,those sections that are included willalways appear in this order.

Texts, Tools, and MediaComparative StudiesMethodology and TheoryPsychology of ReligionSociology and Anthropology of ReligionGender StudiesReligion and ScienceRitual, Cult, WorshipPhilosophy of ReligionTheologyEthicsArts, Literature, Culture, and ReligionAncient Near EastGreece, Rome, Greco-Roman PeriodChristian OriginsHistory of ChristianityHistory of Christianity (Early)History of Christianity (Modern)Jewish ThoughtJudaism: MedievalJudaism: ModernIslamAfricaThe Americas: Central and South AmericaThe Americas: CanadaThe Americas: USASouth AsiaEast AsiaBuddhismInner AsiaAustralia and the Pacific

Comparative

Studies

WHY THE REST HATES THE WEST:UNDERSTANDING THE ROOTS OFGLOBAL RAGE.

By Meic Pearse. DownersGrove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2004. Pp. 188.$13.00, ISBN 0-8308-3202-5.

The most misleading elements of Pearse’sbook are the title and the cover, as the book isnot inflammatory so much as provocative. Orig-inally a series of lectures, the book analyzes thestriking cultural differences dividing the in-dustrialized “West” and the “premodern” restof the world—premodern in the very specificsense of having retained a set of social linkages,values, and expectations for individuals whichthe West has shed. Pearse highlights the West-

ern abandonment of the past, including tradi-tion, membership in community, and inheritedconcepts of morality and maturity. His analysisof cultural imperialism and insensitivity willsurprise readers from a wide spectrum. Evan-gelical readers may squirm at his analysis ofhow even conservative churches have incorpo-rated modern perspectives, while others arelikely to react to Pearse’s consideration of cul-tural imperialism as inherent in Western “mul-ticulturalism” and suspicion of the assumptionthat Western democracy is the natural culmina-tion toward which all should strive. Pearse’smethod owes something to F. Shaeffer (tracingprogressive alienation from traditional values)and S. Huntington’s

Clash of Civilizations.

Throughout, the author suggests both howbiblical Christianity varies from the “modern”worldview and how modern thinking has creptinto the Church. This book should provokeprofitable discussion for a wide range of read-ers, as well as personal reflection. A cursoryreading might suggest that the book is unbal-anced and naïve; instead, it is balanced, insight-ful, and reasonably well documented.

Richard J. SherryBethel University

TAKING JESUS SERIOUSLY: BUDDHISTMEDITATION FOR CHRISTIANS.

ByJohn Cowan. Collegeville, MN: LiturgicalPress, 2004. Pp. ix

+

190. $16.95, ISBN 0-8146-2758-7.

Cowan, an Episcopal priest, has written ameditation manual that explicates “the wordsof Jesus as authenticated by modern Scripturescholarship” (i.e., the Jesus Seminar) throughthe lens of Buddhist vipassana meditation. Thebook is intended to be read over a twelve-weekperiod, during which the reader practicesmeditation for thirty minutes daily. The twelvechapters generally begin with a quote from theScholar’s Version, followed by Cowan’s com-mentary and questions culled from Cowan’smeditation students, along with his responses.Cowan’s operating premise is that Christianityhas ceased to “take Jesus seriously,” but thatthe Jesus Seminar’s identification of the ori-ginal words of Jesus—in conjunction withvipassana—allow for a recovery of the truemeaning of Jesus’ message. Interestingly,Cowan acknowledges that there is no suchthing as “Buddhist meditation for Christians,”admitting that his own attempts “infect pureBuddhism with my sense of my deepest self asa condensation of the Divine.” But the realproblem is that, though Christianity and Bud-dhism have much to say to each other concep-tually and existentially, Cowan’s versions ofboth traditions are generic transcendentalisms

that offer little conversational latitude. Cowanclaims that Anglican theology characteristicallyilluminates “the Divine in the ordinary,” and hisnarrative periodically offers such glimpses.Apart from that, specialists will be frustrated byCowan’s uncritical mélange of Buddhism andChristianity. As an aid to spiritual formation,the book will be useful to those who understandand ascribe to the assumptions of the theologycharacteristic of the Jesus Seminar.

Horace Shelton Horton-ParkerRegent University School of Divinity

A MANY-COLORED KINGDOM: MULTI-CULTURAL DYNAMICS FOR SPIRI-TUAL FORMATION.

