Volume 30 Number 1 / January 2004
Notes on Recent Publications
Editor’s Note: Listed below (in the order
of appearance) are the section titles in
which notes appear. No single issue of RSR
will likely include every section; however,
those sections that are included will always
appear in this order.
Texts, Tools, and Media
Comparative Studies
Methodology and Theory
Psychology of Religion
Sociology and Anthropology of Religion
Gender Studies
Religion and Science
Ritual, Cult, Worship
Philosophy of Religion
Theology
Ethics
A r t s , Literature, Culture, and Religion
Ancient Near East
Greece, Rome, Greco-Roman Period
Christian Origins
History of Christianity
History of Christianity (through Early Mod-
em Period)
History of Christianity (Modem Period)
Jewish Thought
Judaism: Hellenistic through Late Antiquity
Judaism: Medieval
Judaism: Modem
Islam
Africa
The Americas: Central and South America
The Americas: Canada
The Americas: USA
South Asia
East Asia
Buddhism
Inner Asia
Australia and the Pacific
CornparatWe
Studies
GLOBAL RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS IN
REGIONAL CONTEXT. Edited by John
Wolffe. Burlington, VT: Ashgate, 2002. Pp. 338.
Cloth, $74.95, ISBN 0-7546-0747-X; paper,
$29.95, ISBN 0-7564-0819-0.
The compilation is a good introduction to is-
sues and controversies. There are very detailed
case studies, which give us a view of the socio-
logical theories and debates operating in the aca-
demic research focusing on present and past reli-
gious experience in various parts of the world.
The whole work can be viewed through a frame-
work of theological contextualization (or adap-
tation and indigenization). As seen in these es-
says, evangelicallpentecostal Christians, Soka
Gakkai Buddhists and Tablighi Jamaat Mus-
lims-the cases examined-are readily adapting
to various cultures, to varying extents, whether
authoritatively sanctioned or not. There is one
major shortcoming. While A. Walker has rightly
seen some of the positive contributions of the
Charismatic movement, he leaves an acceptable
level of scholarly objectivity and uses language
which ends in subtle, but unmistakable, judg-
ments and generalizations about the Charismatic
movement with little or no evidence as support,
based mostly on his self-professed “sober out-
sider’s’’ opinion. Happily, the volume contains
the work of other authors who deal with their par-
ticular movements in a much more sensitive and
scholarly fashion, each using theoretical
frameworks that help to illuminate various facets
of those movements.
Frank Moody
Yew Chung Education Foundation,
Hong Kong
BESIDE STILL WATERS: JEWS, CHRIS-
TIANS,AND THE WAY OF THE BUDDHA.
Edited by Harold Kasimow, John P. Keenan, and
Linda Klepinger Keena. Boston: Wisdom, 2003.
4 . 2 8 4 . $14.95, ISBN 0-8617-1336-2.
The first fourteen essays in this volume,
seven by Reform, Orthodox and Conservative
Jews, and seven by Roman Catholic and
Protestant Christians across the liberal-conser-
vative spectrum, are best classified under the
genre of “testimony.” They exemplify both the
more popular notion of testimony whereby one
actively tells of his or her experiences and the
more philosophical explications of the testimony
(such as those of Levinas or Ricoeur) that note
the processes whereby transcendence is medi-
ated through human subjects. In either case, the
reader is treated to the various ways in which
western Jews and Christians have been impacted
by Buddhism. However, rather than leading to
conversion, Buddhism has actually enabled a
deeper appreciation of and commitment to Jew-
ish or Christian faith and practice. As syncretism
is consciously rejected, this kind of “dual reli-
gious identity/practice” in the West is different
from the synthesized religious cultures of the
Asian world. Yet inasmuch as Buddhist medita-
tion is repeatedly acknowledged as being cen-
trally helpful, the ancient adage of Buddhism be-
ing an experience in search of areligion may find
renewed advocacy. The volume concludes with
four reflections (from a sociologist, a Jew, a
Christian and a Buddhist). Its overall
accessibility makes it an edifying read.
Amos Yong
Bethel College
CHRISTIANS TALK ABOUT BUDDHIST
MEDITATION, BUDDHISTS TALK
ABOUT CHRISTIAN PRAYER. Edited by
Religious Studies Review / 33
Rita M. Gross and Terry C. Muck. New York
Continuum, 2003. 4.160. Cloth, $49.95,ISBN
08-264-1438-9; paper, $18.95, ISBN
0-8264- 1439-7.
Interreligious dialogue between Buddhists
and Christians is one of the most exciting and
fruitful discussions among religious traditions
today. Following their previous format of Bud-
dhists Talk about Jesus, Christians Talk about
the Buddha (Continuum, 2000), Gross and Muck
have assembled fourteen “scholar-practioners”
to address the relationship between Buddhist
meditation and Christian prayer. The book is di-
vided into two parts. Part one contains five es-
says by Christians concerning Buddhist spiritual
practices with two Buddhist responses, and part
two, alternatively, presents five Buddhist per-
spectives on Christian spiritual practices with
two Christian responses. On the whole, this work
is valuable, and three features stand out. First,
Christians share how Buddhist practices such as
entering silence, readiness, and pilgrimage have
enriched their spiritual lives. Second, miscon-
ceptions are clarified. For instance, Gross cites
the Tibetan Vajrayana tradition and demon-
strates that the stereotype, “Christians pray,
whereas Buddhists meditate,” is incorrect.
Third, the responses particularly illuminate the
discussion. Buford observes, “We can mix dis-
tinct religious identity (Christian) with practice
techniques associated with another religion
(Buddhism) without compromising the religious
specificity of either the identities (Christian) or
the techniques (Buddhist).” However, the book
has one shortcoming: more critical reflection is
needed. Several questions naturally surface, but
are not addressed. For example, do Christian
prayer and Buddhist meditation point to a uni-
versal experience of a divinelultimate reality?
Do the benefits of spiritual practices outweigh
the search for conflicting truth claims? Despite
this limitation, the book is highly recommended
for those interested in the interreligious
discussion of Christian-Buddhist spiritual
practices.
Ken Alan Jung
University of Bristol
MATERIALIEN ZU PAWL FLORENSKIJ.
Edited by Michael Hagemeister and Torsten
Metelka. Berlin: Kontexwerlag, 2001. Pp. 216.
€19,00, ISBN 3-931337-35-9.
It would be easy to excuse a reader for over-
looking this volume, not realizing that it is one of
the more important publications on Chris-
tian-Jewish relations in the Czarist empire in re-
cent decades and a very significant source of in-
formation on the famous Beilis blood libel. Pave1
Florensky was an important Russian Orthodox
thinker and theologian who was close to Vasilly
Rozanov, another well-known writer and philos-
opher, and was strongly influenced by Soloviev.
34 / Religious Studies Review
During the Beilis trial he published a number of
influential articles under a pseudonym which
presented and developed the anti-Jewish posi-
tion. This collection presents key articles written
by Florensky (and one by Rozanov) translated
into German as well as original studies on the
theme of ritual murder charges in Russia.
Hagemeister’s contribution in particular clari-
fies Florensky’s role in context of the period.
This entire series on Florensky is highly recom-
mended to any collection on Russian orthodoxy.
This volume (appendix 2) in particular is essen-
tial reading for any work on attitudes towards
Jews in Czarist Russia--especially among the
intelligentsia. It deserves to be read widely and is
even reasonably priced.
Shad Stampfer
Hebrew University
FAITH TRANSFORMED: CHRISTIAN EN-
COUNTERS WITH JEWS AND JUDAISM.
Edited by John C. Merkle. Collegeville, MN: Li-
turgical Press, 2003. Pp. xii + 216. $23.95, ISBN
0-8 146-51 17-8.
For centuries Christian encounters with Jews
have often been marked by hostility, ranging
from persecutions to polemics. Even when
Christians practice religious toleration, they of-
ten advocate supersessionist interpretations of
the OT that view Christianity as the divine re-
placement for Judaism. For example, Christian
theological students studying the OT usually do
so from a supposedly superior Christological
perspective, but comparatively few students ever
read Jewish commentaries on the HB or meet
their Jewish counterparts, let alone engage in se-
rious interfaith dialogue. The essays in this col-
lection are the personal reflections of eleven
Christian scholars, who have long been engaged
in Christian-Jewish dialogue. All of the essayists
testify to the benefits that such dialogue has pro-
vided in terms both of personal friendships and
of a deeper scholarly understanding of the
inter-facing of the Jewish and Christian scrip-
tures-not simply as texts to be studied but more
importantly as sources of spirituality. While
there is inevitably some overlap in these some-
what similar experiential accounts on the whole,
the essays touch upon many major Jewish theo-
logical themes that form the background of the
NT, as well as many aspects of modem Jewish
culture and religious observance. In sum, the es-
says in this collection, while calling upon Chris-
tians to relinquish their supersessionist
presuppositions and enter into interfaith
dialogue, provide a helpful introduction to
modem Judaism.
John T. Ford
Catholic Universiv of America
THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO MOSES:
WHAT MY JEWISH FRIENDS TAUGHT
ME ABOUT JESUS. By Athol Dickson. Grand
Rapids: Brazos, 2003. Pp. 268. $16.99, ISBN
1-58743-048-7.
Dickson is an evangelical Christian who at-
tended a Torah study group at the Reformed tem-
Volume 30 Number 1 / January
ple for five years, during which time his concepts
of Jewish people and Judaism were profoundly
altered. Herein Dickson seeks to communicate
what he learned, not only about Judaism, but also
about his own Christian faith. Apparently, Dick-
son was not used to asking challenging questions
of his faith in the ways that he encountered, yet
he embraced the notion. A variety of topics are
engaged as a result, from concepts of God and re-
ligious observance to the interpretation of the
anomalies of Scripture and life, to reevaluation
of traditional Christian judgments of and about
the Jewish people. Yes, he found differences,
usually of emphasis, yet it is the similarities that
surprised Dickson, and communicating this dis-
covery is the heart of his message. Especially
useful is his recognition that Judaism is a religion
based upon God’s grace every bit as much as
Christianity, which, ironically, is because of its
Jewish roots, not in spite of them. Jews seek to
observe Torah because of God’s lovingkindness
(grace), to which they respond with love of God
and neighbor, just as Christians seek to do. Dick-
son’s effort is be warmly welcomed by Jewish
people. However, it is conservative Christian
readers who appear to be the target audience, not
only because of the sensibilities explicitly ex-
pressed, but also by the logic displayed in the
way the conversation proceeds (especially the
defense of many evangelical Christian
positions), and in the conclusions drawn.
Mark D. Nanos
Lee’s Summit. MO
SHARING THE SCRIPTURES. By Philip
Cunningham. The Word Set Free, 1. A Stimulus
Book. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist, 2003. Pp. ix + 94.
$9.95, ISBN 0-8091-4094-2.
Many Christians understand the “Old Testa-
ment” in a supersessionist sense, as if the “New
Testament” has superceded or replaced the
“Old.” The first third of this booklet summarizes
recent official statements of various churches
which have affirmed that “the Christian cove-
nant with God in Christ has not ended the earlier
covenantal life between God and the people of
Israel”; to reflect this change in perspective, the
author proposes the terminology: “Shared Testa-
ment” and “Christian Testament.” The book’s
second section discusses five sets of liturgical
readings (for Advent, Christmas, Lent, Good Fri-
day) in light of different Jewish and Christian in-
terpretations of the same texts. This booklet con-
cludes with some brief reflections on the Pontifi-
cal Biblical Commission’s statement on ‘The
Jewish People and Their Scriptures in the Chris-
tian Bible” (2001), four discussion questions, a
nine-word glossary, and a fourteen-item bibliog-
raphy. While one whole-heartedly welcomes
this new series aimed at showing “both the ap-
preciation of Judaism by the early Christian
community and how its simultaneous disparage-
ment of Judaism set the stage for so much of the
anti-Semitism in the centuries that followed,”
this initial volume is unfortunately much too
slim: although the initial theological survey on
supersessionism is useful, the commentaries on
liturgical texts seem designed for classroom dis-
cussion and do not readily lend themselves to
preaching, where the potential for challenging
anti-Semitic attitudes is perhaps the greatest;
finally, the glossary and discussion questions are
very sparse.
John T. Ford
Catholic University of America
ISLAM AND THE WEST: THE MAKING
OF AN IMAGE. By Norman Daniel. Oxford:
Oneworld, 2000 [ 19631. Pp.467. $34.95, ISBN
1-85168-129-9.
Twenty years after its first publication, Dan-
iel’s Zslam and the West remains the standard
work on views of medieval Christian polemicists
towards Islam. It is a painstakingly thorough and
technical survey, arranged in chapters which re-
flect the doctrinal aspects which Christian au-
thorities attacked, including the nature of the
Qur’an, the character of Muhammad, Islamic
morality and ritual, and the depiction of Jesus
and Mary. This is a book about doctrine and ad-
dresses, for the most part, debate caniedon in the
rarified air of theological and philosophical dis-
putation. The political and personal circum-
stances which may have shaped the polemicists’
views and the relationship between their writings
and concrete policies are hardly addressed. Such
discussion, useful as it may have been, is not cen-
tral to either of the author’s goals: “to establish a
series of facts,” or to point out enduring Euro-
pean misconceptions. Both of these it achieves
admirably. The book is all the more useful and
engaging given that many of the arguments, criti-
cisms, misconceptions, and stereotypes which
were first voiced some eight hundred years ago
continue to dominate Western popular images of
Islam. Unfortunately, the bibliography has not
been updated to include works after 1990.
Brian A. Catlos
University of California, Santa Cruz
SARACENS: ISLAM IN THE MEDIEVAL
EUROPEAN IMAGINATION. By John V.
Tolan. Irvington, N Y Columbia University
Press, 2002. Pp. xxiii + 372. $22.50, ISBN
0-231-12332-9.
The successful expansion and dynamic cul-
ture of Islam dealt Europeans a stunning blow
and forced many Christians to live as dhimmi un-
der Muslim rulers. This demanded explanations,
which Tolan examines masterfully using Chris-
tian and Muslim sources from Spain to Baghdad.
Rather than an escalating intolerance, Christian
responses ran the gamut from Muslims as agents
of God’s wrath, the precursors to the Antichrist
or a school for martyrs, to more sophisticated at-
tacks on Islam as Christian heresy or crude at-
tacks on Muhammad and deliberate misreading
of Islamic doctrine, all composed by sharply
drawn individuals in response to changing cir-
cumstances. Fascinating by-products include
European response to the Mongols, similar
“othering” of European Jews, and the careers of
St. Francis of Assisi and St. Thomas Aquinas as
anti-Islamic polemicists. Although the book
Volume 30 Number 1 / January 2004
covers the period 600-1300, the arguments made
by medieval Europeans are the roots of current
Christian-Muslim dialogue and make this
volume well-worth reading for advanced
comparative religion and world history students.
Margaret Sankey
Minnesota State University at Moorhead
JESUS AND MUHAMMAD: THE PARAL-
LEL SAYINGS. Edited by Joey Green. Berke-
ley: Ulysses, 2003. Pp. xviii + 189. $14.00, ISBN
1-56975-326-1.
Green’s book is an attempt to show some of
the many similarities between Islam and Chris-
tianity through a comparative study of the say-
ings of their respective founders. While the effort
itself is praiseworthy, the book is hampered by
several shortcomings, both conceptual and tech-
nical. Green’s comparison between sayings of
Jesus in the canonical Gospels and supposed say-
ings of Muhammad in the Qur’an is problematic,
as Muslims understand the Qur’an to be word of
God, not of Muhammad. While Green acknowl-
edges this fact, he still persists in refemng to the
Qur’an as Muhammad’s work; his additional ref-
erences to hadith materials tend to blur this dis-
tinction even further. Green’s book is prefaced
by a brief, somewhat confused, overview of the
history of the genesis of these texts, followed by
thematic chapters presenting “parallel sayings”
on love, God, wisdom, faith, law, charity, sin, Ji-
had, the Hereafter, as well as one chapter on dif-
ferences between the two traditions. While
Green’s book does exhibit agreat number of sur-
prising parallels between Muslim and Christian
teachings, his listing of supposed parallels is not
always easy to comprehend; as a matter of fact,
many of the listed “parallels” are only superfi-
cially similar, while others show no similarity at
-all. Green’s appended bibliography is short and
bypasses specialized literature in the field.
Alfons H. Teipen
Furman University
THE CULT OF SAINTS AMONG MUS-
LIMS AND JEWS M MEDIEVAL SYRIA.
By Josef W. Men. Oxford Oriental Monographs.
New York Oxford University Press, 2002. Pp.
xiv + 327. $85.00, ISBN 0-19-925078-2.
Men’s book is a study of ziyara culture in the
greater Syrian region from the eleventh to the
sixteenth centuries CE. At the risk of oversimpli-
fying the subject that Men addresses with nu-
ance, ziyara (lit. visit, visiting, visitation) culture
here refers to the veneration of holy individuals,
pilgrimage to sites linked to them, and the de-
bates about the acceptability of the multiplicity
of practices and beliefs associated with saints
and shrines. While the bulk of the volume fo-
cuses on developments in the Muslim (both
Sunni and Shi’i) communities in the Levantine
region, Men integrates contemporary Jewish
practices (and debates) throughout, providing
both comparative analysis and a wider
contextualization of religious practices and com-
munal relations in what was, after all, a reli-
giously diverse population. Drawing upon a
Religious Studies Review / 35
wide range of sources, Meri develops the com- cent years, but this study is important not only for
parative aspect of his study with frequent refer- that reason but also for its impact on understand-
ences to sites and practices in Egypt and Iraq. ing the religious history of the period. The author
The five chapters address sacred topography, the successfully combines quantitative research to-
idea of the “saint” and sainthood, ziyara in the Is-gether with qualitative study of the place of read-
lamic context, Jewish pilgrimage and practices, ing among different social groups and by doing
and finally varieties of shrine architecture and so, provides extremely valuable insights into re-
site-specific practices. An important work, this ligious life of the period, especially to the differ-
volume should be a part of any research collec- ent forms of religious life in different social
tion. groups. As he points out, levels of literacy and
Warren C. Schultz knowledge of Latin (also discussed in the book)
DePaul University had significant roles in the struggles between
Protestantism and Catholicism in Hungary.
FROM SACRED TEXT TO INTERNET. Ed- Therefore, descriptions of limited reading skills
ited by Gwilym Beckerlegge. Religion Today: of much of the lower clergy and the uses of read-
Tradition, Modernity and Change, 1. Burlington, ing for religious purposes by many laymen add a
VT: Ashgate (The Open University), 2001. Pp. ix dimension of reality to the study of the religious
+ 347; illustrations, plates. Cloth, $74.95, ISBN history of the period. The last chapter deals with
0-7546-0748-8; paper, $24.95, ISBN 0-7546- literacy in the nineteenth century and in a
0816-6. multi-national context. The book is well trans-
This book is designed as a course textbook for lated and it has an index. The quantitative data
Open University (United Kingdom) students. does not disturb the flow of the description, and
The text includes five main essays: “Jesus in His- the colorful descriptions the author cited make
tory and Film” by S. Moyise and J. Pearson; this a very enjoyable read. This would be a very
“Hindu Sacred Images for the Mass Market” by useful addition to collections that deal with
G. Beckerlegge; “Representing Western Bud- Catholicism and Protestantism in Central
dhism: A United Kingdom Focus” by H. Water- Europe as well as the impact of education and
house; “Representing Islam: The Islamization of literacy on religious movements.