By Elizabeth Conde-Frazier, S. Steve Kang, and Gary A. Parrett.Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2004.Pp. 224. $19.99, ISBN 0-8010-2743-8.

The different perspectives brought to thisvolume by the three authors greatly enhance theplausibility of their argument, which appears tobe addressed primarily to the evangelicalcommunity. Conde-Frazier is a Puerto Rican-American who teaches religious educationcourses at Claremont Graduate School of The-ology; Kang is professor of Christian formationand ministry at Wheaton College; and Parrettteaches Christian education at Gordon-ConwellTheological Seminary. The main idea of thisvolume is that the formation of a multiculturalform of congregational life is imperative for thevitality of evangelical Christianity in thetwenty-first century. Our authors make theirargument narratively (against the backdrop oftheir own personal journeys toward thisinsight); biblically (elucidating various scrip-tural motifs toward this end); practically (focus-ing specifically on how to go about developinga healthy structural, organizational, pedagogi-cal, and ministerial framework that instantiatesand is able to further nurture this vision);psychodynamically (clarifying the processes ofconversion from prejudice); and theologically(emphasizing the outworking of biblical themeslike hospitality and shalom). A good conversa-tion starter for courses in urban ministry,ecclesiology, and spiritual formation.

Amos YongRegent University School of Divinity

A HISTORY OF CHRISTIANITY IN ASIA,VOLUME II: 1500-1900.

By Samuel HughMoffett. American Society of MissiologySeries, 36. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2005.Pp. xxvi

+

742. $65.00, ISBN 1-57075-450-0.Moffett’s

History

is a departure from mis-sionary historiography to a historiography ofthe periphery which brings to the fore the

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

frequently bypassed local people whose story it is.The author’s research highlights the Asian char-acter of the Christian faith. In Burma it was anetwork of self-supporting Karen mission soci-eties which accomplished the evangelization ofthe Karen people. In Ceylon, an Indian evange-list planted churches among the Tamils, and aSinhala did so among the Sinhalese. In the caseof Korea, the imperialists were not westernersbut Japanese, and the first missionary to Koreawas a Chinese. Colonialism is part of the story.Christianity was distorted by the proximityof colonial rule in several Asian countries.Reversals of faith also took place. British layevangelist John Muir gradually abandoned theChristian faith, whereas the emphatic anti-Christian Nilakantha Goreh became a devoutAnglo-Catholic and Christian apologist. Is thisan indicator of things to come—“Western reli-gious decline and Eastern Christian growth”?Protestant interaction with the Nestorians andother ancient churches of the Middle East isespecially interesting. Moffett’s careful recon-struction of events is based on examination ofavailable sources and extensive reading. Thedocumentation provides a valuable resource forfurther research. The book’s attractive narrativestyle will appeal to a wide audience in additionto historians and scholars. Moffett’s work isessential for theological, missiological, andAsian studies libraries.

Roger E. HedlundMylapore Institute for Indigenous Studies

DEEP RELIGIOUS PLURALISM.

Editedby David Ray Griffin. Louisville, KY: West-minster John Knox, 2005. Pp. xiv

+

272.$24.95, ISBN 0-664-22914-X.

Each of the essayists in this volume sharesthe belief that the philosophy of Whitehead pro-vides an important resource for constructing aviable form of contemporary religious plural-ism. In the first part of the book, Griffinoffers two introductory essays that distinguishbetween various forms of pluralism and com-mends John Cobb’s deep (or “differentiated”)pluralism. He argues that Cobb’s approachavoids several problems associated with “iden-tist” forms of pluralism, which maintain thatall (or most) religions are ultimately orientedtoward the same basic object or end (telos). Thesecond part of the book extends Cobb’s pro-posal, paying special attention to the Buddhist–Christian dialogue. The bulk of the book is part3, which also offers Chinese, Hindu, Islamic,and Jewish versions of “deep” religious plural-ism. The book concludes with an essay by JohnB. Cobb, Jr., who outlines the assumptions,positive and negative, that have guided his pro-posal over the last few decades. This volume isrequired reading for anyone interested in seri-ously engaging the ongoing discussion aboutreligious pluralism.