Egyptian Society, 1970-2000” by D. Herbert; Shad Stampfer
and a concluding essay, “Computer Mediated Hebrew University
Religion: Religion on the Internet,” by
Beckerlegge. (Additionally, the text includes
five short supporting pieces, all previously pub-
lished.) These essays focus on the transforma-
tions that occur under the influence of modernity
Methodology and
as individual religious traditions strain to main-
tain core texts and symbolic representations in
Theory
light of their population’s changing needs and RATIONALITY AND THE STUDY OF RE-
values. As shown here, these transformations are
LIGION. Edited by Jeppe Sinding Jensen and
wide-ranging, as traditional texts and symbols
Luther H. Martin. New York: Routledge, 2003.
find new modes of expression in film, in the plas-
Pp. viii + 221. $25.95, ISBN 0-415-28199-7.
tic arts, in law and public policy, and, most re-
The contributors to this volume, originally
cently in “cyberspace” (despite the book’s title,
only one essay focuses on the expression of reli- published by the University of Aarhus Press in
gion through the medium of the internet). With 1997, discuss the role that rationality ought to
play in the humanities and social sciences, rather
the exception of Moyise’s and Pearson’s study of
than just in the study of religion. Having to con-
Jesus in film, which is wholly pedestrian, the in-
tend not only with the usual theological claims,
dividual studies offer substantial insights into
but also with the relativism now pervading the
their subjects, and might be usefully employed as
humanities and social sciences, most of the es-
case studies in introductory university courses.
However, a lack of cohesion among these dispa- says are devoted to the examination and refuta-
tion of “postmodern” absurdities, atask as taxing
rate essays (perhaps a result of the text’s origins
as shooting fish in a barrel. Special mention
as part of a course syllabus) limits the book’s
should be made of Saler’s reevaluation of
value as a single text.
Herman Tull Levy-Bruhl; of Trigg’s emphasis on the
Princeton, NJ epistemological significance of the distinction
between subject and object; of Jensen’s produc-
LITERACY AND WRITTEN CULTURE IN tive use of, among others, Nagel’s theories; of
EARLY MODERN CENTRAL EUROPE. By Kamppinen’s discussion of the cognitive impli-
Istvan Gyorgy Toth. New York: Central Euro- cations of some of Durkheim’s ideas and, more
pean University Press, 2000. Pp. 266; plates. generally, of the role played by unexamined “on-
$21.95, ISBN 963-9116-85-8. tological commitments” in the conceptual reli-
This book deals with the diffusion of literacy gious world of ordinary believers. It must be
among various social groups in Central Europe said, however, that after almost two hundred
(mainly Hungary) from the sixteenth to eigh- pages of relentless meta-theorizing, one misses
teenth centuries. The topic of literacy and book an examination of the ways in which rationality
culture has received increasing attention in re- has been addressed within specific religions, as
343 / Religious Studies Review
well as the related issue of how religious tradi-
tions themselves may be regarded as carriers of
rationality, either in their practice or in their doc-
trine-Pye’s exceedingly brief reference to his
translation of Tominaga’s eighteenth-century ra-
tionalistic critique of religion is the only mention
of a specific tradition. One is surprised by the al-
most complete absence of references to Max
Weber (two, in passing), or to the work of Hans
Albert (a brief quotation in Jensen’s introduc-
tion)-this, despite the fact that the connection
between religion and rationality was one of
Weber’s main concerns, and that Albert, perhaps
the most lucid of contemporary German
philosophers, is the author of several critiques of
hermeneutics, relativism and religion.
Gustavo Benavides
Villanova University
THEORIES DE LA RELIGION:
DIVERSITE DES PRATIQUES DE RE-
CHERCHE, CHANGEMENT DES
CONTEXTE S SOCIO-CULTURE LS,
REQUeKTES RJ?FLEXIVES. Edited by Pi-
erre Gisel and Jean-Marc Tetaz. Religion en per-
spective, 12. Gentve: Labor et Fides, 2002. Pp.
414. €26.00, ISBN 2-8309-1051-6.
French-language publications on the theory
of religion are uncommon, this volume being, in
a way, a confirmation of that fact, as eight of the
sixteen essays it comprises have been translated
from the German (six of them having been writ-
ten for it). The book is an up-to-date guide to, and
at the same time a meta-theoretical reflection
upon, the field of religious studies (and also the-
ology and philosophy of religion). Scholars of
religion are likely to be interested in about a
dozen of the contributions; these include discus-
sions of the theory of religion (Thtaz and Gisel);
anthropology, sociology and psychology of reli-
gion (Bemand, Krech, and Brandt, respectively);
phenomenology (Fig]); ritual (Stausberg); my-
thology (Borgeaud); monotheism (Assmann);
health and the body (Rossi); civil religion
(Zander); and the relation among philosophy,
theology and religious studies (by one of the
great theorists of the field, Gladigow). The
thread that runs through these essays involves
the connection among Western modernity, re-
flexivity and the emergence of the humanities
and the social sciences, including the science of
religion-the history of the science of religion
being, as the editors point out, an integral compo-
nent of the history of religion. Reflexivity is in-
deedcentral to many of the contributions, but not
in the intrusive, self-indulgent manner common
among postmodernists. Especially valuable as a
reminder of the complexity of the issues under
consideration and the vastness of the resources
available in several languages are the rich bibli-
ographies, so different from the
predictable-and in that regard,
non-reflexive-English-only lists generally
found in US publications of this kind. Essential
for graduate libraries.
Gustavo Benavides
Villanova University
Volume 30 Number 1 / January 2004
EINFUHRUNG IN DIE
RELIGIONSWISSENSCHAFT:
GEGENSTkWE UND BEGRIFFE. By Hans
G. Kippenberg and Kocku von Stuckrad.
Munchen: Beck, 2003. Pp. 230; pictures. $19.90,
ISBN 3-406-50207-5.
This ambitious introduction to the academic
study of religions breaks new ground compared
to existent introductions in the German lan-
guage. Rather than outlining in detail the disci-
pline’s history (Fachgeschichre) and portraying
its various sub-branches and methodological ap-
proaches (as in Klaus Hock‘s Einfuhrung in die
Religiunswissenschaft; see RSR 29:3, 2003,
267), the authors focus on selected “subjects,”
which constitute the “discursive field”
(diskursives Feld) of the discipline. They place
strong emphasis on the need to conceptualize the
history of religions as a multi-disciplinary and
analytical study based on socio-cultural ap-
proaches. Following the straightforward over-
view of the discipline’s development, chapters
three to five scrutinize fourteen subjects, such as
the rationality of religious acting, colonialism,
gender, civil religion, law, territoriality, plural-
ism, conversion, magic and religious violence.
Due to the authors’ areas of research, their analy-
ses tend to focus on Judaism, Christianity and Is-
lam; likewise, the regions of the Middle East, Eu-
rope and the US dominate while Asia, Africa or
South America are only touched upon.
Kippenberg and von Stuckrad highlight religion
as basically public and communal phenomena
which can be studied from multiple methodolog-
ical and conceptual perspectives. The book is
highly recommended to mature students and
scholars who look for a concise and innovative
approach to understand the indefinable object
“religion.”
Martin Baumann
University of Lucerne
BETWEEN DELEUZE AND DERRIDA. Ed-
ited by Paul Patton and John Protevi. New York:
Continuum, 2003. 4.xi + 207. $29.95, ISBN
0-8264-5973-0.
This fine collection examines tensions and
similarities between the views of Deleuze and
Derrida. in addition to essays by each of the edi-
tors, there are contributions from T. Lorraine, D.
W. Smith, L. Lawlor, E. Alliez, A. Plotnitsky, G.
Lambert, B. Arsid, J. T. Nealon, and A. Lingis.
None of the essays addresses religion directly,
but many of the topics addressed, such as imma-
nence and transcendence, self and other, writing
and simulacra, hermeneutics and anti-hermeneu-
tics, politics and the event, and love and the
body, will be of interest to scholars of religion.
The articles take various approaches to these top-
ics, and this results in interesting overlaps that
nicely elucidate nuances and complexities in the
thought of each philosopher, as well as their in-
tellectual relationship. Also included are a help-
ful introduction, bibliography, and index. This
book should be of value to theologians, philoso-
phers of religion, and ethicists, as well as anyone
interested in either Deleuze or Derrida.
George Aichele
Adrian College
DISCOVERING RELIGIOUS HISTORY IN
THE MODERN AGE. By Hans G. Kippenberg.
Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2002.
Pp. xiv + 264. C l o t h , $55.00, i S B N
0-691-00908-2; paper, $19.95, ISBN
0-69 1-00909-0.
Kippenberg is primarily interested in the in-
terplay between the academic discipline of reli-
gious studies and the modem European cultural
context within which it has taken shape. He be-
gins with a preliminary discussion of Hobbes,
Hume, Rousseau, Kant, Herder, and
Schleiermacher, the privatization of religion and
its shift to subjectivity. This progression paves
the way for the scientific study of religion and re-
ligions. Kippenberg then chronicles, through
eight chapters, the establishment and develop-
ment of religious studies and comparative reli-
gions in the latter half of the nineteenth century.
He treats Freidrich Max Muller and the first sci-
entific study of comparative religion in the
1870s; the fascinating shift in European percep-
tion from tribal societies as “other” to tribal soci-
eties as parallel to earlier stages of European so-
ciety; as well as James George Frazer’s Golden
Bough, published in 1890. The final three chap-
ters, however, abandon the narrative to focus on
Emile Durkheim, Max Weber and the early
twentieth century neo-Kantians. Since none of
these people were particularly important histon-
ans or field anthropologists, their role in the story
of the discovery of religious history seems
unclear at best. That said, the story is an
interesting one, and the book is worth reading.
Cornelis Lettinga
University of Northern British Columbia
Psychology of
Religion
PSYCHOLOGY FOR CHRISTIAN MINIS-
TRY. By Fraser Watts, Rebecca Nye, and Sara
Savage. New York: Routledge, 2002. Pp. xv +
320; illustrations. $25.95, ISBN 0-415-24037-9.
Written by members of the Psychology and
Christianity project at the Centre for Advanced
Religious and Theological Studies at the Univer-
sity of Cambridge, this book sees psychology
primarily as a technical tool for practical applica-
tion to ministry. The authors apply an eclectic ar-
ray of empirical research to the religious life of
children, clerical formation, church organiza-
tion, worship, spiritual development, and much,
much more. Similar in design to undergraduate
overview textbooks in the US, the volume con-
tains five parts covering the psychology of reli-
gion; developmental and educational psychol-
ogy; abnormal and clinical psychology; social,
organizational, and occupational psychology;
Volume 30 Number 1 / January 2004
and psychology and theology in dialogue on hu-
man nature and doctrine. Sections end with sum-
maries of key themes and questions. Chapters
conclude with suggestions for further reading.
Oriented more toward comprehensive coverage
of psychological research than critical descrip-
tion and evaluation, this text would work better
in a (British) Christian undergraduate context
than in a (US) graduate seminary. The authors
show little concern, common in the US, about
psychology as a hermeneutical and cultural force
that interprets and shapes social norms. They
also see theological instruction more as training
(as in the “clerical paradigm”) than as education
and portray Christian theology and denomina-
tions with considerably less nuance than psy-
chology. Nonetheless, the focus on psychology’s
contributions to ministry as a whole, and not sim-
ply to pastoral counseling or religious education,
may prove useful in some seminary contexts.
Bonnie . IMiller-Mclemore
.
The Divinity School Vanderbilt University
SANITY AND SANCTITY: MENTAL
HEALTH WORK AMONG THE U L
TRA-ORTHODOX IN JERUSALEM. By Da-
vid Greenberg and Eliezer Witztum. New Ha-
ven, CT: Yale University Press, 2001. Pp. x +
389. $40.00, ISBN 0-300-07191-4.
This book, by two psychiatrists who have
been working with ultra-orthodox Jewish pa-
tients in Jerusalem for about twenty years, offers
a unique perspective on this community as well
as on the complex relationship between psychia-
try and religion in general. The first section is an
“introduction to ultra-orthodoxy and community
mental health work in Jerusalem”; the following
sections go on to deal with the psychopathology
of belief and ritual and the psychopathology of
return to traditional Judaism. The latter includes
a section on the “Jerusalem syndrome”-a phe-
nomenon of extreme psychological crisis among
tourists to Jerusalem. The book goes on to dis-
cuss means of providing mental health care in the
ultra-orthodox community, case studies and con-
clusions. The authors see themselves as practic-
ing cultural psychiatry and found that they had to
learn to understand the religious world of their
patients in order to treat them on their own terms.
The authors attempt to distinguish between men-
tal illness and religious experience and come to
interesting conclusions. The book creatively in-
tegrates Jewish texts that illustrate the thought
world of ultra-orthodox together with case histo-
ries and rigorously honest self analysis. This
book is a very valuable addition to the literature
on ultra-orthodoxy. It should also interest all
involved in psychology and religion.
Shad Stampfer
Hebrew University
Sociology and
Anthropology of
UGO BIANCHI: UNA VITA PER LA
STORIA DELLE RELIGIONI. Edited by
Giovanni Casadio. Biblioteca di Storia delle
Religioni, 3. Rome: il Calamo, 2002. Pp. 525.
€37,00, ISBN 88-88039-24-4.
Ugo Bianchi (1922-1995), disciple of
Raffaele Pettazzoni, has had an immense influ-
ence as the revered teacher of several genera-
tions of Italian historians of religion. As an orga-
nizer of congresses (the best known was the one
devoted to the study of Gnosticism, Messina,
1966), as president of the International Associa-
tion for the History of Religions, and as contribu-
tor to methodological debates, his influence was
felt well beyond the borders of Italy. This vol-
ume contains twenty-one essays devoted to ex-
ploring Bianchi’s career and contributions to the
study of religion (plus a not to be missed intro-
duction by the editor). Five of the essays chroni-
cle his early years in Rome, his various profes-
sorships and his contributions to the IAHR.
Seven are devoted to his contributions to the
study of Mesopotamian, Iranian, Egyptian,
Greek and Roman religion, the religions of late
antiquity (Mithraism, Gnosticism,
Manichaeism). Two deal with some of Bianchi’s
main concerns: the anthropology of religion
(etrzologiareligiosa) and the phenomenon of du-
alism, an issue to which he devoted notable stud-
ies, beginning with I1 dualism0 religioso (1958).
Of the remaining articles, mention must be made
of Temn’s attempt (“con toni di particolare
veemenza,” according to the editor) to show that
despite his ostensive rejection of the
phenomenological method, the maestro r o m n o
inevitably made use of something that resembles
it. Students of the religions that occupied Bianchi
will encounter in the various essays up-to-date
references to specialized research; those inter-
ested in methodological issues will be reminded
that “theory” and old-fashioned erudition do not
exclude each other; and all readers will gain
insight into Italian academic culture. For
graduate libraries.
Gustavo Benavides
Villanova University
ECOLOGY AND THE SACRED: ENGAG-
ING THE ANTHROPOLOGY OF ROY A.
RAPPAPORT. Edited by Ellen Messer and Mi-
chael Lambek. Ann Arbor: University of Michi-
gan Press, 2001. Pp. 364. $59.50, ISBN
0-472-11170-1.
As the author of Pigs for the Ancestors (1968,
1984), Ritual and Religion in the Making of Hu-
manity (1999) and of several important articles
published in Ecology, Meaning, and Religion
(1979), Rappaport left a profound mark as a the-
orist of ritual and sacredness, as one of the pio-
Religious Studies Review / 37
neers in the ecological approach to the study of
religion, and as a scholar concerned with the
practical applications of anthropology, a disci-
pline many of whose practitioners, apparently
tired of the “other,” have of late become alarm-
ingly preoccupied with their own selves. The
contributors to this volume seek to honor “the be-
neficent spirit of a colleague who has now be-
come an ancestor” (Strathern and Stewart) by ad-
dressing the issues that concerned Rappaport
throughout his long career: the phenomenon of
ritual (Levy), sacredness (Wagner, Csordas),
conversion (Peacock), religion in general
(Lambek, in an essay that scholars of religion
would not want to miss), global environmental
change and the “anthropology of trouble”
(Moran and Brondizio, Johnston), exchange
(LiPuma), among others-keeping in mind that
since all these issues are intimately connected,
most of the essays address precisely those con-
nections. Some of the contributors (Lees and
Gillison) are critical of Rappaport’s interpreta-
tion of the kaiko ceremony, that is, of the ritual
central to Pigs for the Ancestors; those critiques
are probing, but even they do not diminish the
significance of Rappaport’s achievement. Read-
ers interested in these issues are also referred to
the articles published in American Anthropolo-
gist 1Ol:l. 1999, devoted to Rappaport. For
graduate libraries.
Gustavo Benavides
Villanova Universiry
FOR THE GLORY OF G O D HOW MONG
THEISM LED TO REFORMATIONS, SCI-
ENCE, WITCH-HUNTS, AND THEEND OF
SLAVERY. By Rodney Stark. Princeton, NJ:
Princeton University Press, 2003. Pp. x + 488.
$35.00, ISBN 0-691-1 1436-6.
In this sequel to One True God: Historical
Consequences of Monotheism (2001). Stark ex-
tends his arguments in four directions. First, he
develops the earlier sociology of monotheisms
by focusing on Christian monotheism in particu-
lar along with its diversification and the emer-
gence of its sectarianism via renewal and re-
form movements. Second, he suggests Christian
monotheism as a necessary cause for the origins
and development of science in the Western
world rather than essentially in conflict with sci-
ence-the latter notion promulgated by atheists
and secular humanists instead. Third, he pro-
poses that the witchhunts of the fourteenth
through seventeenth centuries occurred when the
monotheistic faith in reason needed an explana-
tion for why non-church magic “worked” and
posited a connection with Satan as a response.
Finally, Stark inquires into how the monotheistic
ideas of God as moral agent undergirded the
theological arguments of abolitionism. In each
case, the broader Christian contexts are de-
scribed in order to explain why such events de-
veloped neither in other monotheistic faiths
(such as Islam) or religious traditions (of the
East). Throughout, Stark disclaims originality;
rather, his wide historical reading in each of
these fields is processed through a sociological
38 / Religious Studies Review
lens that produces insightful interconnections. In
conclusion, Stark challenges his social scientific
colleagues to take the ideas of God more seri-
ously in studying religion. Clearly, theologians
can also be similarly admonished through this
and the earlier volume about not neglecting the
methods of the social sciences in their work. This
is a controversial work that deserves widespread
attention.
Amos Yong
Bethel College
PETER BERGER AND THE STUDY OF
RELIGION. Edited by Linda Woodhead, Paul
Heelas and David Martin. New York: Routledge,
2001. Pp viii + 216. $29.95, lSBN
0-4 15-21532-3.
Given the intellectual influence and popular-
ity of Peter Berger’s work in sociology, it is sur-
prising that few critical studies of his thought
have been published. This collection of eleven
essays serves to rectify that oversight. Two broad
themes organize the book. The first is the often
prickly relationship between modernity and reli-
gion. A sociological truism of the 50s and 60s
held that modernization and secularization went
hand in hand. Berger, who originally shared this
view, eventually dismissed the so-called secular-
ization thesis as “the big mistake” of his career.
The essay by Bruce critiques Berger’s change of
mind regarding the secularization thesis. Several
other essays discuss related matters, such as the
uniqueness of European secularization and
Berger’s seminal argument that the modem turn
to self and subjectivity issues from the corrosive
effects of modernization on the authority of pri-
mary institutions, resulting in the “homeless-
ness” characteristic of modem consciousness.
The second theme reflects an enduring preoccu-
pation of Berger’s entire career: the balancing of
sociological and theological perspectives.
Berger’s approach through his career has been to
take seriously the social foundations of religion,
but not to the degree that reduces religion to the
epiphenomena of underlying social forces. The
essay by D. Horrel is of particular interest, for he
describes how NT scholars have appropriated
various elements of Berger’s work with profit.
This collection makes for a good introduction to
Berger’s work, one ideal f o r advanced
undergraduates and beginning graduate
students.
Stephen Dawson
Boston University
TRUE RELIGION. By Graham Ward.
Blackwell Manifesto Series. Oxford: Blackwell,
2003. Pp. ix + 168. Cloth, $54.95, ISBN
0-631-22174-3; paper, $19.95, ISBN
0-63 1-22173-5.
Engaging in a critical analysis of “true reli-
gion” in western culture over the past several
centuries, Ward draws on literature (by Shake-
speare, Defoe, Novalis, Melville, and Rushdie);
film (Romeo and Juliet, The Exorcist, Moulin
Rouge, Rosemary’s Baby, and Stigmata); philos-
ophy (Descartes, Kant, Hegel, Mendelssohn,
Schlegel, and Derrida); political theory (Locke,
Machiavelli, and Marx); architecture (Rothko
Chapel, the Holy Land Experience theme park);
and theology (Schleiermacher and Barth). Based
on that cultural hermeneutics, Ward argues that
“true religion” has developed through several
stages related to secularism, liberalism, and capi-
talism: 1) the gospel of love versus hellfire and
earthly violence; 2) divine presence in material
wealth; 3) personal experience and salvation; 4)
natural religion and mystical “consumption”;
and 5 ) “liquidation of religion” with a “re-en-
chantment” of no content, yet consumable
through technology and global marketing. In
spite of current politics of difference, he hopes in
the future that increasing recognition of religious
interdependence will counter fear of the other
while supporting specific faith commitment.
This intriguing and challenging book will stimu-
late debate about religion’s place in culture by
both scholars of religion and those well-versed in
past and present western culture.
Mary Ann Stenger
Universio of Louisville
BEYOND IDOLS: THE SHAPE OF A SEC-
ULAR SOCIETY. By Richard K. Fenn. New
York: Oxford University Press, 2001. Pp. 196.
$29.95, ISBN 0-19-514369-8.
Revisiting the notion of a truly secular soci-
ety from the perspective of sociology and reli-
gion, Fenn explores the possibility of moving
“beyond idolatry” to a “religionless Christian-
ity.” He disputes the claim that an institutional-
ized civil religion is necessary to enshrine the
ideals and identity of a modem society, suggest-
ing that this form of idolatry, or “monopoly” on
the Sacred, limits the possibilities for innovation
and revelation. In a truly secular society there are
no illusions of transcendence or immortality; sal-
vation is temporal rather than spiritual and there-
fore must occur in the here and now. Thus the
mundane can become the truly Sacred. In his for-
mulation individuals and nations are granted ac-
cess to a full range of options for developing a
global ethic based on democratic discourse.
Christianity itself plays a secularizing and sub-
versive role as an institution capable of inspiring
social change, rather than merely reinforcing the
existing social order. Some readers may wish for
a clearer articulation of what a truly secular soci-
ety entails, but Fenn’s creative and provocative
vision will nevertheless interest scholars,
students, and laypersons alike.
Amy Pace
San Diego, CA
Gender Studies
GOOD SEX: FEMINIST PERSPECTIVES
FROM THE WORLD’S RELIGIONS. Edited
by Patricia Beattie Jung, Mary E. Hunt, and
Radhika Balakrishnan. Piscataway, NJ: Rutgers
University Press, 2001. Pp. xix + 220. Cloth,
Volume 30 Number 1 / January 2004
$50.00, ISBN 0-8135-2883-6; paper, $20.00,
ISBN 0-8135-2884-4.
Good Sex’s editors and contributors present
factually and theoretically interesting articles
that grapple with the boundaries of sexuality,
gender, reproduction, and identity put forth by
various religious systems, including the ramifi-
cations of understanding sexuality as a private
act, the significance of reproduction within reli-
gious frameworks, and the impact of colonial
and global discourses on sexual identities. Yet
methodologically speaking, those in religious
studies who are firmly committed to preserving
the divide between themselves and theology will
want to carefully consider whether to use this
text, composed primarily by individuals self-de-
scribed as theologians. This is borne out in Good
Sex’s focus on ethics and advocacy, which for-
wards a particular agenda about what constitutes
“good” conceptions of sexuality couched within
theologically charged language. In addition to
this (despite the book’s title), the various mean-
ings and uses of the term “good sex” remain am-
biguous. This work is not for the theoretically
unsophisticated and is probably best used in the
graduate classroom or with other audiences
already familiar with feminist theory, theology,
and world religious systems.
Leslie E. Smith
University of California, Santa Barbara
HER VOICE, HER FAITH: WOMEN
SPEAK ON WORLD RELIGIONS. Edited by
Arvind Sharma and Katherine K. Young. Boul-
der, CO: Westview, 2003. Pp.327. $26.00, ISBN
0-8133-6591 -0.
Several essays in this collection begin with
the author’s parents, with the home where they
first learned what it meant to be a female in their
faith, which directs our attention to the impor-
tance of domestic life in shaping religious under-
standings. The essays then move into historical
overviews of women in each tradition. Some are
uneven in documentation, although others are
excellent and offer a fresh viewpoint. For in-
stance, R. Hassan focuses on three theological
assumptions that are shared by Judaism, Chris-
tianity and Islam: 1) women are a secondary cre-
ation coming from a man’s rib, 2) woman was
createdfor man, and 3) women led to the Fall.
Her unpacking of these assumptions gives the
reader ample time to reflect on the profound sim-
ilarities of these traditions and presents a much
needed antidote for today’s denigrating presen-
tations of Muslim women. We have more in
common with them than we may care to see. In a
different vein, S. Heschel writes movingly of her
difficulties in saying Kaddish (prayers for the
dead) for her father in various synagogues. This
provides a springboard for her historical survey
that includes Europe, Israel, and the US. V.
Narayanan emphasizes that much of Hindu prac-
tice takes place in the home, which she opens up
to us. M. Gerhart’s essay on Christianity incor-
porates women’s contribution to Eastern Ortho-
doxy. W. Griffin covers Goddess Spirituality or
Wicca in the US and England, and gently gives
Volume 30 Number 1 /January 2004
G. Gardner his due. She also discusses the role of
men in these movements. The collection is
uneven, but a worthy contribution to the
literature.
Serinity Young
American Museum of Natural History
OUT OF THE DEPTHS: WOMEN’S EXPE-
RIENCE OF EVIL AND SALVATION. By
Ivone Gebara. Minneapolis: Fortress Press,
2002. Pp. viii + 211. $20.00, ISBN 0-8006-
3475-6.
In this text the self-described “woman theolo-
gian of liberation,” Gebara, does a commendable
job of drawing on both her extensive knowledge
of feminist scholarship and her Latin American
context as she comments on traditional Christian
doctrines and feminist theology. Beginning with
a methodological discussion Concerningthe def-
initions of evil and its traditional description in
male terms and categories, Gebara goes on to
weave the experiences and narratives of op-
pressed women throughout the work, thus af-
firming the necessary link between the theoreti-
cal conversations concerning evil and salvation
and the concrete reality of these concepts. While
the book’s content is weighted toward an analy-
sis of the evil endured by women, Gebara briefly
comments on the evil committed by women and
concludes with the topics of the deliverance of
women and the role of God in the lives of
women, specifically those in poverty. The over-
arching hermeneutical tool by which Gebara
navigates her subject matter is gender. While
some may find her theological conclusions
somewhat problematic or un-orthodox in light of
this anthropological starting point, the book re-
mains a helpful bridge between feminist and lib-
eration theology. This text is useful not only to
students and scholars of liberation and feminist
theology but also to those who desire to be
acquainted with alternative perspectives on
classical systematic theology.
Christina Busman
Princeton Theological Seminary
GAY AND LESBIAN THEOLOGIES: REP-
ETITIONS WITH CRITICAL DIFFER-
ENCE. By Elizabeth Stuart. Burlington, V T
Ashgate, 2003. Pp. 125. Cloth, $69.95, ISBN
0-7546-16584; paper, $29.95, ISBN 0-7546-
1661-4.
In this thoughtful book, Stuart traces the de-
velopment of gay and lesbian theology, high-
lighting the ways in which it draws on late twen-
tieth-century Christian theology and the growing
field of gay and lesbian studies. Stuart argues
that the primary weakness of gay and lesbian the-
ology is its uncritical acceptance of ideas found
in those two sources. Its appropriation of the
modem notion of fixed and stable sexual iden-
tity, especially, has led to an impasse on the issue
of homosexuality in many Christian churches.
To move beyond this deadlock, Stuart turns to
queer theology, whose rejection of stable notions
of sexual identity opens up new ways of inter-
preting Christian views of sexuality. Analyzing
Roman Catholic funeral rites and theologies of
baptism, Stuart suggests that Christianity’s own
“queerness” is seen in its refusal to grant eschato-
logical significance to culturally constructed
identities such as gender, sexual orientation, race
or nationality. With its broad historical survey of
contemporary theologies and its provocative
theological argument, this book should be of
interest to a wide range of readers, including
college students and seminarians.
Susan E. Hill
University of Northern Iowa
Religion and
Science
LIGHT FROM THE EAST THEOLOGY,
SCIENCE AND THE EASTERN ORTHO-
DOX TRADITION. By Alexei V. Nesteruk.
Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2003. Pp.viii + 287.
$22.00, ISBN 0-8006-3499-3.
“Light from the East” for the theology and
science conversation? Yes, if this well-written
volume is taken to heart. Fresh perspectives are
provided herein by Nesteruk, aresearcher both at
the Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation (Uni-
versity of Portsmouth, UK) and at the Institute
for Orthodox Christian Studies (Cambridge), in
bringing the Greek patristic theological tradition
into dialogue with the most recent discussions in
scientific method, cosmology, time and tempo-
rality, and the Anthropic Principle. Throughout,
an ongoing dialogue is also conducted with the
Kantian antinomies. Following from the Ortho-
dox distinction between the divine essence
(which is inaccessible) and divine energies (in
which creatures participate), Nesteruk embraces
the antinomies not as debilitating but as pointing
beyond themselves (and the positivistlempiricist
v. idealistlrationalist dichotomies) toward God
the creator as the ground of intelligibility itself.
One of the questions this raises is that connected
to Nesteruk’s retrieval of the Greek fathers: are
theologians who wish to remain anchored in the
theological tradition in their dialogue with sci-
ence committed to some kind of Christian Pla-
tonism, even one as ably defended as Nesteruk?
Or, can one reject Platonism and yet succeed in
reappropriating patristic theology for this task?
Regardless, there is solid theology and science in
this volume. Nesteruk has mastered the issues on
both sides and does succeed in communicating
their relationship in a way which enables at least
an appreciation for how Orthodox (and
orthodox) theology can be a worthwhile
dialogue partner in the contemporary science
and theology discussions.
Amos Yong
Bethel College
NARRATIVE, RELIGION AND SCIENCE:
FUNDAMENTALISM VERSUS IRONY,
1700-1999. By Stephen Prickett. New York:
Religious Studies Review / 39
Cambridge University Press, 2002. Pp. viii +
281. Cloth, $70.00, ISBN 0-521-81 136-8; paper,
$25.00, ISBN 0-521-00983-9.
As the book’s subtitle indicates, Prickett con-
trasts “fundamentalists” versus “ironists” in his
somewhat quirky survey of religion, science, and
literature since 1700. It’s a book for specialists in
one of those fields who have substantial interest
in the others. By fundamentalism Prickett means
the belief in “an exact fit between words and
things,” which expresses “a ‘given’ immutable
truth, whether by divine revelation, political
dogma, or linguistic or psychological theory.”
This definition makes strange bedfellows: W.
Paley together with R. Rorty and D.
Cupitt-Rorty because language alone has true
existence and Cupitt because he has married the
Zeitgeist. All fundamentalism shares the En-
lightenment faith in the explanatory power of a
grand narrative. Irony is defined by its contrast
between two or more orders of reality, “one as-
sumed or claimed, the other hidden, undis-
closed.’’ Unlike Rorty and Cupitt, Prickett’s
ironist believes that reality, the world, and truth
actually exist: irony shows the gaps between lan-
guage and these orders, but it does not destroy
them. In fact, if language alone existed, there
could be no gaps and hence no irony. Prickett
finds irony in two places, scientific paradigms
and literary narrative. Implicitly or explicitly,
both of these acknowledge intrinsic gaps be-
tween language, imagined worlds, and reality.
His book dwells at sympathetic length on
Coleridge, Kierkegaard, F. D. Maurice, C. S .
Lewis, Newman, and M. Polanyi. A distin-
guished interpreter of the relation of
Romanticism to theology, Prickett has
broadened our conversation about ways of
knowing in postmodernity.
Daniel E. Ritchie
Bethel College
GOD’S BOOK OF WORKS: THE THEOL-
OGY OF NATURE AND NATURAL THE-
OLOGY. By R. J. Berry. New York: T &TClark,
2003. Pp. xvi + 286. $29.95, ISBN 0-567-
08915-0.
This revision of the 1997-1998 Glasgow
Gifford Lectures sketches a natural theology
from the perspective of a distinguished biologist
and geneticist. Yet these topics are discussed ex-
plicitly only in one chapter, on the “Theology of
DNA,” where Berry overviews advances in the
scientific understanding of genes and the ethics
of genetic engineering. The bulk of the volume is
devoted to developing a theology of the environ-
ment in dialogue with Green religion, Green sci-
ence, Green politics, and theories regarding the
limits of sustainable growth on earth. The objec-
tive is to encourage planetary stewardship based
on a sound environmental philosophy, an intu-
itive respect for nature, and an orthodox theolog-
ical anthropology, soteriology and eschatology.
An underlying sub-theme throughout the volume
is the post-Enlightenment and post-Barthian sus-
picion of natural theology. Here Berry discusses
the notion of design, the nature and practice of
40 / Religious Studies Review
science, and the evolution debate in order to de-
fend, as a scientist, the enterprise of natural the-
ology. He also suggests that those who advocate
the opposition of science to religion (and
vice-versa) are motivated as much, if not more,
by sociological factors (e.g., they are driven by
fears of change and of the increasing awareness
of human and creaturely contingency) as by sci-
entific (not usually) or religiouskheological
(more rhetorical than substantive) consider-
ations. Overall, a highly accessible volume
which should appeal to a wide readership,
especially those interested in both the
science-religion conversation and in orthodox
Christian faith.
Amos Yong
Bethel College
BELIEF IN GOD IN AN AGE OF SCIENCE.
By John Polkinghome. New Haven, CT: Yale
University Press, 1998. Pp. xiv + 133. $9.95,
ISBN 0-300-09949-5.
This published version of Polkinghome’s
Terry Lectures at Yale (1996) preceded his
Templeton Prize award in 2002, awarded for his
work in the dialogue between science and reli-
gion. He notes that five main concerns have char-
acterized the dialogue in the past thirty years: a
rejection of reductionism, an understanding of
an evolutionary universe as compatible with
creatio continua, a cautious revival of a modest
version of natural theology, a methodological
comparison of science and theology, and specu-
lations about how physical process might be
open to accommodate acts of both human and di-
vine agents. In this brief but informative book,
Polkinghome discusses the final three issues. His
contention is that theism offers the best explana-
tion of the human encounter with reality, extend-
ing his previous discussions to include moral and
aesthetic experiences and the importance of
hope. He illustrates the similar methods of sci-
ence and theology by a discussion of the investi-
gation of the nature of light and the
Christological controversies in the first five cen-
turies of Christianity. He then lays out his posi-
tion about how God might be understood to act in
a physical universe, and defends a critical realis-
tic epistemology. Like his other books, this one is
informative. Its length, however, counts against
a much-needed justification of his views and a
defense of some controversial points, especially
concerning theology. He is first and foremost a
professional scientist, as he admits, and only
secondarily a theologian. Yet his appeal for the
need for more intense interdisciplinary work is a
point well taken.
Barry Whitney
Universiiy of Windsor
NATURALISM DEFEATED? ESSAYS ON
PLANTINGA’S EVOLUTIONARY ARGU-
MENT AGAINST NATURALISM. Edited by
James Beilby. Ithaca: Comell University Press,
2002. Pp.~ + 2 8 3$19.95,ISBN0-8014-8763-3.
. with the acknowledgment that God has “the ulti-
Naturalism Defeated? is a collection of stim-
ulating essays critiquing Alvin Plantinga’s evo-
lutionary argument against naturalism. First pro-
posed in his Warrant and Proper Function (Ox-
ford University Press, 1993), Plantinga’s argu-
ment views the coupling of metaphysical natu-
ralism and contemporary evolutionary theory as
self-defeating and self-referentially incoherent
because naturalism is unable to construct a plau-
sible case for reliable cognitive faculties (mem-
ory, perception, reason). Since human cognition
is a product of naturalistic evolutionary pro-
cesses with no guidance from a higher being, its
reliability is uncertain. If these faculties are un-
certain, including the beliefs that they produce
(e.g., metaphysical naturalism), then the natural-
istic account of human origins defeats the ideo-
logical belief in naturalism. After Plantinga
briefly presents his argument, it is critiqued by
W. P. Alston, M. Bergmann, E. Fales, J. Fodor,
T. Memcks, T. O’Connor, R. Otte, W. Ramsey,
E. Sosa, W. J. Talbott, and J. Van Cleve. The de-
cisive issue debated by these authors is whether
the naturalist has a defeater for the conjunction
of naturalism and evolution in her inability to af-
firm reliable knowledge. The discussion is con-
cluded by an extended response from Plantinga.
This book has much to offer scholars in the fields
of philosophy, religious studies, theology, and
science and religion. I highly recommend its use
with upper-level undergraduates through fac-
ulty. We are all indebted to Beilby (Bethel Col-
lege, St. Paul, MN) who has deepened the
sophistication of a growing discussion of
evolutionary epistemology. Does Plantinga
defeat naturalism? Read the book and decide for
yourself.
Peter Heltzel
Fordham University
HEAL THYSELF: SPIRTUALITY, MEDI-
CINE AND THE DISTORTION OF CHRIS-
TIANITY. By Joel James Shuman and Keith G.
Meador. New York: Oxford University Press,
2003. Pp. xiii + 174. $25.00, ISBN 0-19-
515469-X.
Through a meticulous definition of terms the
authors establish their theses regarding the dis-
tortion of Christianity in relation to modem cul-
ture and medicine. They describe the descent of
mainstream culture into a pervasive “ethical”
egoism, or a “general cultural attitude of con-
sumerism, in which all things are understood as
goods to be exchanged for the benefit of the
exchanger.” This consumerism, coupled with re-
search on the efficacy of religious practices in
promoting health and healing, has created an en-
vironment in the Church which allows, or even
promotes, bargaining with God to exchange cer-
tain “religious” behaviors for a guarantee of
health and wealth. Then there are those who see
religion as a purely human affair. They endorse
these “religious” techniques, not for any spiritual
reason, but for the therapeutic benefits. The au-
thors affirm that a Christian should pray for heal-
ing or for a change of circumstances, but always
mate right to determine” life’s “proper course
and limits,” including the illnesses that are a part
Volume 30 Number 1 / January 2004
of human existence. Often our faith in God is in
spite of the circumstances, not because of them.