F. LeRon ShultsBethel Theological Seminary

BIBLICAL FAITH AND OTHER RELI-GIONS: AN EVANGELICAL ASSESS-MENT.

Edited by David W. Baker. GrandRapids, MI: Kregal Publications, 2004. Pp.176. $13.99, ISBN 0-8254-2026-1.

Six leading scholars bring rich insights fromtheir areas of expertise to this critical theologi-cal question rarely addressed by evangelicals.Although it begins to fill that void, this collec-tion of essays is disadvantaged by its mostlyEurocentric character and evangelical defen-siveness. Church historian R. Platinga’s narra-tive of the broad sweep of Western churchhistory addresses only in passing the theologi-cal struggles under way since Edinburgh 1910.Discussion of Tambaram 1938, in particular,and the debates that followed, where the theo-logical divide between Christians living amongpeople of other religions (Asians) and Chris-tians living in mostly monoreligious cultures(Euro-Americans) became evident, would havebeen instructive. Attentiveness to that theolog-ical stream may have prevented philosopherH. Netland from beginning his essay with theunhelpful question of truth. His framing in-evitably leads to the question of “competing”claims, which results in pitting one traditionover against another. Netland, however, articu-lates several concerns that I believe are sharedby the other authors: that Christianity not be avictim of sentimental relativism, undisciplinedtolerance, bizarre excesses of multiculturalism,and the political correctness movement. At-tempting to safeguard the gospel from thesepitfalls seems to restrain the authors from rig-orous exploration. D. Block and G. Beale onother religions in OT and NT theology, respec-tively, bring biblical scholarship to the conver-sation; J. D. Woodberry provides a reflectionfrom his vast experience in Afghanistan onChristianity and Islam; and T. Tienou providesa refreshing non-Western voice with a perspec-tive on African folk religion that significantlyadvances the conversation.

Shanta PremawardhanaNational Council of Churches USA

RELIGIONSVITENSKAPENS KOMPAR-ATIVE UTFORDRING.

Edited by Joel Haviv,Anders Lisdorf, and Peter Weiss Poulsen.Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum, 2004.Pp. 157. $32.00, ISBN 87-7289-921-2.

Recent years have seen an unprecedentednumber of publications devoted to the problemof comparison in the study of religion. InNorthern America, the debate was fueled by anumber of publications by J. Z. Smith (see thevolume edited by Patton and Ray in 2000). Sub-sequently, journals such as

Numen

(48/3, 2000)and

Methods and Theory in the Study of Reli-gion

(16, 2004) have devoted additional num-bers to the issue, banding together Americanand European contributors. However, it seemsthat Americans tend to overlook the Europeandebate on the problem. Already in 1997, in both

France and Germany, volumes were devotedto the issue—edited by Bœspflug/Dunand andKlimkeit, respectively—that have been ignoredin the subsequent debates. Recently, theDanish–Norwegian journal

Chaos

produced aspecial number (distributed separately) on the“comparative challenge of the study of reli-gion” that assembles eight contributions byDanish scholars (all in Danish). It seems thatDenmark has replaced the Netherlands as thecenter of theoretically engaged study of reli-gion in Europe. The chapters tackle differentaspects of the problem of comparison in thestudy of religion, including the phenomenologyof religion (Albinus) and category formation(Bilde). Reviewing comparisons between OldNorse and Celtic religion, Warmind warns usto be aware of which level to place our implicitor explicit comparative projects. Drawing onDumézil, Jenses provides some brief examplesof typological and structural comparisons. Notquite unexpectedly, cognitive approaches aredealt with by several authors, among themSørensen. Geertz presents some ambitious epis-temological reflections and sketches a theoret-ical model combining Boyer, Deacon, andBerger/Luckmann. Sørensen tries to convinceus that rhetoric is at the heart both of religionand the (comparative) study of religion. Thearticle by Jensen is partly identical to the onehe contributed to

Methods and Theory in theStudy of Religion

16.

Michael StausbergUniversity of Bergen

DIE MACHT DER DINGE. GESCHICHTEUND THEORIE SAKRALER OBJEKTE.

By Karl-Heinz Kohl. München: C. H. Beck,2003. Pp. 304.