The authors have sounded a clear call for the
Church to reform its speech and action that
should be read by clergy and laity alike.
Mark D. McLean
Evangel University
TECHNOLOGY AND HUMAN BECOM-
ING. By Philip Hefner. Minneapolis: Fortress
Press, 2003. Pp. xi + 96. $6.00, ISBN 0-8006-
3608-2.
This book is the published version of the au-
thor’s lectures given at the Religion in an Age of
Science 200 1 conference. Formerly editor of
Zygon, Hefner’s reflections will inspire some
and infuriate others. Is technology “sacred
space,” “a medium of divine action,” as Hefner
claims, transforming us into new creations (cit-
ing Teilhard), or it is rebellion against the Cre-
ator, an aspect not considered seriously or suffi-
ciently by Hefner? Technology is a fact. It has
changed our view of ourselves and Hefner holds
that this change is desirable, indeed a spiritual
progress of co-creation with God. Technology
has erased the boundary between human selves
(cyborgs, technosapiens) and technology as, for
example, in a MRI scan or acolonoscopy (and, to
a lesser extent, eyeglasses, medicines, implants,
computers, etc). Hefner suggests that our spiri-
tual journey has become “technologize&’ and
this is the new frontier of theology, marked by
both alienation and the quest for reconciliation
and the transformation into a new order of being.
Technology, he holds, reveals our fragility and
drives us to create alternate possibilities. Such is
the new spirituality. But all of this must be de-
fended. Traditional Christianity would challenge
Hefner’s basic premises and proposals-that
God is a participant in the technological process,
that God allows us to create meaning rather than
impose it, etc. This hardly sounds like anything
recognizable in traditional theology despite oc-
casional insertions about Hefner’s claims that it
resembles his view of Lutheranism; e.g., that
technological restlessness is a means of grace.
Barry Whitney
University of Windsor
Philosophy of
Religion
ANONYMOUS SKEPTICS: SWINBURNE,
HICK, AND ALSTON. By Lance Ashdown.
Religion in Philosophy and Theology, 3.
Tubingen: J. C. B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck), 2002.
Pp. 286. $49.00, ISBN 3-16-147679-4.
Ashdown argues that externalism contains
implied skepticism and is fundamentally flawed.
He describes externalism as any of a number of
philosophical theories that grant as possible a
distinction between how things appear to us and
how they are in fact. He claims that to generate
the skeptical questions implied in externalism
Volume 30 Number 1 / January 2004
we must assume knowledge of some truth.
Knowledge of reality is a prerequisite for lan-
guage games from which skeptical questions are
asked. It would be nice if this were true, but ironi-
cally it is impossible to know such without beg-
g i n g the question. Ashdown criticizes
Swinburne, Hick, and Alston, arguing that as a
consequence of their externalism they are skep-
tics despite what they say to the contrary.
Ashdown claims each philosopher faces skepti-
cal questions concerning 1) the possibility of
grounding a preference of meaning (logical
skepticism), 2) the external world, and 3) reli-
gious skepticism. Coverage of Alston’s writings
was disappointing. Although Ashdown critiqued
Alston’s philosophy of language, concept of
truth, epistemology and views of God,he cited
only one book and one article, ignoring two
books, two collections of essays and numerous
journal articles Alston has written on these sub-
jects. Alston’s position is more subtle, better de-
veloped, and better defended than indicated. It
appears likely that Hick and Swinburne’s work
suffer the same fate. It is doubtful that the book
will contribute significantly to a clear under-
standing of the views covered, and likely that
only the supporters of D. Z. Philips, Ashdown’s
mentor, will agree with the criticisms leveled.
David M. Woodruff
Huntington College
EVIL IN MODERN THOUGHT AN AG
TERNATIVJ3HISTORY OF PHILOSOPHY.
By Susan Neiman. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Uni-
versity Press, 2002. Pp. xii + 358.$29.95, ISBN
0-691-09608-2.
Neiman began her book in Israel, and com-
pleted the final chapter in Bellagio (Italy). Work-
ing with the disaster of Lisbon and the atrocities
of Auschwiz as two kinds of evil, and with two
poles in terns of which the self is understood and
finds its place in the world, Neiman retells the
history of philosophy from the Enlightenment up
until the late twentieth century. It is a retelling in
the sense that she reviews the history of how per-
sons viewed the self and its place in the world
fleshed out in terns of this polarity.It is a depar-
ture from the predominantly
epistemologicdmetaphysical questions which
so many historians of philosophy have seen as
central to this period. Thus the basic issues are
axiological, having to do with how the self is un-
derstood as it has responded to evils in a real
world, rather than the more abstract
epistemological questions attended to by Des-
cartes and Locke. Her book targets anyone inter-
ested in the problem of evil, and all those who
have studied the Enlightenment through one
lens, the epistemological. It is probably one of
the most significant recent works on the history
of this period if only for the reason that it takes
more seriously the question, How can the self
find meaning in such a world? rather than the
question, How can the self know? Both are im-
portant, but the former will be for many not only
more existentially urgent, but a refreshingly new
slant on Enlightenment thought.
Melville Y. Stewart
Universiv of St. Thomas
CONCEPTIONS OF UNITY IN RECENT
ECUMENICAL DISCUSSION: A PHILO-
SOPHICAL ANALYSIS. By Simon Harrison.
Religions and Discourse, 7. New York Peter
Lang, 2000. Pp 282. $45.95, ISBN
O-82W-5073- 1.
Greater understanding of “unity” is urgently
needed in ecumenical theology. Thus this vol-
ume, based on a doctoral thesis, claims to address
one of the key issues of the ecumenical move-
ment. The author employs Wittgenstein’s ana-
lytical philosophy and biological taxonomy to
classify ecumenical documents. This approach is
interesting and novel. The work is reportorial
and accurate as a survey of ecumenical texts. The
author is correct in noting the inconsistent uses of
“unity” in ecumenical reports and church agree-
ments. His distinction between images and mod-
els of unity is helpful, although it has been ob-
served by others earlier. The suggestion that
koinonia is not so much a model of unity as the
goal of unity is a recognition of the insights of
other ecumenists. The book is severely limited
by reference only to materials in English. Those
teaching philosophical analysis of language will
find greater use for this volume than ecumenists.
William G. Rusch
Foundationfor a Conference on
Faith and Order in North America
AMERICAN PRAGMATISM: A RELI-
GIOUS GENEALOGY. By M. Gail Hamner.
American Academy of Religion Reflection and
Theory in the Study of Religion Series, 14. New
York: Oxford University Press, 2003. Pp. ix +
233. $45.00, ISBN 0-19-515547-5.
Harmer’s goal is to explain “what is Ameri-
can about American pragmatism?” This is a
question with a very traditional genealogy. Her
response includes an unusual collection of
sources. First, borrowing from Lacanian psycho-
analysis and American history, pragmatism
grew out of America’s “Puritan imaginary,” as it
endured in non-doctrinal form from the seven-
teenth century; by the late nineteenth century, it
had become the context through which pragma-
tists “filtered and negotiated ... concepts of self
..., society ..., and ethics.” To this core, she adds
the influence of European thought as mutated by
the Puritan imaginary. The European thinkers
she chooses as major influences are two German
psychologists, Hermann von Helmhotz and Wil-
helm Wundt, and two Scottish philosopher/psy-
chologists, William Hamilton and Alexander
Bain. Although these individual chapters pro-
vide helphl summaries ofthese thinkers, there is
little explanation for how these influences were
chosen from the complex array of influences on
pragmatism. Hamner’s conclusion is that the
American pragmatists, Charles Sanders Peirce
and William James, adapted these European in-
fluences to create in pragmatism the basis for an
Religious Studies Review / 41
American “mythology of self and nation” with a
distinctive openness to religious experience. The
book will be most helpful to graduate students
seeking to round out their coverage of scholar-
ship on pragmatism, and Hamner’s book will
provide somewhat more attention to religion in
pragmatism than has usually appeared in the of-
ten secular readings of pragmatism in recent
years.
Paul Jerome Croce
Stetson University
Theology
NEW AND ENLARGED HANDBOOK OF
~~
CHRISTIAN THEOLOGY. Edited by Donald
W. Musser and Joseph L. Price. Nashville:
Abingdon, 2003. Pp. 552. $38.00, ISBN
0-687-091 12-8.
Amid the multiple handbooks and dictionar-
ies of Christian theology available on the market,
this recent volume fills a distinctive niche with
its focus on subjects of current interest and de-
bate. A thorough revision and expansion of
Musser and Price’s 1991 volume, the New and
Enlarged Handbook contains many entries that
explore the movements, topics, and doctrines
that outline the contemporary theological land-
scape. Broadly ecumenical, with a surprising di-
versity of theological voices rarely glimpsed in
one volume, the handbook exhibits particular
strengths in philosophical and systematic theol-
ogy. Contributors resemble a “who’s who” of
contemporary theologians, although the volume
also contains the work of younger scholars
whose work is not widely known. A further ad-
vantage of the handbook is its expansion of top-
ics church and academy have considered “theo-
logical.” Entries such as “comedy,” “health,”
“space,” and “terror” suggest that ways of doing
theology are themselves evolving as neglected
areas come to light. As a result, the handbook not
only surveys today’s theological scene, but also
offers a glimmering of what may lie ahead. An
equally superb resource for seminary students
and teachers of theology.
David H. Jensen
Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary
THE LITERATURE OF THEOLOGY: A
GUIDE FOR STUDENTS AND PASTORS.
By David R. Stewart. Louisville: Westminster
John Knox, 2003. Pp.xii + 164. $19.95, ISBN
0-664-22342-7.
This is a “revised and updated”-actually, to-
tally rewritten-edition of John Bollier’s 1979
book by the same title. This well-conceived book
successfully fulfills Bollier’s vision for a later
generation. It contains 535 entries for printed re-
sources in various aspects of theology. While
Stewart’s chapter on denominations omits
Bollier’s Judaism category, he adds a section on
the Eastern Orthodox tradition. Although limited
to English language works, the depth of coverage
in this revised edition is noteworthy. For exam-
443 / Religious Studies Review
ple, in the Facets of Theology section of the
Christian Thought and Theology chapter, Stew-
art has included subsections on Ethics and The-
ology, Feminist Theology, Liberation Theology,
Theology in the African American Context, His-
panic Theology, and Non-Westem Theologies.
Stewart has completely reworked the book’s out-
line for a better fit with today’s landscape of
theological bibliography; he has added chapters
on Christian Spirituality and Christianity and
Literature. A glossary, bibliography of works in
theological bibliography, and a section on Liter-
ature of Theology on the Web (including many
primary texts, helpfully organized into the
book’s chapter categories) comprise the three
appendixes, followed by indexes for authordedi-
tors and titles. Every theological library, from
the Bible college to the divinity school, needs
this volume, which must now be recognized as
the standard text for English language courses in
theological research.
Mark Reasoner
Bethel College
GATEWAYS TO DOGMATICS: REASON-
ING THEOLOGICALLY FOR THE LIFE
OF THE CHURCH. By Gerhard Sauter. Grand
Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003. Pp.xx + 310. $27.00,
ISBN 0-8028-4700-5.
Sauter’s book offers a reflective introduction
to the nature, purposes, sources, and methods of
dogmatics. Allied with systematic theology, for
Sauter dogmatics functions as a reference system
for expressions of faith, it asks why we believe,
when we believe what we believe. While dog-
matics is a communal task involving a shared
language, it is more than a language game. On
the one hand Sauter seeks to deliver dogmatics
from dogmatism and foundationalism, but on the
other hand he also rejects anti-foundationalism.
Developing these and other themes, Sauter
writes in challenging and often paradoxical
ways. With colorful turns of phrase, he draws out
the implications of dogmatics for church life.
Prayer, proclamation, worship, pastoral care,
Christian education, church leadership, and mis-
sion all receive separate treatment. This volume
is a serious attempt to stake out a trinitarian and
communitarian dogmatic method midway be-
tween a completely objectified and a purely
contextualized theology. The book will be of in-
terest to professional theologians, advanced stu-
dents, and others whose interest in theology
compels them to wrestle with the nature of the
theological task.
Kevin T. Bauder
Central Baptist TheoEogical Seminary
GOD, EVIL, AND INNOCENT SUFFER-
ING: A THEOLOGICAL REFLECTION.
By John E. Thiel. New York: Crossroad
(Herder), 2002. Pp. xi + 179. $24.95, ISBN
0-8245-1928-0.
On the basis of experience, Thiel argues, one
sees that there are forms of suffering which are
totally undeserved. Classical philosophical and
theological efforts to reconcile divine goodness
Volume 30 Number 1 / January 2004
with human misfortune have been either legal
(all are guilty and thus deserving of punishment)
or providential (suffering serves a divine pur-
EXPLORING
pose). A process view resolves the tension be-
tween divine goodness and human suffering by
deconstructing the notion of omnipotence. But if
one takes seriously the Bible’s conviction that
& IDENTITY
God never wills death or any of the evils that kill
the human spirit, then one is in a position to ap-
preciate the category of “innocent suffering” and
God’s relation to it. Death is not what God wants
for humanity; the resurrection of Jesus is the pri-
mary scriptural evidence of this fact. Because it
has been linked so closely with human reproduc-
tion, Thiel shows why it is important to
reconceptualize original sin in social and histori-
cal categories, although the correlative christol-
ogy he offers could stand more development.
The book would draw serious undergraduates
into a splendid thought experiment, introducing
them to major thinkers (Augustine, Anselm,
Leibniz, Hick) and inviting them to wrestle with
the dualism that lurks, perhaps unavoidably, in Deconstructing Evangelicalism
many Christian minds. D. G. Hurf
William Reiser
0-8010-2728-4 * 224 pp. * 121.99~
Holy Cross College
“Darryl Hart, always a stimulating contrarian,
TRACTATUSLOGICO-PHILOSOPHICUS. is at it again with Deronshtcting Evangel-
By John Wanvick Montgomery. Theologisches icalixm. His arguments in favor of jettisoning
Lehr- und Studienmaterial, 11. Edmonton, AB: the label evangelical contain an intriguing
Canadian Institute for Law, Theology, and Pub- mixture of historical savvy, ironical whimsy,
wrongheaded obtuseness, and deeply
lic Policy, 2002. Pp. 236. $32.00, ISBN Christian insight. Only careful attention to
3-932829-57-3. the book will let readers decide for themselves
The prolific author and polymath, Montgom- what to make of Hart’s audacious proposal.”
ery, structures his definitive compendium of -Mark A. No& Wheaton College
Christian apologetics according to a
Wittgensteinian conceit, specifically the intel-
lectual itinerary of propositions mapped out in
the Tractatus Logico-Philosophicus. Consonant
with that text, Montgomery’s Tractatus identi-
fies seven propositions but with a distinctive in-
tent, specifically to lead with logical inevitability
to the verification of Christianity as the one ex-
clusively authentic revelation of God and, conse-
quently, as the only true religion. That claim is,
indeed, his first proposition, that the only charac-
teristic shared by all religions is their incompati-
bility. From that principle he moves on to the
other six propositions: the issue of truth, an epis-
temology of empirical probability, biblical iner-
rancy, the existential meaningfulness of Chris-
tianity, Christian revelation as the satisfaction of
the cor inquietum (“restless heart”), and finally Ttmothy George, rditai
proposition seven, “Whereof one can speak, 0-8010-2764-0 . 224 pp. * $19 99p . April rclcasc
thereof one must not remain silent.” The seven Pilgrims on the Sawdust Trail brings together
propositions with their sub-propositions eventu- scholars and church leaders to examine recent
ally number in excess of eighteen hundred, discussions and new opportunities for rela-
which comprise what he calls the “only ulti- tionships among evangelicals and fundamen-
mately verifiable and satisfying solution” to the talists, Pentecostals, mainline Protestants, and
theological problems faced by “a fallen race.” Of Roman Catholics. Contributors include Joel
course, his solution appears to offer nothing sig- Carpenter, Richard Mouw, Gabriel Fackre,
nificantly new with reference to content. One can Richard John Neuhaus, and Thomas Oden. A
read the same basic substance, mutatis mutandis, substantial foreword by Mark Noll is also
included.
in Evangelical apologetic texts written by G.
Clark, N. Geisler, or R. Nash. But anyone who
appreciates a foundationalist approach to faith or
Baker Academic
who wishes to encounter a decent example of Subscribe to Baker Academic’s electronic newsletter
(E-Notes) at www.bakeracademic.com
Volume 30 Number 1 / January 8004
such for the first time could do far worse than
pick up Montgomery’s tract.
B. Keith Putt
Samford University
SPEECH AND THEOLOGY: LANGUAGE
AND THE LOGIC OF INCARNATION. By
James K. A. Smith. Radical Orthodoxy Series.
New York Routledge, 2002. Pp. xiii + 186.
$27.95, ISBN 0-415-27696-9.
The purpose of this book is to examine the
way contemporary Continental philosophy deals
with things beyond speech, with particular refer-
ence to a transcendent God.The basic question
of the work is an old one: how can we speak of an
infinite God,who is beyond all finite, created
categories of human thought? In other words,
how is theology possible? Smith examines three
types of things which, in various Continental
thinkers, are beyond conceptual categories: God
and the Other (Levinas); the quasi-transcen-
dence of dyfkrance in Derrida; and the
inexpressibility of factical lived experience in
Heidegger. This book is not for the novice, but
presumes a familiarity with contemporary
postmodern philosophy, from the later
Heidegger to recent French works. In five c h a p
ters he discusses Husserl, Heidegger, Demda,
Levinas, Marion, Augustine, and ends with a bit
of Aquinas. Kierkegaard is usually lurking about
as well. Smith argues that only a Christian notion
of incarnation makes analogical theology possi-
ble. This book will make important reading for
anyone or any library interested in religious
themes in Continental philosophy, or in
so-called radical orthodoxy.
Alan G. Padgett
Luther Seminary
GODHEAD AND THE NOTHING. By
Thomas J. J. Altizer. Albany: State University of
New York Press, 2003. Pp. xiii + 165. $16.95,
ISBN 0-79 14-5796-6.
In many ways, this volume brings together
themes in Altizer’s corpus of books going as far
back as that which signaled the “Death of God”
theology in the 1960s. While the chief suspects,
Augustine, Spinoza, Blake, Hegel, Nietzsche,
Barth, remain Altizer’s primary interlocutors,
the dialectical discourse characteristic of his
work is taken up another notch. Thus the chapter
on the “Name of God” is also about the unname-
able; that on the “Primordial Sacrifice” is about
the apocalyptic sacrifice on the one hand and the
primordial creation on the other; the “Primordial
Evil” is about both apocalyptic evil and primor-
dial good; the “Transfiguration of Evil” is about
the creation of evil and the transfiguration of
good; the “Self-Saving God” is about the
self-sacrificing God who is at the same time the
absolute nothingness; and so on. But if Altizer is
right, will not even the dialectically superlative
language used throughout this volume about our
late-modem theological condition be super-
seded, and that precisely because the radically
contrasting experiences of our time will them-
selves give way to their even more radical and
unimaginable opposites? But even if more mon-
strous evils are anticipated, Altizer’s gospel also
predicts that such monstrosity will release an
even more “ultimate and final joy” (the book‘s
closing words). Read in this way, then, Altizer’s
deep grasp of religious, philosophical and theo-
logical traditions East and West do not mask the
evangelistic, apostolic and even evangelical
passion with which he writes for late-modern
Westerners.
Amos Yong
Bethel College
HONEST TO GOD: 4OTH ANNIVERSARY
EDITION. By John A. T. Robinson. Louisville:
Westminster John b o x , 2002. Pp. v + 183.
$19.95, ISBN 0-664-22422-9.
Honest to God i s not a new book. It was first
published in 1963 or four decades ago. For those
not familiar with the text, Robinson launched
what he called a “reluctant revolution” against
what he believed as obstacles to an authentic
faith for a person who has come of age. In it he at-
tempted to steer theology away from the Scylla
of supranaturalism and the Charybdis of natur-
alism by employing the works of Tillich,
Bonhoeffer, and Bultmann. Through Tillich he
argued for a God beyond traditional theism;
through Bultmann he engaged in the task of
de-mythologization; and through Bonhoeffer he
called for a “religionless Christianity.” Except
for two essays by D. J. Hall and R. Williams that
are included in the new edition, the content of
Honest to God is the same. If there is something
that has changed, I say that it is the new context in
which this work is now situated and a different
group of readers. Surely the book was written for
its time, but any keen reader would not fail to see
some continuities between our current theologi-
cal concerns and that of Robinson’s time. We
may think we have gone far enough, but we are
still wrestling with issues that have connections
with our past: understanding the nature of
God-language, re-mythologizing or finding ap-
propriate myths for our time, and seeking to live
faithfully amidst the idols of death. It is refresh-
ing to get a glimpse of where we have been in the
last forty years and to be able to locate where we
are now.
Eleazar S.Fernandez
United Theological Seminary of the
Twin Cities
HEALING A BROKEN WORLD GLOB
ALIZATION AND GOD. By Cynthia D.
Moe-Lobeda. Minneapolis: Fortress Press,
2003. Pp. xiv + 236. $20.00, ISBN
0-8006-3250-8.
This f m t book by Moe-Lobeda, Christian
ethics professor at Seattle University, is clearly
written and well organized. Her focus is on how
economic globalization disables moral agency
by subordinating democratic processes to eco-
nomic structures legitimated by neo-liberal capi-
talist ideologies and controlled by the few who
are unaccountable to the many. The constructive
response is to enable a subversive moral agency
Religious Studies Review / 43
with the help of Luther’s idea of the “indwelling
Christ” and feminist theology’s “sacramental
cosmic communion.’’ While Moe-Lobeda ac-
knowledges her rootedness as a theologian and
ethicist in the Lutheran tradition, her retrieval of
Luther is masterfully accomplished, recognizing
the limitations of his thinking on the one hand,
but yet creatively insightful in bringing select
economic themes in Luther’s writings into dta-
logue with feminist liberation concerns and con-
temporary global economics on the other. Fur-
ther, the critical analyses and proposals are quite
concrete-e.g., case studies of the Multilateral
Agreement on Investment and the impact of its
provisions as enacted by other organizations,
along with discussions of what the practice of
subversive moral agency looks like economi-
cally and congregationally. While her interpreta-
tions of economic data can certainly be chal-
lenged, Moe-Lobeda’s proposal is theological
rather than ideological, and thus pertinent even if
aspects of her economic conclusions are over-
turned. The result i s a volume which will not
only speak to the threats posed by globalization’s
forces, but will also raise the consciousness of
and motivate to responsible living Western
Christians in general and the North American
Church more particularly.
Amos Yong
Bethel College
ENLARGING THE STORY: PERSPEC-
TIVES ON WRITING WORLD CHRIS-
TIAN HISTORY. Edited by Wilbert R. Shenk.
Maryknoll: Orbis, 2002. Pp. xvii + 142. $16.00,
ISBN 1-57075453-5.
This volume includes five papers and a pro-
grammatic “Agenda for a Work in Progress”
from an international symposium of historians
and missiologists on the theme, ‘“Towards a
Global Christian History,” held at Fuller Theo-
logical Seminary on April 30-May 2,1998, orga-
nized by editor Shenk. In his brief introduction,
Shenk lays out the challenges confronting histo-
rians of Christianity and of the Church (not iden-
tical) in a post-Westem, post-colonial, and
post-Christendom world. A. Walls’ essay elabo-
rates on these challenges from a missiological
perspective. More focused studies on writing and
teaching a global or world Christian and Church
history from the particular contexts of India (A.
M. Mundadan), China (P. Yuen-Sang hung),
and Africa (separately, G. Pillay and L. Sanneh)
further illuminate the issues at stake. All essay-
ists address in some way the tensions between
the unity and diversity of the Church and be-
tween missionary and indigenous points of view
on the Christian story. Further, the importance of
historiographical decisions is clearly identified,
especially how dominant paradigms, categories,
agendas, and even polemics influence the writ-
ing of Christian and Church history, along with
the ways in which these productions have then
marginalized Christians in the non-Western
world. Readers will come away from this volume
with an appreciation for the need to write the his-
tory of the “underside” of Christianity and the
44 / Religious Studies Review
Church, not only in the Eastern and Southern
hemispheres, but perhaps also in the West as
well.
Amos Yong
Bethel College
WHO ARE THE CHRISTIANS IN THE
MIDDLE EAST? By Betty Jane Bailey and J.
Martin Bailey. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003.
Pp. xii + 215. $20.00, ISBN 0-8028-1020-9.
This volume now appears to be the definitive
resource for understanding Christianity in the
Middle East. Having been in the region
on-and-off since 1969, the Baileys write from
personal experience and acquaintance with their
subject matter. Part one, an overview on the
churches of the Middle East, includes an intro-
ductory chapter on Eastern Christianity by D. A.
Kerr, professor of Christianity in the Non-West-
em World at the University of Edinburgh, fol-
lowed by a summary discussion of the main is-
sues confronting Christians in the Arab world by
R. Jarjour, general secretary of the Middle East
Council of Churches in Beirut. Two other chap-
ters by the Baileys detail how the churches work
together and focus on the importance of Jerusa-
lem for Middle East Christians. Part two profiles
the various churches grouped by families: East-
ern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, Catholic,
Evangelical (Protestant), and Assyrian Church
of the East. Each profile includes the different
branches (denominations, in the case of Protes-
tants) of each family of churches, along with
leadership. contact information and membership
data, conservatively estimated. Part three dis-
cusses church-state relations via snapshots of
Christian communities, historical background,
contemporary circumstances and interfaith ac-
tivities across twelve regions: Cyprus, Egypt,
Holy Land, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Lebanon, North
Africa, Persian Gulf, Sudan, Syria and Turkey.
There is also a timeline of Christianity in the
Middle East as well as a short annotated
bibliography. Recommended for libraries and all
seeking an introduction to this topic.
Amos Yong
Bethel College
LIVING GRACE: AN OUTLINE O F
UNITED METHODIST THEOLOGY. By
Walter Klaiber and Manfred Marquardt. Nash-
ville: Abingdon, 2001. Pp. 538. $35.00, ISBN
0-681-05452-4.
This book by Klaiber and Marquardt, who
both have been professors at the German speak-
ing United Methodist theological seminary for
many years. is a unique attempt to write a de-
nominational systematic theology. Written in the
80s and 90s for a central European context, it is
now translated and adapted by J. S. O’Malley
and U. R. M. Guthrie and claims to formulate
United Methodist theology for both North Amer-
ica and Europe. The book is structured similarly
to a traditional German systematic theology. It
draws on quite a variety of biblical, theological,
and denominational sources and is a valuable re-
source for any seminary library. It will give
North American readers, pastors and seminari-
ans alike, an interesting perspective on how an
initially Anglo-American religious movement is
thought through in a German Protestant theolog-
ical context. For all its deep erudition and theo-
logical details, the volume’s bold claim to for-
mulate a United Methodist theology for two con-
tinents strikes me as somewhat odd, given that
much of its reflections are building on German
Enlightenment thinkers and nineteenth- and
twentieth-century German theologians. The
book is a profound contribution to Methodist de-
nominational theology of a central European va-
riety, but it leaves me wondering whether such a
diverse movement as Methodism can be
presented in terms of its “theological identity at
its core,” as the cover text promises.
Michael Nausner
Drew University
PRESBYTERIAN BELIEFS: A BRIEF IN-
TRODUCTION. By Donald K. McKim. Louis-
ville: Westminster John b o x , 2003. Pp.xvi +
126. $10.95, ISBN 0-664-50253-9.
This wonderfully accessible book offers a ba-
sic introduction to central tenets of the Re-
formed/Presbyterian tradition. The volume,
however, is more ecumenical than the title sug-
gests, as it devotes the most attention not to be-
liefs peculiar to Reformed Christians, but to top-
ics shared among Protestants in general. McKim
has organized the work around three broad loci:
God, Christ, church. By using technical language
sparingly, and by quoting directly only from two
sources (Calvin’s Institutes and the Book ofcon-
fessions of the Presbyterian Church [US]), the
author produces a mini-systematics with an eye
toward the lay reader. Strengths of the volume
include its highlighting of the diversity of Re-
formed traditions and its dispelling of caricatures
within them. The chapter on revelation, for ex-
ample, considers multiple understandings of
how scripture is inspired by God. McKim also
liberates the doctrine of election from specula-
tive questions of “whether or not [people] are
saved by God,” and anchors it within pastoral
contexts. Discussion questions at the end of each
chapter amplify theological issues and prevent
the volume from reading like a wooden cate-
chism. Designed primarily for readers with no
exposure to formal theology, the book could also
be used as a supplemental, review text in
seminary classrooms.
David H. Jensen
Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary
THE SPIRIT OF ADOPTION: AT HOME IN
GOD’S FAMILY. By Je a nne
Stevenson-Moessner. Louisville: Westminster
John Knox, 2003. Pp. xvi + 134. $14.95, ISBN
0-664-22200-5.
In a welcome contribution to a long-ne-
glected topic, this work offers an explicit theol-
ogy of adoption with an eye to issues of pastoral
care. Drawing on a wide range of sources includ-
ing biblical scholarship, classical theology, psy-
ch o l o g y , and fe m inist thought,
Volume 30 Number 1 / January 2004
Stevenson-Moessner’s work also includes per-
sonal narratives of adoptive parents and chil-
dren. She argues convincingly that the metaphor
of adoption expresses the biblical relationship
between God and humanity and urges readers to
apply this image to the church, as the adoptive
household of God. Early chapters of the workex-
plore ambiguities in biblical narratives of barren-
ness and the lack of scriptural models “with
whom modern-day infertile women can con-
nect.” Stevenson-Moessner probes adoption pri-
marily through the lens of the parent, attending
both to its joy and the anguish of “miscanied,”or
failed, adoptions. Subsequent chapters mine the
complex identity issues adoptive children face.
One of her particularly intriguing suggestions is
that God’s vulnerability can be expressed as “the
anxious yearning’’ of an Adoptive Parent, the
pain of a Relinquishing Parent, and the “aban-
doned agony” of a Forsaken Child. Although the
book’s provocative theological insights are not
always fully explained, Stevenson-Moessner of-
fers a sensitive interpretation of human adoption
and a compelling articulation of the God who
adopts humanity as children. Accessibly written,
the book is suitable for adoptive parents and
children, pastors, seminary students, and
teachers of pastoral care and theology.
David H. Jensen
Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary
GATHERED AND SENT THE MISSION
OF SMALL CHURCH COMMUNITIES
TODAY. By Bernard J. Lee and Michael A.
Cowan. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist, 2003. Pp. 207.
$19.95, ISBN 0-8091-4132-9.
This book, a sequel to Lee’s The Catholic Ex-
perience of Small Christian Communities (cf.
RSR 28/1 [2002] 54) as well as a report on a con-
ference on “Small Christian Communities,
Church, and Society” in San Antonio in 2002,
provides theological reflections and practical ad-
vice that should be very helpful for all members
of “small church communities today.” After an
initial discussion of small communities in the
context of both this country and the Roman Cath-
olic Church, the authors explore the biblical
bases and ecclesiological significance of such
communities. Next attention is given to various
practical aspects of small communities: their in-
ner dynamics, consensus and conflict, leader-
ship, and their external mission in church and
community. Particularly noteworthy is the au-
thors’ insistence that small communities are not
only “gathered” to respond to the individual and
intramural needs of their members, but also are
“sent” with a “mission” to the larger communi-
ties of which they are part. The best features of
this book are 1) the factual information about
small church communities and 2) the experi-
ence-based insights-related to group dynamics,
psychological analysis, principles of spiritual-
ity-that should help such communities not only
survive but thrive. Less satisfying is the correla-
tion of practical advice with theology and scrip-
ture: neither the theological perspectives nor the
biblical interpretations are developed with suffi-
Volume 30 Number 1 / January 2004 Religious Studies Review / 45

cient nuance and so sometimes seem more an ad- menical movement, and efforts at fostering ourandn). The commentary does bring together
ditive than an integral part of the treatment of peace and justice for the world’s people, while much helphl information about the contempo-
small church communities. Nonetheless, important elements of the Church’s work, cannot rary political, social and economic contexts and
members of these communities should find this replace the commitment to proclaiming that God the reading of the gospel is at times perceptive.
book both valuable and challenging. has acted decisively in Christ and that the Church However, the thesis could have been developed
John T. Ford is both ‘‘a sign and instrument of God’s reconcil- more effectively employing the monograph
Catholic University of America ing ministry.” Eleven appendixes containing rather than commentary form, inasmuch as
critical documents from the history of the ecu- Carter often indulges in forced readings to pro-
THINK BIBLICALLY! RECOVERING A menical movement contribute to making this a vide additional support for the thesis. The vol-
CHRISTIAN WORLDVIEW. Edited by John “must read” for anyone, lay or ordained, who is ume works best as a commentary on Matthew on
MacArthur, Richard L. Mayhue, and John A. committed to the unity for which Christ prayed. those occasions when the controlling agenda is
Hughes. Wheaton, IL:Crossway, 2003. Pp. 368. Randall R. L.ee set aside. Carter acknowledges that Matthean
$19.99, ISBN 1-58134-412-0. Evangelical Lutheran Church in America scholars have paid little attention to the Roman
The editors encourage Christians to recover a imperial presence standing behind the gospel
“biblical worldview.” After defining the con- MENTORING FOR MISSION NURTUR- and it is dificult to say whether this study is ade-
tours of this worldview, they provide models of ING NEW FACULTY AT CHURCH-RE- quate to kindle further interest.
“biblical” thinking about worship, psychology, LATED COLLEGES. By Caroline J. Simon, Blaine Charette
gender, science, and culture. The most important Laura Bloxham, Denise Doyle, Me1 Hailey, Jane Northwest College
essay is the first, written by MacArthur. In it he Hokanson Hawks, Kathleen Light, Dominic P.
defines the essence of a “biblical worldview”- Scibilia, and Ernest Simmons. Grand Rapids: THE PSYCHOLOGY OF PAUL: A FRESH
that Scripture is seen as inerrant “in every jot and Eerdmans, 2003. Pp. ix + 129. $14.00, ISBN LOOK AT HIS LIFE AND TEACHING. By
tittle” and sufficient “both the foundation and fi- 0-8028-2124-3. James R. Beck. Grand Rapids: Kregel, 2002. Pp.
nal authority for everything we hold true.” Even In recent years, many church-related institu- 296. $16.99, ISBN 0-8254-2049-0.
those who unequivocally embrace the inerrancy tions of higher education have produced “mis- Beck’s book relates one branch of the field of
of Scripture will be uncomfortable with much sion statements” that reflect administrative con- psychology, personality theory, to Paul’s life and
they find in this volume. While the authors do not cerns about preserving an institution’s religious teachings for a “fresh” look at the apostle. Fol-
claim that human exegesis is infallible, their as- heritage. In some places this heritage is denomi- lowing a brief introduction, the author surveys
sertions imply the opposite. For example, Mac- nationally specific; in other places the institu- leading views on the pre-Christian, conversion
Arthur asserts that if a very literal reading of the tional mission is expressed ecumenically; in ei- and personality of Paul. Using the critical tradi-
biblical creation account “is an any degree unre- ther case, a key factor in the transmission of any tion of biblical theology, Beck, clinical psychol-
liable, the rest of Scripture stands on shaky foun- religious tradition within an educational institu- ogist and current professor of counseling at Den-
dation.” Here it is not just Scripture but a particu- tion is the faculty. Nonetheless, while academic ver Seminary, nevertheless, lacks restraint by in-
lar interpretation of the text that is inerrant. Fur- institutions are almost obsessively attentive to discriminately mining Acts and
ther, the sufficiency of Scripture is taken to entail the qualifications and performance of newly deutero-paulines in his quest after the real Paul.
that other sources of knowledge are unnecessary hired faculty, many church-related institutions Chapter five briefly considers terms in Paul’s an-
or invalid. But this follows only if Scripture ad- seem negligent about transmitting the institu- thropology and ends with a discussion of
dresses every possible issue. The value of this tional religious heritage to the next generation of Romans 7 as nonautobiographical or autobio-
volume is its presentation of a comprehensive ul- faculty. This co-authored book, based on the graphical with the author championing the latter,
tra-conservative biblical theology. Further, the mentoring experiences of eight faculty-members an option psychologists typically favor. A short
book achieves its stated goal of being written for from Protestant and Catholic colleges, offers a final chapter discusses Paul’s death. Neither the
students and non-students alike. However, the wealth of practical advice about the process of book’s first half nor last chapter take the reader
lack of any awareness of what an interpreter mentoring for the purpose of transmitting a col- beyond previous enquiry. Yet Beck’s contribu-
brings to a text and the laundry list of informal lege’s “religious mission.” Short and concise, tion obtains in his material on vices and virtues
logical fallacies make it impossible to with appropriate concrete examples and insight- and especially on motivation and change, re-
recommend. ful side-bar comments, this book should be spectively. These chapters link directly to useful
Jim Beilby extremely useful f o r administrators, appendixes on “Striving Statements” and list of
Bethel College faculty-mentors, and new faculty, interested in negative and positive valence terms of personal-
“mentoring for mission.” ity traits in Paul. The author’s discussion of new
THE VISION OF THE ECUMENICAL John T. Ford research in motivation, change, and character
MOVEMENTANDHOW ITHASBEENIM- Catholic University of America traits is decidedly “fresh and true to the subti-
POVERISHED BY ITS FRIENDS. By Mi- tle’s promise. Footnotes, rather than bare citation
chael Kinnamon. St. Louis: Chalice, 2003. Pp. MATTHEW AND THE MARGINS: A of author and publication year in the text, and in-
183. $29.99, ISBN 0-8272-4006-6. SOCIO-POLITICAL AND RELIGIOUS dexes would enhance the usefulness of future
Drawing on his extensive experience, READING.By Warren Carter. The Bible & Lib- editions. This book is suitable for
Kinnamon presents a compelling argument that eration Series. Maryknoll, NY Orbis, 2000. Pp. undergraduates seeking an overview on current
the ecumenical movement has lost its direction xx + 636. $40.00,ISBN 1-57075-324-5. discussion on Paul and contemporary
and is in danger of floundering if it does not re- Carter’s commentary seeks to read Matthew psychology.
cover its central focus. He calls on the churches from the cultural margins. The gospel is viewed Chris M.Smith
to recapture the biblically based vision to estab- as a counternarrative, wherein an alternative Bethany College
lish the visible unity of the Church of Jesus worldview is constructed in order to shape a
Christ, a vision that includes repentance for all community able to critique and resist Roman im- CULTS, RELIGION AND VIOLENCE. Ed-
the ways the Church’s divisions continue to be perial (and other forms of elitist) control. Carter ited by David G. Bromley and J. Gordon Melton.
fostered. Kinnamon also calls for the renewal of judges the gospel only partly successful in this New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
theological reflection and a renewed commit- objective since it tends to co-opt the very impe- 4. xxv + 249. $22.00, ISBN 0-521-66898-0.
ment to unity that recognizes such unity may be a rial paradigm it resists by focusing on the ulti- The papers in this volume were originally re-
costly enterprise for the churches. Nothing less mate triumph of “God’s empire” (Carter’s pre- cruited for sessions on “Violence in the New Re-
than Christ himself can be the core of the ecu- ferred translation of hP basileia tori theori/tdn ligions” at the annual meeting of the Society for
46 / Religious Studies Review
the Scientific Study of Religion in 1996. The
thirteen contributors are well known as social
scientists working in the field of new religious
movements, and present here both theoretical
analyses and case studies on the topic. A general
theoretical framework is proposed (Bromley) re-
garding episodic NRM violence as emerging
through a sequence of group-societal interac-
tions and exchanges, proceeding usually from la-
tent tension through intensifying levels of con-
flict toward a final “dramatic denouement.”