€

29.90, ISBN 3-406-50967-3.An important book that attempts to provide

a “history and theory of sacral objects” froma comparative perspective, indebted to ethno-graphic accounts, as well as to philosophical,economic, and psychoanalytic theory. It beginswith a history of the term “fetishism,” once aspopular among scholars as among the educatedpublic. Derived from the Portuguese

feitiço

(andultimately from Latin

factitius

, “made by art,”“artificial”), the term “fetish” and its equiva-lents in European languages played a significantrole not only in the early study of religion, butalso in the encounters between Europeans andAfricans. After discussing the phenomenon oficonoclasm and of the cult and production ofrelics, Kohl examines the role of fetishism inthe eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. In a keysection of the book, Kohl examines Marx’s useof the term in

Das Kapital

, claiming that Marx’suse of the concept of fetishism to understand“others” is a projection of the alienation of hisown society and that, therefore, Marx’s own texton fetishism is both an explanation and a symp-tom of what he seeks to explain. Kohl also faultsMarx for not paying attention to the role ofdesire. Do those claims imply that Kohl’s posi-tion is not itself indebted to, or perhaps even

Volume 32 Number 2 / April 2006 Religious Studies Review / 101

determined by, current theories—or, more gen-erally, by the conditions that prevail in theindustrial world, which make it appear that“desire” is more important than “need”? Thefollowing chapters are devoted to a discussionof prestigious goods and conspicuous consump-tion, the phenomenon of exchange, and the gen-esis of sacral objects, based on Israelite, SouthPacific, North American, Australian, African,and Greek materials. The last chapter focuseson collecting, from antiquity to the appearanceof the modern museum. Kohl asks whethermuseum pieces are the sacral objects of moder-nity and then proceeds to a most insightfulreversal of W. Benjamin’s dictum about theauratic character of the work of art by askingwhether it is not its multiplication that endowsthe original work with an “aura.” This is a bookthat, because of its interdisciplinary character,will be read with profit by scholars in a numberof specialties. Recommended.

Gustavo BenavidesVillanova University

CHRISTIANS MEETING HINDUS: ANANALYSIS AND THEOLOGICAL CRI-TIQUE OF THE HINDU-CHRISTIANENCOUNTER IN INDIA.

By Bob Robinson.Regnum Studies in Mission. Oxford, UK:Regnum Books, 2004. Pp. xviii

+

392. £24.99,ISBN 1-870345-39-8.

This book is about the meaning, justifica-tion, critique, and bases of dialogue. Robinsonraises a fundamental question as to how far theIndian church can go in Hinduizing its theolog-ical identity and offers a critique of methodol-ogies that tend to lose their way. The delicateissue of language is explored and the implica-tions of terms such as

avatara

as well asBrahmanical versus Dalit categories for anIndian christology. The author argues the casefor christocentrism versus theocentrism andexclusivism. A narrative genré is proposed fortheological and dialogical communication.

Christians Meeting Hindus

is highly recom-mended for scholars and practitioners.

Roger E. HedlundMylapore Institute for Indigenous Studies

Methodology and

Theory

RELIGION IM KULTURELLEN DIS-KURS / RELIGION IN CULTURAL DIS-COURSE. FESTSCHRIFT FÜR HANS G.KIPPENBERG ZU SEINEM 65. GEBURT-STAG.

Edited by Brigitte Luchesi and Kockuvon Stuckrad. Berlin and New York: Walter deGruyter, 2004. Pp. xix

+

649. $240.30, ISBN3-11-017790-0.

This Festschrift comprises seventeen arti-cles in German and fifteen in English, arrangedunder six related headings: The history of the

Academic Study of Religions, MethodologicalReflections, European History of Religions,Religion and Modernity, Religion and Vio-lence, and Religion and Law. All these themesreflect the interests of H. G. Kippenberg,who has taught in the Netherlands (Groningen),Germany (Bremen and Erfurt), and the US(Chicago and Princeton). The volume providesan accurate impression of the current discoursein religious studies. Articles have been written,among others, by Gladigow, Segal, Kuiper,Benavides, Schluchter, Lawson, Martin, Riese-brodt, Penner, Graf, Cancik, Auffarth, vonStuckrad, Eisenstadt, Lease, Kohl, Luchesi,Strenski, Bremmer, and van den Bosch. It isimpossible to mention all contributions here,but a few exceptions will be made. Kuiper’sthick description of C. Ginzburg’s work showshow his style of historical research is relevantfor the study of religion. Benavides points witherudition to the importance of agency in reli-gion, and both Lawson and Martin discuss theimportance of a cognitive approach. Pennertries to explain why religious symbols do notmean anything, but in fact shows his lack ofunderstanding of both Geertz and Turner. Read-ing the volume