Other critical elements usually at hand include
the presence of apocalyptic worldviews and
totalistic forms or structures of NRM organiza-
tion (T. Robbins); the need for maintaining char-
ismatic authority and leadership (L. Dawson);
and polarization between NRMs and society, of-
tentimes leading to group classification by gov-
ernmental and law-enforcement agencies (S.
Wright) and cult-watcher organizations (E.
Barker) using categories such as “dangerous”
which escalate the possibility of conflict. Case
studies include the Branch Davidians (J. Hall),
Solar Temple (M. Introvigne and J.-F. Mayer),
Aum Shinrikyo (I. Reader) and Heaven’s Gate
(R. Balch and D. Taylor). The editors also devote
a chapter to exposing the mythologies and mis-
conceptions regarding NRM violence, provide a
prologue setting the book’s analyses in the
post-9/11 context dealing with Islamic funda-
mentalism in general and Al-Qaeda in particular,
and suggest in an epilogue perspectives from this
study for anticipating future episodes of NRM
violence. Recommended for all scholarly
libraries.
Amos Yong
Bethel College
THE SPIRITUAL SOCIETY: WHAT
LURKS BEYOND POSTMODERNISM?By
Frederic W. Baue. Wheaton, IL: Crossway, 2002.
Pp. 192. $14.99, ISBN 1-58134-253-5.
Following the sociological model of Pitirim
Sorokin, Baue regards the present Postmodem
era as a “transitional” period, which is moving
toward a new “Ideational” phase-the Therian
Age. Western civilization has been oscillating
between the two poles: 1) the material Sensate,
and 2) the spiritual Ideational. In the present
Postmodern era, we are observing the breaking
up of the Sensate Modernity but moving into the
Ideational Therian Age. Baue avers that the
Therian Age will become more religious but hos-
tile to biblical Christianity. The term “Therian”
derives from the Greek word there (meaning
“beast”), which appears in the book of Revela-
tion. According to Baue, this beast symbolizes
apostate religion, and in the coming Therian age,
false religions will flourish. By using his strong
English literature background, Baue quotes from
many contemporary poets in order to prove that
the Postmodern period is a transitional period to-
ward the Therian Age, in which spiritual values,
not material goods, will predominate. Although
many conservative Evangelical Christians will
appreciate the author’s prognostications, the vol-
ume lacks depth and critical scholarship. Fur-
Volume 30 Number 1 / January 2004
ther, the use of pejorative terms such as “heresy”
and “cult” throughout the book make it unsuit-
able even for college students in the liberal arts
traditions. Baue attempts a fresh analysis of the
present culture, but his efforts end up more
rhetorical than substantive.
Koo Dong Yun
Bethany College
IMAGES OF JESUS. By Anselm Grun. Trans-
lated by John Bowden. N Y Continuum, 2002.
Pp. vii + 183. $19.95, ISBN 0-8264-6781-4.
Grun is a German Benedictine monk whose
book explores fifty metaphoric images of Jesus,
both ancient (“The door,” ‘The good shepherd,”
“The vine,” “The redeemer”) and contemporary
(“The drop-out,” “The one who refuses to com-
pete,” “The free man”). His intent is to offer
weekly meditations which will be both familiar
and challenging to current Christian understand-
ings. Using biblical, historical, and theological
studies as background, the style of writing is re-
flective and meditative, not analytical, and lends
itself to personal reflection. Grun focuses well
on each of the metaphors, describing each with
internal integrity, and cautions that each image
can be taken too far or too exclusively. He in-
tends these metaphors to serve as a way of broad-
ening not only our understanding of Jesus, but
also our own choices of action and relationship.
Used best in preparation for meditations or in pri-
vate study, not as a classroom text.
Nadine Pence Frantz
Bethany Theological Seminary
JESUS IN THE NEW UNIVERSE STORY.
By Cletus Wessels. Maryknoll, NY Orbis, 2003.
Pp. xiii + 240. $25.00, ISBN 1-57075-465-9.
This companion to Wessel’s The Holy Web:
Church and the New Universe Story (Orbis,
2000) seeks to fit Jesus into the “new universe”
story proposed by T. Berry and B. Swimme. The
author, a Dominican friar, seeks to reinterpret Je-
sus within the perspective of the “emerging uni-
verse” story of the twentieth-first century. While
not intended primarily for scholars, this provoca-
tive book will stir up controversy. The new story
is that humanity has emerged from its childhood,
through adolescence (the realm of patriarchy, di-
vision, nationalism, science, technology, and tra-
ditional Christianity, etc.), into the new spiritual
awakening of adulthood. Or at least, we are at the
cusp of such an awakening. Wessel’s main focus
is on a revamped Christology, but proposes new
meanings of God,revelation, and salvation at
this critical point of transition. Rather than the
“created universe” which implied an external
God, mediated by scriptures, the emerging uni-
verse needs no such mediators: God is an imme-
diate internal presence. So claims Wessel,
braced by Berry, Swimme, Bohm, Wilber,
Zophar, Keck, E. Johnson, Crossan, Dunn, and
others. The startling views of revelation, salva-
tion, providence, original sin, healing, eschatol-
ogy, final judgment, miracles, and especially
Christology which ensue, intermingled with an
apparent semi-gnosticism and insights from
quantum physics and depth psychology, pro-
duces a view hardly recognizable to traditional
theological eyes, that tradition reduced to a mere
“adolescent” perspective. Despite Wessel’s
clear and passionate presentation, one can only
wonder at the propriety of the epidemic of such
controversial and questionable rewritings of
traditional theology.
Barry Whitney
University of Windsor
Ethics
TRANSFORMATION ETHICS: DEVEL-
OPING THE CHRISTIAN MORAL IMAGI-
NATION. By Thomas R. McFaul. Lanham, MD:
University Press of America, 2003. Pp. xiii +
231. $39.00, ISBN 0-7618-2456-1.
This ambitious volume aims to establish “a
new and imaginative framework of Christian
moral reasoning for the twenty-first century.”
Section one develops the premise that there exist
four frameworks through which Christian moral
reasoning historically has been expressed:
Faith-Love Ethics, Moral Law Ethics, Character
Ethics, and Justice-Liberation Ethics. Section
two describes these four ethical approaches in
depth, explaining how each is grounded in the
Bible and accurately reflects aspects of Christian
truth. Finally, section three attempts to integrate
the strengths of the four approaches into a single
“Transformation perspective” that then is ap-
plied in depth to three contemporary ethical is-
sues: capital punishment, genetic modification,
and homosexuality. McFaul’s volume offers a
clear and concise introduction to the diversity of
positions and perspectives that characterize
Christian ethics, and his chapters on contempo-
rary issues are effective in capturing the major
strains of recent Christian debate. Whether his
“Transformation” approach truly integrates the
four competing perspectives into a coherent
whole or merely provides an apparatus to allow
one to pick and choose aspects of Christian
thought which vindicate one’s intuitions on a
particular topic is a question best left to
individual readers. This is a valuable and highly
accessible volume, recommended to students of
Christian ethics.
Timothy M.Renick
Georgia State University
AMERICAN PROTESTANT ETHICS AND
THE LEGACY OF H. RICHARD
NIEBUHR. By William Werpehowski. Wash-
ington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2002.
Pp. xi + 232. $24.95, ISBN 0-87840-383-3.
American Protestant Ethics is an important
contribution for ethicists, historians, and system-
atic theologians. The book takes the form of an
effective conversation among four influential
American Protestant theologians (P. Ramsey, S.
Hauerwas, J. Gustafson and K. Turner) and the
ethical work of H. R. Niebuhr. Werpehowski
Volume 30 Number 1 / January 2004
frames the conversation with “four approaches
to the Christian moral life” each linked by a
theme to a specific ethicist-Ramsey with “cov-
enant love,” Hauerwas with “a community of
character,” Gustafson with “theocentric ethics,”
and Turner with “the politics of good.” By fram-
ing the book in this manner, Werpehowski finds
an effective way to hold a potentially over-
whelming conversation in check and to illumi-
nate H. R. Niebuhr’s ethical work in the current
cultural setting of the American church. The
book concludes with an original contribution by
Werpehowski consisting of eight responses to
questions generated by the rich conversation in
the previous ten chapters. This serves to tie the
conversation to a central theme, the Protestant
church in America. American Protestant Ethics
will serve as a valuable contribution to pastors
and professors alike who are interested in
Christianethics done in the context of America.
Eric Berg
University of Kansas
ALLOCATING SCARCE MEDICAL RE-
SOURCES: ROMAN CATHOLIC PER-
SPECTIVES. Edited by H. Tristam Engelhardt,
Jr. and Mark J. Cherry. Washington, DC:
Georgetown University Press, 2002. Pp. x + 33 1.
$39.95, ISBN 0-87840-882-7.
Critical care has become an icon for
high-tech medicine. Modem medicine’s techno-
logical dependency, while bringing help to the
patient, adds to the soaring cost of health care.
Seventeen essays by American and European
scholars explore the challenge of allocating
scarce medical resources to critical care. Catho-
lic perspectives range from traditional Catholic
moral analysis (Boyle), to a personalist approach
(Seifert), to the demands of solidarity
(Schotsmans) and human dignity (Honnefelder).
Three essays focus on the challenges of applying
moral theology to public policy from the devel-
opment of institutional guidelines (Khushf) to
the implementation of distributive justice
(Kaveny and Wildes). Five essays from Jewish,
Protestant, and Orthodox Christian traditions
(Rie, Dagi, Engelhardt, Hughes, and Rossler) en-
rich the discussion. The difficulty of maintaining
a Christian and Catholic perspective in a context
of cultural and moral pluralism is acknowledged
(Delkeskamp-Hayes, Heisig, and Cutter). The
Eruitful conversations among the authors result
in a consensus statement concerning appropriate
critical care. Allocation decisions based on jus-
tice and human dignity, difficult as they are to
formulate, must be addressed. Respect for the in-
dividual person’s life does not absolutize sus-
taining life at all cost. At the same time, people
should be kept in critical care units as long as it is
therapeutically beneficial and should be moved
elsewhere when intensive medical care. is no
longer beneficial or only disproportionately so.
This book serves as a starting point in a vital and
necessary conversation on healthcare reform.
Anh Tran
Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley
THE MAT= CHARTING AN ETHICS
OF INHERITABLE GENETIC MODIFICA-
TION. By Marilyn E. Coors. Lanham, MD:
Rowman & Littlefield, 2003. Pp. x + 161.
$23.95, ISBN 0-7425- 1401-3.
First things first: there are no references to
Keanu Reeves here. The matrix in question is the
author’s own “Inheritable Modifications Ma-
trix”-a procedure for applying ethical values to
questions involving human genetic modifica-
tion. Coors, an assistant professor of health care
ethics, provides her matrix as a means of engag-
ing “ethics, religion, and science in an interdisci-
plinary dialogue’: with the aim of differentiating
“the beneficial uses of inheritable genetic modi-
fication from those that threaten the dignity of
human life.” Part one of the volume briefly re-
views the scientific and ethical issues involved in
genetic “therapy” (treatments intended to pre-
vent and or cure disease) and genetic “enhance-
ment” (those meant to improve function or ap-
pearance beyond the “norm”). Part two attempts
to “align” key aspects of the ethical theories of
Pellegrino, Jonas, Levinas, and Mill to address,
respectively, issues of character, duty, individu-
ality, and benefitharm raised by genetic modifi-
cation. Part three develops and employs the
aforementioned matrix to propose ethical limits
for the use of technology in making inherited
changes to the human genome. Coors offers an
admirably clear rendering of the science and a
level-headed assessment of the moral issues.
While some might find her closing examples to
be insufficiently nuanced, they (and the volume)
achieve their aim: getting the reader to
contemplate a web of ethical considerations in
systematic fashion. The book makes an
important contribution to medical ethics.
Timothy M.Renick
Georgia State University
COVENANTS OF LIFE: CONTEMPO-
RARY MEDICAL ETHICS IN LIGHT OF
THE THOUGHT OF PAUL RAMSEY. Ed-
ited by Kenneth L. Vaux, Sara Vaux, and Mark
Stenberg. Philosophy and Medicine, 77.
Dordrecht: Kluwer, 2002. Pp. ix + 257. $89.00,
ISBN 1-4020-1053-2.
Covenants of Life primarily collects the pa-
pers presented at a 1986 conference held in
Ramsey’s honor and his formal written re-
sponses to them. It is not an attempt to address
newer issues, such as human embryonic stem
cell research, from the framework of Ramsey’s
thought as the subtitle may suggest. Contributors
include 0. O’Donovan, L. R. Kass, A. Verhey,
and W. G. Bartholome. The papers are collected
under the headings of “Fundamental,” “Theo-
logical,” and “Medical Issues.” Unfortunately,
not all of the papers presented at the conference
are included here which makes following por-
tions of Ramsey’s responses difficult. Also in-
cluded are a previously unpublished lecture by
Ramsey, “Should Physicians Hasten the Death
Angel when She Paused in Her Flight?” and an
interview with Ramsey by K. Vaux. This volume
contributes to a more nuanced understanding of
Religious Studies Review / 47
Ramsey’s thought including his view of sin and
death and his medical indications policy. Under-
standing the exchanges is somewhat dependant
on familiarity with Ramsey’s corpus. The editors
have attempted to reduce this barrier by includ-
ing three introductory essays and prefaces to
each of the papers. This text will, nonetheless, be
of most interest to Ramsey scholars and libraries
with significant collections of Ramsey’s work.
A m n d H. Matheny Antornmuria
University of Utah
THE COMMON GOOD AND CHRISTIAN
ETHICS. By David Hollenbach. New Studies in
Christian Ethics, 22. New York: Cambridge Uni-
versity Press, 2002. Pp. xvi + 269. Cloth, $65.00,
ISBN 0-521 -80205-9; paper, $23.00, ISBN
0-52 1-89451-4.
Hollenbach, a distinguished Catholic ethi-
cist, argues that the dominant American public
philosophy of individualism and tolerance can-
not address sufficiently the problem of urban
poverty and the challenges of globalization.
What is required is the notion of the common
good, i.e., solidarity or a societal commitment to
identify a common vision of the good life in a
genuinely deliberative, public, and participatory
manner. In unfolding this argument, Hollenbach
is careful to address widespread objections to
common good discourse. Without trivializing
the memory of the religious wars of seven-
teenth-century Europe, Hollenbach shows how a
shared understanding of the common good that
preserves democratic freedoms is possible in a
religiously pluralistic world. He further explains
that religious communities in fact can and ought
to contribute positively to realizing the common
good. This defense of the common good is force-
ful insofar as its employment of a wide range of
sources is particularly effective. Hollenbach’s
readings of Catholic social thought, empirical
studies, and thinkers such as Augustine,
Maritain, and Charles Taylor are nuanced and
engaging. All in all, this book provides a highly
accessible and insightful account of the signifi-
cance of the common good for American public
life and, thus, affords an excellent resource for all
interested in exploring the contemporary
viability of the common good.
Ki Joo Choi
Boston College
RELIGION AND THE OBLIGATIONS OF
CITIZENSHIP. By Paul J. Weithman. New
York Cambridge University Press, 2002. Pp. xi
+ 227. $55.00, ISBN 0-521-80857-X.
Although the scholarly literature exploring
the nexus of religion, politics, and civil society is
expanding rapidly, this volume still manages to
make a distinctive contribution largely because it
integrates, albeit not seamlessly, three related
concerns. First, and most centrally, Weithman
provides an extensive and careful argument for
the permissibility of citizens of liberal democra-
cies to base both their voting decisions and pub-
lic political arguments on their religious beliefs.
Second, he shores up this argument by critiquing
48 / Religious Stndies Review Volume 30 Number 1 / January 2004

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Volume 30 Number 1 / January 2004
the “standard approach” to the issue voiced by
scholars who insist that all citizens have a duty to
render their political convictions “accessible” to
others by providing specifically secular reasons
for them. Here his interlocutors are R. Audi and
J. Rawls. Devoting a chapter to each, Weithman
engages them in an enormously balanced and in-
structive manner. Finally, and most uncom-
monly among political philosophers, he draws
upon recent empirical work (focused on the
American context) attending to the ways in
which religious institutions and publics actually
do behave politically. In other words, his norma-
tive claims are always shaped by his awareness
that religion in the US has long contributed im-
portant values to public discourse and, just as im-
portantly, it has equipped congregants with the
requisite civic skills, motivations, and recruit-
ment networks for becoming more participatory
within civil society. In short this is a unique and
challenging text. Other scholars and graduate
students concerned with the role of religion in
public life will very likely find it to be an
indispensable resource.
Jerome P. Baggett
Jesuit School of Theology at Berkeley
A ROYAL PRIESTHOOD? THE USE OF
THE BIBLE ETHICALLY AND POLITI-
CALLY: A DIALOGUE WITH OLIVER
O’DONOVAN. Edited by Craig Bartholomew,
Jonathan Chaplin, Robert Song, and A1 Wolters.
Scripture and Hermeneutics Series, 3. Grand
Rapids: Zondervan, 2002. Pp. xxiv + 445.
$34.99, ISBN 0-310-23413-1.
Derived from the yearly seminar which has
produced this series, the format for this volume
nevertheless differs from its predecessors in that
it is focused on the work of O’Donovan, Regius
Professor of Moral and Pastoral Theology at Ox-
ford University, and includes concise responses
by him to thirteen of the fifteen essays. This book
will appeal to four kinds of readers. Most obvi-
ously, those interested in the series topic will not
be disappointed: the major issues confronting the
relationship between Scripture, hermeneutics
and theology, especially the question regarding
the unity and diversity of the Bible, are here de-
bated. Further, those familiar with and apprecia-
tive of O’Donovan’s previous work, especially
his Resurrection and Moral Order: An Outline
for Evangelical Ethics (second edition, 1994).
and The Desire of the Nations: Rediscovering the
Roots of Political Theology (1996), will find the
challenges posed by the essayists to be signifi-
cant and the responses equally stimulating. Yet,
one can also profit from this volume without
prior knowledge of O’Donovan, thanks to
Bartholomew’s introductory essay. Thus, bibli-
cal and exegetical theologians will be interested
in the ten chapters wherein scripture scholars en-
gage O’Donovan’s approach and use of the Bi-
ble; and political theologians and theological
ethicists will be drawn, in addition to the essays
on O’Donovan and Scripture, also to the five es-
says dealing with his ideas about “Christian lib-
eralism,” “Christendom,” liberation theology,
civil society, and practical political theology (as
seen in the workings of the US Center for Public
Justice). A must for all theological libraries.
Amos Yong
Bethel College
WHEN GOD SAYS WAR IS RIGHT: THE
CHRISTIAN’S PERSPECTIVE ON WHEN
AND HOW TO FIGHT. By Darrell Cole. Colo-
rado Springs: Waterbrook, 2002. Pp. 161.
$10.99, ISBN 1-57856-657-6.
Cole professes to explain and defend “just
war doctrine” after the model of C. S. Lewis’ de-
fense of classical Christian belief in Mere Chris-
tianity. Cole’s primary interlocutors are Augus-
tine, Thomas Aquinas, and John Calvin, since
they seem to him “untainted by modem liberal-
ism’s distorted views of both religion and war.”
The book promises to give an answer to the ques-
tion when God Himself [sic] blesses war, and the
author believes that there are evident cases when
a warrior can be sure to have God on his side. In
the first five chapters Cole sketches the develop-
ment of just war doctrine from the patristic age
through the medieval period into the time of the
Reformation. This can be useful and informative
reading for a lay audience and undergraduate
students. A contextualization, however, of the
development of the doctrine, a critical assess-
ment of it, and a serious engagement of its critics
is lacking. The final three chapters examine just
war doctrine in relation to twentieth-century
wars with US involvement, and finally Muslim
fundamentalist terrorism. Although Cole’s de-
termination to decide whether or not certain wars
were just strikes me as a simplification of very
complex contexts, these final chapters have the
merit of applying classical just war doctrine to
contemporary conditions, critically assessing
current US deterrence policy, and cautioning not
to conflate classical Islam with Islamic
fundamentalism.
Michael Nausner
Drew University
Arts,Literature,
Culture, and
Religion
THE TRANSHISTORICAL IMAGE: PHI-
LOSOPHIZING ART AND ITS HISTORY.
By Paul Crowther. New York Cambridge Uni-
versity Press, 2002. Pp. ix + 207; illustrations.
$55.00, ISBN 0-521-81114-7.
The question motivating Crowther is a
Kantian one, “How is art history possible?” This
is in response to the skeptical, post-modem ten-
dency of reducing works of art to historical docu-
ments revealing of class, race or gender biases.
Crowther tries to identify categories which are
presupposed by something being an image based
on understanding pictorial imaging as a “forma-
tive power” expressing “constant factors in hu-
Religious Studies Review / 49
man experience.” These categories facilitate
identifying and comparing distinctive features of
artworks which show that the artist either has or
has not developed the scope of pictorial imaging.
Attention then focuses not on what is pictured
but on how it is pictured. And this allows us to
say why some artists and works are significant
and have transhistorical, not merely local, inter-
est. All this is worked through with careful atten-
tion to possible objections and with full sensitiv-
ity to the importance of social concerns. Crow-
ther’s ideas are sometimes densely put, but the
book will repay careful study by anyone inter-
ested in whether art can be retrieved from be-
neath its social history. Unfortunately, one does
have to live with an irritatingly frequent tagging
of “per se” onto nouns ending sentences to no
particular point, per se.
Paul J. Johnson
Richmond. IN
THE MADONNA OF THE FUTURE: ES-
SAYS IN A PLURALISTIC ART WORLD.
By Arthur C. Danto. Berkeley: University of
California Press, 2001. Pp. xxx + 450. $18.95,
ISBN 0-520-23002-7.
“It is very much more difficult to talk about a
thing than to do it.” So said Oscar Wilde in ‘The
Critic as Artist.” Now that anything can become
art merely by someone appropriately declaring it
to be so, making art is easy and talking about it
hard-at least in many modem instances. Once
something is offered as a work of art, Danto
holds, it is transfigured, like bread and wine in
the Mass (not Danto’s comparison), into some-
thing mysteriously meaningful. For the “artist”
at this point m y be shoved aside into an “artistic
statement” and the critic’s job is then to “invent a
suitable art criticism” for it: “to imagine what
could be meant by the object.” Critics, it seems,
not artists, create meanings. So says Danto, ap-
parently, in one of the two theoretical essays
which bracket this collection of critical pieces
(mostly from The Nation, 1993-2000) ranging in
subject from Tiepolo to Rothko, the Brooklyn
“Sensation” show, and the Japanese
avant-guard. Wilde’s essay emphasizes the “im-
portance of discussing everything” which is
what makes Danto fun; his rich vein of learning
means almost anything may turn up. Danto in-
vents meanings better than anyone I know.
Paul J. Johnson
Richmond, IN
CHRIST IN THE MARGINS. By Robert
Lentz and Edwina Gateley. Maryknoll, N Y
Orbis, 2003. Pp. 144. $25.00, ISBN
1-57075-321-0.
This attractive book, printed on glossy paper,
is basically a gallery of forty-one icons, each ac-
companied by a brief biographical note about the
subject portrayed. The style of Lentz’s icons, re-
sembling those of Mount Athos (Greece), is si-
multaneously captivating and haunting; their in-
spirational message is variously thought-pro-
voking and provocative. Approximately a quar-
ter of the icons depict Jesus or Mary, sometimes
50 / Religious Studies Review
inconventional poses such as the Good Shepherd
or Mother of the Streets, at other times in indige-
nous designs such as an Apache Christ or a Na-
vaho Madonna. Some icons portray canonized
saints: Francis and Clare of Assisi, Martin de
Porres and Rose of Lima, Vincent de Paul and
Louise de Marillac, et al. In addition are icons of
people often regarded as “canonizable”: Cardi-
nal Bernardin, Cesar Chavez, Damien de
Veuster, Frederic Ozanam, et al. Other portraits
are of people not commonly considered
“iconizable”: Steven Biko, Albert Einstein,
Harvey Milk, J. R. R. Tolkien, et al. The icons are
grouped into eight sections, including founders
and outcasts, crusaders and prophets, visionaries
and mystics, etc. Each section is followed by a
theological reflection that incorporates bio-
graphical material from the lives of the iconized
along with Gateley’s poignant ministerial expe-
riences. This book, though coffee-table-style in
small format, is not intended to be a casual con-
versational “leaf-through’’ but a volume whose
icons and reflections prompt both spiritual
meditation and ministerial commitment.
John T. Ford
Catholic University of America
SAINTS W ART. By Rosa Giorgi. Edited by
Stefano Zuffi. Translated by Thomas Michael
Hartmann. Los Angeles: The J. Paul Getty Mu-
seum, 2003. Pp. 384; 400 color plates. $24.95,
ISBN 0-89236-7 17-2.
Organized alphabetically according to the
Christian saint’s first name, this is a comprehen-
sive iconographic dictionary complete with
thumbnail facts from the history of the particular
saint, a summary of the stones and devotional
practices that have gathered around hisher life,
and a guided depiction of the iconographic sym-
bols and attributes that visually represent thepar-
ticular saint. Treating over 100 figures, each en-
try has at least two images (some have as many as
seven) from western Christian art. This is a
“handy paperback” size (although its weight
from the quality pages will keep it from being a
“pocket” edition) for answering iconographical
questions while viewing art from the late Middle
Ages forward, especially since the visual sym-
bols and attributes for many of them have devel-
oped over a long history of amalgamation be-
tween sources, both canonical and apocryphal.
Useful for anyone interested in Christian iconog-
raphy.
Nadine Pence Frantz
Bethany Theological Seminar?,
GODS AND HEROES IN ART. By Lucia
Impelluso. Edited by Stefano Zuffi. Translated
by Thomas Michael Hartmann. Los Angeles:
The J. Paul Getty Museum, 2003. Pp. 384; 400
color plates. $24.95, ISBN 0-89236-702-4.
A second book published by Getty to help
museum visitors and art lovers “familiarize
themselves with the characters and stories often
portrayed in Western art.” Drawing from the
gods and heroes of ancient Greece and Rome,
this is a comprehensive iconographic dictionary
Volume 30 Number 1 / January
complete with asummary of the mythic or histor-
ical origins of the figure, a listing of the charac-
teristics, devotions, and related attributes, and a
guided depiction of the iconographic symbols
and attributes that visually represent the figure.
Organized in four sections: 1) gods, heroes, and
divine beings from the Greek and Roman pan-
theon; 2) characters from the Homeric poems; 3)
characters from ancient Greek history; and 4)
characters from ancient Roman history, the book
covers almost 150figures. Excellent resource for
understanding the iconography of western art,
especially that from the Renaissance, Baroque,
and Neoclassical eras.
Nadine Pence Frantz
Bethany Theological Seminary
RAPHAEL’S STANZA DELLA SEGNA-
TURA: MEANING AND INVENTION. By
Christiane L. Joost-Gaugier. New York Cam-
bridge University Press, 2002. Pp. xiii + 267.
$75.00, ISBN 0-521-80923-1.
In this book Joost-Gaugier offers a new inter-
pretive perspective on one of Renaissance Italy’s
time-honored great works of art: Raphael’s
fresco-decorated Stanza della Segnatura, the pri-
vate library of the popes in the Vatican Palace.
Using a rigorously interdisciplinary approach
she argues that Raphael can not be credited with
establishing the humanistic themes of the Stanza
della Segnatura’s iconographic program, whose
complexities far outstrip the young painter’s eru-
dition. Expanding on a suggestion made in 1964
by Paul Kunzle, she identifies Tommaso
Inghirami, the Pope’s private librarian, a little
known but major figure in the Stanza project, as
the author of the iconographic program. The
complexity of the iconographic program sug-
gests such a man of exceptional learning and in-
telligence with a profound understanding of the
Greek, Roman, medieval and contemporary
philosophical thought which Joost-Gaugier
traces in great detail as she discusses in succes-
sive chapters the painted ceiling, pavement and
four large frescoed walls of the Stanza. Her com-
mand of the fields of Classical and Renaissance
philosophy, theology, and cultural history pro-
vide the reader with a wholistic picture of the dis-
tinctive Roman world of Renaissance Human-
ism and of the frescoed library of the Stanza as its
most enduring manifestation. This book serves
to shed new light on a well-known masterpiece
and will be appreciated by all lovers of Renais-
sance art and history.
Rebecca Leuchak
Roger Williams University
ARTIST AND IDENTITY IN TWENTI-
ETH-CENTURY AMERICA. By Matthew
Baigell. New York: Cambridge University Press,
2001. Pp. ix + 294; illustrations. Cloth, $74.95,
ISBN 0-521-77239-7; paper, $27.95, ISBN
0-52 1-17601-5.
This book republishes a number of Baigell’s
articles from 1966-1998 which contribute to the
writing of a master narrative of American art fol-
lowing the work of Alison, Taine, Dewey, and
Emerson. In this the environment is key in deter-
mining what is American about American art,
which leads to a contextual, social-historical
method of investigation. The essays focus on ei-
ther a particular artist and a particular aspect of
his (rarely her) social context or a keen analysis
of an art movement in relation to the literary or
political events of that time. Newly written, the
final chapter ties the previous essays into a pro-
posed larger project of establishing a new canon
of American art history as a meta-narrative of
emerging Americanness. As the reader might as-
sume, the historical decades of Baigell’s output
reflect his own patriarchal social-historical con-
text. The artists he selected are almost exclu-
sively male, including only two females:
O’Keefe and Holt, who are briefly discussed
within chapters devoted to broader themes. One
might see this book as a meta-narrative of a dis-
tinguished art critic’s thinking about the Amen-
can artist in the latter twentieth century and a tes-
tament to the male-dominant focus of the profes-
sion.
Rebecca Leuchak
Roger Williams University
AMERICAN PICTURESQUE. By John
Conron. University Park: Pennsylvania State
University Press, 2000. Pp. xxiii + 363; illustra-
tions. $55.00, ISBN 0-271-01920-4.
In the preface Conron acknowledges that the
term “picturesque” is difficult to define and is
“inherently interdisciplinary,” justifying what
the author terms his “synoptic” approach. The in-
tent of his book is to study the concept as it was
understood in nineteenth-century America, us-
ing as evidence a wonderfully eclectic assem-
blage of visual materials: popular posters, public
park plans, fine arts paintings, as well as archi-
tecture. The book presents that era as self-con-
tained, disconnected from previous cultural eras
and contemporary European societies, yet these
are times and places whose aesthetic tastes very
much influenced the rise of the picturesque in
America. As if proving his opening caveat, the
definition of the term “picturesque” slips be-
tween form and content in the subsequent twelve
chapter-length reflections on subjects as varied
as the American city, landscape design, interior
design, domestic architecture, literature as paint-
ing, and the expression of the aesthetic in repre-
sentations of the body and space. Beautifully il-
lustrated, this ambitious project to understand
the nineteenth-century American “picturesque”
is a valuable read. A book of wide appeal to stu-
dents in Cultural Studies, Art History, American
Literature, and American Studies at the under-
graduate and graduate level.
Rebecca Leuchak
Roger Williams University
JEWISH ARTISTS IN NEW YORK: THE
HOLOCAUST YEARS. By Matthew Baigell.
New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press,
2002. Pp. xv + 186; illustrations. $30.00, ISBN
0-8135-3124-1.
Volume 30 Number 1 / January 2004
Among the painters and sculptors discussed
in this book are Weber, Ben-Zion, Cropper,
Chagall, Rattner, Lipchitz, Rothko, Newman,
and Gottleib. Whether refugees or native to
America, all of them were Jews who produced
art while living in New York City between 1933
and 1945, the years of genocidal war against the
Jews in Nazi Europe. To assess the impact of the
Holocaust on the work of these artists, Baigell, a
Professor of Art History at Rutgers University,
“piec[ed] together archival material, published
statements, and the actual [art] works them-
selves.” He concluded that “the artists ... knew
about Germany’s intentions and actions and
were profoundly affected by them.” Baigell’s
scholarly methods and learned conclusion are as
persuasive as they are familiar. He explicitly ac-
knowledges his immense debts to Depiction and
Interpretation: The Influence of the Holocaust
on the VisualArts, the monumental and compel-
ling monograph published in 1993 by Ziva
Amishai-Maisels. For theoretical help in dis-
cerning the impact of the Holocaust on the
artworks,especially those belonging to Abstract
Expressionism, the author also relies on
Lyotard’s vision of postmodernism, Homi
Bhabha’s notion of cultural hybridity, and sev-
eral clinical studies of psychological reaction to
terror and trauma. General audiences will find
the book engaging and provocative. Scholars
will fault some of its critical exposition. The
book nevertheless enables all readers to look
more keenly at some familiar works of art.
Kalman P. Bland
Duke Universiw
THE TRANSFORMATION OF ISLAMIC
ART DURING THE SUNNI REVIVAL. By
Yasser Tabbaa. Seattle: University of Washing-
ton, 2001. Pp. xiii + 210; illustrations. $25.00,
ISBN 0-295-98133-4.
Tabbaa furthers the work of Grabar’s The
Formation of Islamic Art in his careful social and
cultural contextualization of his subject matter.
He, like Grabar, is ultimately concerned with the
production of meaning, particularly in calligra-
phy and the arabesque that develops in eleventh-
and twelfth-century Iran, Iraq, and Syria. Re-
freshingly, Tabbaa engages with the religious
discourse in addition to the political challenges
of this period. Tabbaa embraces the schisms and
conflicts of the period and unearths a much more
convincing analysis of the changes in architec-
turalforms than an argument that posits a smooth
and uniform development of medieval Islamic
ornament. Tabbaa examines calligraphy, vegetal
and geometric motifs, and three-dimensional or-
namentation (muqarnas) found on building
faces, portals, domes, mihrabs and minbars and
argues that theology, politics, technology, and
patronage were the determining forces behind
new forms and formal structures. Tabbaa’s argu-
ment is intertwined with a discussion of the “sa-
cred’’ and political center of the day: Baghdad.
The forms appearing in the Abbasid capital em-
bodied important and debated aspects of cumnt
theology so as dynasties adopted these forms
they were also acknowledging the center of the
empire and the symbolic guardians of Sunni Is-
lam. This book is highly recommended for both
the serious lay reader and scholar with interests
in Islamic history, religion, and medieval art and
architecture.
Margaret A. Leeming
Vassar College
ROMANCING THE CATHEDRAL:
GOTHIC ARCHITECTURE IN
FIN-DE-SIECLE FRENCH CULTURE. By
Elizabeth Emery. Albany: State University of
New York Press, 2001. Pp. vii + 233. Cloth,
$54.50, ISBN 0-7914-5123-2; paper, $17.95,
ISBN 0-7914-5124- 0.
This book is a fascinating examination of the
medieval cathedral as trope in late nine-
teenth-century French literature. Despite the dif-
ferences in their social theories, Emery asserts
that these authors all shared an appreciation of
the cathedral as a stable and enduring human
structure originally constructed to affirm spiri-
tual beliefs, and that they admired the gothic ar-
chitects’ success in harmoniously embracing
disparate architectural fragments into a single
aesthetic system. Through careful stylistic anal-
ysis, she finds in the writing of Zola a secularized
reverence for the cathedral as model for a
well-ordered society of the future where science
is the new religion. In J. K. Huysmans’ work she
recognizes the cathedral as the model for a much
needed revival of Catholic belief and a symbol of
religious conversion. For h u s t , art rather than
science was to replace organized religion and the
cathedral makes manifest the ineffable spiritual-
ity of the aesthetic. While her scholarship is im-
peccable, Emery’s meticulous stylistic analysis
and the intricacies of her argument might lose the
reader unfamiliar with the literary terrain. It is
most profitably read by those well versed in the
particular works of fiction discussed and conver-
sant in French literary history in general for
whom she offers a new lens to understand this
body of work.
Rebecca Leuchak
Roger Williams University
WORDS FOR IMAGES: A GALLERY OF
POEMS. Edited by John Hollander and Joanna
Weber. New Haven, CT: Yale University Art
Gallery, 2001. 4. xvi + 103; plates. $35.00,
ISBN 0-89467-096-4.
This book consists of twenty-two poems
written in direct response to particular twenti-
eth-century artworks which were selected by the
poets themselves and which are a part of the Yale
Art Gallery collection. Designed as a part of the
Yale community’s Tercentennial celebration,
this creative project has life beyond the gallery
walls because of the vitality of the poems which
illuminate the selected artwork (reproduced
through color plates). Each paired piece is ac-
companied by artistic and poetic commentaries
which stand as analytic voices in contrast to the
imaginative vitality of the poems themselves.
The power of the book is in the creative tension
Religious Studies Review / 51
enjoyed between the poetic and visual art, each
of which represent their own dance of discovery
and illumination. Unlike some ecphrastic poetry
(poems written in response to particular works),
the pairings do not seem to diminish the strength
of either the visual or the poetic; indeed, with few
exceptions, the poems open the interpretive pos-
sibilities for the readerhiewer. Neither the po-
etry nor the art is explicitly religious; however,
the book can be an excellent resource for classes
that seek to understand the interpretive and con-
structive function of both language and art.
Nadine Pence Frantz
Bethany Theological Seminary
SUSTAINING LOSS: ART AND MOURN-
FUL LIFE. By Gregg M. Horowitz. Stanford,
CA: Stanford University Press, 2001. Pp. xv +
240; illustrations. Cloth, $49.50, ISBN
0-8047-3967-6; paper, $19.95, ISBN
0-8047-3968-4.
Through an examination of the writings of
Kant, Hegel, and Freud, and the modem art of G.