On Symbolic Representation ofReligion

(1986), edited by Kippenberg andHubbeling, might have given him another idea.Strenski’s reading of Hubert and Mauss is aninspiring invitation to reread all the classics.The same goes for Segal’s test of Kippenberg’sthesis on Tylor. Both Strenski and Segal’s con-tributions are an invitation not only to rereadthe classics, but also to investigate our view ofthem in a critical way. Its diversity in scope andideas makes this volume great reading.

Willem HofsteeUniversity of Leiden

THE STUDY OF RELIGION IN A NEWKEY: THEORETICAL AND PHILOSOPH-ICAL SOUNDINGS IN THE COMPARA-TIVE AND GENERAL STUDY OFRELIGION.

By Jeppe Sinding Jensen. Århus:Århus University Press, 2003. Pp. 509. $55.00,ISBN 87-7934-091-1.

To say it right away, I regard this book as anoutstanding contribution to the epistemology ofthe general and comparative study of religion.As the general and comparative study of reli-gion was a major aim of the (early) phenome-nology of religion, the author grounds himselffirmly within this tradition. He finds that manyof the problems in the study of religion were(and are) caused by inadequate philosophicaland theoretical presuppositions, and these arethe issues addressed in this book (with a closelook at similar problems within the “model sci-ences” anthropology and linguistics). Theseissues include the problems of explanation andinterpretation, realisms, theories and rational-ity, concepts and essentialism, universals,frameworks and holism, relativisms, and post-modernisms. The main thesis derives from theshift from subject-philosophy to the philosophy

of language as an epistemological foundationfor the general and comparative study of reli-gion. The author regards religion as a “non-trivial” social phenomenon. He argues that “thecomparative and general study of religion afterthe linguistic turn must be construed epistemi-cally as an intersubjective semantic con-struction which produces in its mappings,modellings, framings of theoretical objects andphenomena, etc. a stock of sharable andexpandable public knowledge in the form ofimages and stories. These, again, influence ourway of “seeing” things and creating our under-standing of human life.” The book was origi-nally presented as a dissertation at ÅrhusUniversity. The “disputants” between A. W.Geertz and the author is documented in

Reli-gionsvidenskabeligt Tidsskrift

44: 57-73 (2004;in Danish). The book is indispensable foreverybody who is seriously interested in theory.For graduate libraries.

Michael StausbergUniversity of Bergen

SCHLEIERMACHER AND WHITEHEAD:OPEN SYSTEMS IN DIALOGUE.

Edited byChristine Helmer. In cooperation with MarjorieSuchocki, John Quiring, and Katie Goetz. NewYork: Walter de Gruyter, 2004. Pp. iv

+

356.$117.60, ISBN 3-11-017992-X.

At its heart, this book, a collection of essayson Whitehead and Schleiermacher, is a defenseof system and an exploration of the fruitfulnessof systematic thinking for religious discourse.It is rooted in the conviction that Schleierma-cher and Whitehead provide rich resourcesfor rethinking the possibilities of systematicthought because, as Helmer points out in herintroduction, they each put forth notions of sys-tem that are “open.” As such, their systems areable to resist the dominant criticism of system-atic thought: that life, with its fluidity, plurality,and difference always and forever resists theseemingly stifling closure of system. Theessays span a variety of topics, from historicalcontext, to the doctrine of God, and on throughethics and religious pluralism. Although eachof the essays achieves a standard of quality,they differ in regard to their level of complexityand difficulty. This fact opens the range ofpotential readers insofar as those who are justbeginning their conversations with one or bothof these difficult thinkers will find points ofaccess to them and to the rich, but complicatedquestion of system. More advanced readers willalso find material of great interest.

J. Thomas HoweGeorgetown University

CHE COS’È LA RELIGIONE: TEMI,METODI, PROBLEMI.

By GiovanniFiloramo. Torino: Einaudi, 2004. Pp. xv

+

408.

€

19.00, ISBN 88-06-17046-5.After having coauthored an excellent over-

view of approaches to its study (

Le scienze