Richter and I. Kabakov, Horowitz traces how
modem aesthetics and modernist art reflect on
the inescapability of death. Not death as a singu-
lar event, per se, but how sensual, historical life
takes on its own meaning when modemism’s
lack of a belief in an afterlife predominates. He
reads as a materialist, looking for the evidence of
this “sustained loss” outside of the systematic
work of the day and for evidence of how death it-
self persists in the modernist image without a
transcendent narrative to give it meaning.
“Death does not stay put in the modemist image;
it fatefully penetrates the very medium of art,
turning that medium into the site of
nontranscendence. Whereas the dead Christ was
the very image of life eternal, Courbet’s trout is
the image of eternal death.” Difficult, dense, and
perhaps a bit too intent on reading that which is
left over rather than that which is stated, the book
is not for beginners in either modem philosophy
or aesthetics. Horowitz succeeds in bringing at-
tention to this attenuated loss that plays its way
through modernism; yet one is left with an un-
easy sense of triumphalism, as if all of modern-
ism is now explained. Recommended for gradu-
ate courses in modemist aesthetics.
Nadine Pence Frantz
Bethany Theological Seminary
STAGING CONSCIOUSNESS: THEATER
AND THE MATERIALIZATION OF MIND.
By William W. Demastes. Ann Arbor: Univer-
sity of Michigan Press, 2002. 4.193. $47.50,
ISBN 0-472-1 1202-3.
Two generations ago Hunninger decried the
Western decapitation of theatre by Christian
pseudo-piety. For those who regard his
syncretism of theatre, early religion, perfor-
mance studies and literary criticism as some-
thing of a guilty pleasure, this book offers a feast
of nearly Roman proportions in a moderately
sized volume. Nothing Demastes has to say is
particularly new, although the witnesses he calls
cast his ideas in intriguing new light (e.g.,
52 / Religious Studies Review
Dawkins’ theory of “memes,” ideas that spread
the “infection” of ideas from mind to mind
throughout a culture, and an exploration of paral-
lels between theatre and quantum physics). At
the peak of his work Demastes places a study of
Shaffer’s play “The Gift of the Gorgon,” whose
protagonist seeks to recapture the vitality of
Greek drama. Before this he considers every
avant-garde playwright and philosopher from
Shakespeare and Descartes to Beckett and
Foucault (indeed, only Gertrude Stein seems to
have crashed this overwhelmingly male party).
“The theatre when it is holy-and the mind when
it is healthy,” comments Demastes, “encourages
a range of interplay” between materialism and
the animal preconscious, “a life on the edge of
chaos all-too-infrequently encouraged by mod-
em culture.” The audience for this study is most
certainly narrow, but anyone who cares to accept
Demastes’ invitation to a holy theatre and a
healthy mind will find it worthwhile.
Lee Krahenbuhl
Manchester College
ON REPRESENTATION. By Louis Marin.
Translated by Catherine Porter. Stanford, CA:
Stanford University Press, 2001. Pp. x + 449.
Cloth, $60.00, ISBN 0-8047-4150-6; paper,
$25.95, ISBN 0-8047-4151-4.
The late Louis Marin, Director of Studies at
the Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales
in Paris, left behind a body of essays and lectures
crossing a range of works of art from visual to lit-
erary media. Twenty-two of them appear in this
book. The essay form is well suited to Marin for
it allows him to draw on a range of methodolo-
gies from linguistics through semiotics to art his-
tory and literary criticism without ever losing
sight of the specific and unique qualities of par-
ticular texts. Scholars of religion will want to
first turn to the chapter “On the Religious,” a dis-
cussion of the issues for biblicai interpretation
raised by arecent book on the work of L. Bloy in
France. They would do well to look further, how-
ever, to the essay on how to interpret the visual
images on Trajan’s column and to persist in read-
ing Marin’s sometimes dense prose for the depth
of thought on issues of hermeneutics and visual
culture. Marin’s own comment on another book
may stand for his own: “the book derives its
strength from being torn between imagination
and eschatology,” manifested in a “polemical os-
cillation, a rhythm of excess and lack that opens
up the unidentifiable, always possible place of
faith.” Best suited to specialists in literature and
cultural studies.
Cleo McNelly Kearns
Princeton University
JOAN OF ARC AND SACRIFICIAL AU-
THORSHIP. By Ann W. Astell. Notre Dame,
IN: University of Notre Dame Press, 2003. Pp.
xiii + 283. Cloth, $55.00, ISBN 0-268-03259-9;
paper, $25.00, ISBN 0-268-03260-2.
The second of two recent studies of the recep-
tion of Joan of Arc undertaken independently of
one another (the first is Meltzer’s For Fear ofthe
Fire), Astell’s study stems from literary criti-
cism and cultural history and seeks to understand
how, vis-h-vis figures like Joan, post-enlighten-
ment authors assume the mantle of ethical au-
thorities and spiritual guides. In doing so, they
face a host of problems, from their own status in
an array of previous writers to that of the subject
matter on which they reflect. Joan is both an oc-
casion and a figure for this dilemma, because she
herself experienced a kind of simulacrum of au-
thorship, signing and then recanting the docu-
ments that condemned her. In fact, Astell argues,
the lives of the many writers on Joan are encoded
in their works about her, reflecting her observa-
tion that hagiography “precedes the author’s life
and enables his or her self-understanding and
self-fashioning.’’There is a difference, however,
between an imitatio of Christlike figures and the
secular retelling of Joan’s story, because in the
latter the saint is divorced from his or her tradi-
tion and rendered for public consumption, sub-
stituting “cult for spectacle.’’The literary theory
here is dense, but the fascination of Joan’s after-
life in cultural memory carries the book, which
will be of most interest to advanced scholars of
literature, history and cultural studies.
Cleo McNelly Kearns
Princeton University
RHETORICAL INVENTION AND RELI-
GIOUS INQUIRY: NEW PERSPECTIVES.
Edited by Walter Jost and Wendy Olmsted. New
Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2000. Pp.vi +
426. Cloth, $40.00. ISBN 0-300-08056-5; paper,
$18.95, ISBN 0-300-08057-3.
Essays both new and previously published
make up this collection from authors who are
widely known-Ricoeur, Tracy, Ong, Booth,
Eden, Shapiro, Hauerwas, and Kahn, to name a
few-in either or both of the fields at play. The
intent is to explore the varying arguments which
make use of studies in both the fields of religion
and rhetoric and to break down some of the as-
sumptions that are a part of each field at the pres-
ent-such as the assumption that rhetorical stud-
ies is inherently suspicious of religion or that re-
ligion makes only certain, limited, rhetorical
claims. Most of the authors agree with the editors
that current studies in language and the imagina-
tion offer a way of revitalizing this relationship,
although they differ as to what can be “present”
or “re-presented” in the written form. The essays
are organized topically in four parts; 1 ) “Coming
to Faith in Rhetoric;” 2) “Speaking of God;” 3)
“The Rhetoric of Excess, Difference, and the
Sublime;” and 4) “Rhetoric and Commu-
nity”-rather than by field or by the history of
the conversation. This arrangement and the
choice of essays make it a rich conversation that
scholars of hermeneutics, theology, philosophy,
and rhetoric will find of interest.
Nadine Pence Frantz
Bethany Theoiogical Seminary
WORD AND SUPPLEMENT SPEECH
ACTS, BIBLICAL TEXTS, AND THE SUF-
FICIENCY OF SCRIPTURE. By Timothy
Volume 30 Number 1 / January 2004
Ward. New York: Oxford University Press,
2002. Pp. x + 332. $74.00, ISBNO-19-924438-3,
This book provides an informed and philo-
sophically cogent defense of the doctrine of the
sufficiency of scripture, a keystone of Protestant-
ism rendered controversial, even notorious, by
the positions taken by some evangelical Chris-
tians in its name. Ward, who is captive to neither
a conservative nor a liberal agenda, examines the
doctrine as it has occurred through history and
redefines it in terms of current literary theory,
hermeneutics, and the philosophy of language
(primarily speech act theory and deconstruction,
with reference to Austin, Searle, Wolsterstorff,
Kristeva and Demda, among others). “Faithful-
ness to the nature of biblical texts includes faith-
fulness to their nature as complex literary texts,”
Ward insists, and this nature includes the consti-
tution of subjects by a process of
supplementation in and through the speech acts
of others. In making this argument, Ward pro-
vides critiques of both those who deploy the doc-
trine of the sufficiency of scripture simplistically
and those who seek to mitigate its force by im-
precision. Part of a larger movement to reclaim
orthodox Christian theology in a way informed
by continental philosophy and literary theory,
the book is remarkable for its lucidity, its rigor
and its importance to key issues today. A bonus is
the treatment of the implications for biblical her-
meneutics of literary methods from the New
Criticism to the present.
Cleo McNelly Kearns
Princeton University
STORY LOGIC: PROBLEMS AND POSSI-
BILITIES OF NARRATIVE. By David
Herman. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press,
2002. Pp. xv f 477. $55.00, ISBN
0-8032-2399-4.
This book, by a professor of English and lin-
guistics, is a rigorous application of literary the-
ory, linguistics, and cognitive science to the cen-
tral issue of narratology: the nature and structure
of stories. Synthesizing several decades of work
in the theory of language, Herman asserts that
narrative is not merely ornamental or
epiphenomena1 to perception and action, but a
foundation of cognition itself. Therefore, his
analysis of character, plot, perspective, and other
elements of narration are applicable not only to
literary texts-although there are many insight-
ful readings of literature here-but to any con-
text in which stories are central, including narra-
tive theology, biblical hermeneutics, and ethics.
The second part on narrative macrodesigns, is es-
pecially helpful in demonstrating the connection
between narration and ethical decision-making,
between the world of the story and the world of
the reader. This book should therefore be read by
a wide range of academics, including scholars in
literary studies, biblical studies, constructive and
metaphorical theology, and linguistics. It is not,
however, appropriate for a general audience or
any but the most advanced undergraduate stu-
dents. It is pointed squarely at a professional au-
Volume 30 Number 1 / January 2004
dience, who will, no doubt, gain from it a more
sophisticated grasp of narratology.
Anthony Lioi
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
RELOCATING POSTCOLONIALISM. Ed-
ited by David The0 Goldberg and Ato Quayson.
Oxford: Blackwell, 2002. Pp. xxii + 371. Cloth,
$64.95, ISBN 0-631-20804-6; paper, $29.95,
ISBN 0-631-20805-4.
Invoking Adorno’s Minima Moralia, the edi-
tors of this collection detect in postcolonial the-
ory and practice “an ethics of becoming” in “a
transfigurative relationship to the world.” In so
doing, like many postcolonial critics, they ap-
proach the discursive worlds of religious studies,
ethics and theology without daring to enter. In-
stead, they veer off into a long excursus on the
Internet, a topic that appears only once in the col-
lection’s nineteen essays. Similarly, in extolling
the interdisciplinary nature of postcolonial stud-
ies, the editors argue that disability studies
should complement work on race, gender and
class in “joint projects of agitation for justice,”
but assume we all know what they mean by “agi-
tation” and “justice.” That said, transcribed con-
versations featuring E. Said, J. Comaroff, and H.
Bhabha, and essays by G. Spivak and B. Parry
suggest ways of rethinking postcolonial studies,
while most of the remaining essays pursue re-
lated issues in detailed local studies. A. Bailey’s
and B. Hesse’s pieces on the Atlantic slave trade
and essays on reconciliation by P. Ahluwalia and
J. K. Noyes will likely interest scholars in reii-
gion, ethics and theology, as well as D. Duncan’s
exploration of race and the postcolonial and E.
Darian-Smith’s analysis of the role of “national
and international law” in perpetuating the
“myths of ‘East’ and ‘West”’ in postcolonial
Hong Kong. A useful collection for graduate stu-
dents and other scholars working at the interface
of postcolonial studies and things religious.
Jamie S. Scott
York University
SPIRITUAL, BLUES, AND JAZZ PEOPLE
IN AFRICAN AMERICAN FICTION LIV-
ING IN PARADOX. By A. Yemisi Jimoh.
Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2002.
4 . 2 8 4 . $30.00, ISBN 1-572-33172-0.
Jimoh argues that African American music is
the taproot for African American fiction. This
premise builds on the observation that oral cul-
tures world-wide are often tied to music and sto-
rytelling. The introduction gives texture to this
claim suggesting that the blues is to modernity
what jazz is to post-modernity. Jimoh develops
three tropes, Spiritual-Gospel, Blues, and Jazz
while building the core database from a reading
of ten literary texts. These include such famous
novels as Morrison’s Sula, Ellison’s Invisible
Man, and Hurston’s Their Eyes Were Watching
God.In addition she examines Murray’s Train
Whistle Guitar, Thurman’s The Blacker the
Berry, and Petry’s The Street while employing
literary criticism and historical reconstruction of
the social contexts of these novels and short sto-
nes. The book works best if the students also read
the novels discussed. Although it contains sub-
stantial data, it is in a prose that would be accessi-
ble to college students and would be most helpful
for American literature, American studies, or
Black Studies undergraduate classes.
Stephen Breck Reid
Bethany Theological Seminary
FAULKNER AND THE POLITICS OF
READING. By Karl F. Zender. Baton Rouge:
Louisiana State University Press, 2002. Pp.xvi +
179. $29.95, ISBN 0-8071-2761-2.
Zender is a well-known and respected Faulk-
ner critic, and his latest book adds significantly
to Faulkner studies. Chapter one is titled “The
Politics of Incest” and is a fascinating study of
Faulkner’s treatment of the taboo set in relief by
English Romanticism and sexual liberation ad-
vocates of the 1920s. Here Zender is at his best,
and his study of Faulkner’s depiction of incest in
relation to his representations of the South is su-
perb literary and cultural criticism. I would sug-
gest that the real subject of this book is not “the
politics of reading” but the intricate development
of Faulkner as a modernist writer living in the
South. Zender has a unique talent for perceiving
and articulating these developments, such as
Faulkner’s privacy, his representation of women
and African-Americans, and the psychoanalytic
dimensions of his characters. The main problem
with the book is that it is heralded as a break from
stultifying “postmodern” approaches to Faulk-
ner that sacrifice attention to Faulkner’s artistry
to the trinity of race, class, and gender studies.
While Zender engages these issues here and
there, the book is simply excellent Faulkner criti-
cism informed by a number of theoretical and
historical methodologies, including
postmodernism and New Criticism. Read this
book to learn more about Faulkner and his cul-
tural context, not for its so-called engagement
with postmodernism.
Greg Salyer
Longwood University
A STAY AGAINST CONFUSION: ESSAYS
ON FAITH AND FICTION. By Ron Hansen.
New York: Perennial, 2002. Pp. xvi + 267.
$13.95, ISBN 0-06-095668-2.
This collection of fourteen essays, as the title
suggests, explores the relationship between reli-
gion and literature. The preface and first three es-
says do best at laying out Hansen’s conceptual
framework-an apologetics for reading and
writing. Central to his theory is his understand-
ing of the sacramental nature of fiction, the way
literature can embody life and truth. Written for
the general reader (especially those interested in
how literature can effectively explore the life of
faith), Hansen relies on personal experience and
reflection to explore his theme. The remaining
essays in the volume cover a range of topics (in-
cluding other writers such as Tolstoy, Hopkins,
and Gardener, as well as the Eucharist, stigmata,
and the movie Babette’s Feast). In a sense they
serve as examples of Hansen’s larger theme, ex-
Religious Studies Review / 53
amining the place of religion in his own fiction
and the fiction of others. These other essays,
while compelling in their own right, are at times
tangentially related to the larger theme the title
purports, making this work a collection of essays
rather than a unified treatment of the topic at
hand.
James H. Brownlee
Malone College
DIASPORA AND ZIONISM IN JEWISH
AMERICAN LITERATURE: LAZARUS,
SYRKIN, REZMKOFF, AND ROTH. By
Ranen Omer-Sherman. Brandeis Series in Amer-
ican Jewish History, Culture, and Life. Hanover,
NH: Brandeis University Press (University Press
of New England), 2002. Pp. xiii + 341. Cloth,
$55.00, ISBN 1-58465-201-2; paper, $24.95,
ISBN 1-58465-202-0.
Roth excepted, whose fame has endured,
Omer-Sherman brings to light again the other
three literary figures listed in the subtitle. A
timely volume, widely researched, with a valu-
able bibliography, stylistically elegant, intellec-
tually challenging in content, this book shows all
four figures in a fresh complexity. The overarch-
ing issue is that of literary diaspora, specifically
of Jewish writing in English “as part of a conver-
sation with America.” This layered conversation
includes the author’s successful encouragement
of “alternative perspectives” on twentieth-cen-
tury horrors; his penetrating focus on the ques-
tion of transforming horror into art; his differ-
ences with others in the field, such as R. Wisse;
and skillfully interwoven and engaging narra-
tives concerning each figures’ life and thought.
Omer-Sherman provides a “theoretical trope ...
never before ... applied to the study of Jewish
American modernism,” that of coexistence,
convivencia, a term deriving from the cosmopol-
itan world of medieval Spain. The reader is
drawn irresistibly into the conversation, and this
book, recipient of the Koret publication award,
would be a profitable college textbook and of su-
preme value to anyone versed or interested in the
study of literature, Jewish or otherwise.
Barbara Galli
McGill University
THE MYTH OF THE AMERICAN
SUPERHERO. By John Shelton Lawrence and
Robert Jewett. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002.
Pp. xi + 416. $27.00, ISBN 0-8028-4911-3.
Lawrence and Jewett identify an American
monomyth in popular culture, wherein normal
institutions fail to contend with a threat of evil
and a selfless superhero must emerge to resist
temptation, restore the community, and then re-
cede into obscurity. This superhero functions as
a replacement for the Christ figure whose credi-
bility has been eroded by scientific rationalism.
Often these superheroes take the form of white
males such as Western heroes or Superman who
redeem through violent means. But they can also
take the form of Heidi-like superheroines who
redeem through selfless love and virtuous cheer-
fulness such as the characters in The Little House
54 / Religious Studies Review
on the Prairie and Touched by an Angel. While
most classic myths sustain the values of theircul-
tures, the authors suggest that this American
monomyth, which lifts up the need for elite
superheroes who are irrational, never compro-
mise, and often use extralegal means to rescue an
impotent public, actually undermines demo-
cratic ideals. By contrast, the real-life stories of
September 1 1 , 2001, along with films such as
Glory and Dead Man Walking, lift up the demo-
cratic ideals of common people who work ratio-
nally with others and within existing systems to
find redemption solutions. A very helpful sup-
plemental text for graduate or undergraduate
courses on popular culture, film, or religion and
film.
Russell W. Dalton
United Theological Seminary
LOVE AND G O O D REASONS:
POSTLIBERAL APPROACHES TO
CHRISTIAN ETHICS AND LITERATURE.
By Fritz Oehlschlaeger. Durham, NC: Duke Uni-
versity Press, 2003. Pp. x + 3 13. Cloth, $59.95,
ISBN 0-8223-3053-9; paper, $19.95, ISBN
0-8223-3064-4.
Oehlschlaeger hopes to model a Christian
way of both reading literature and thinking about
ethics. Arguing that the requirement of disinter-
estedness in liberal ethics (and liberal academia)
forces an unsupportable split between love and
good reasons, he finds an alternative model of
academia in Maclntyre’s tradition-based “uni-
versity of constrained disagreement” and an al-
ternative account of ethics i n the work of
Hauerwas. In spite of his desire to model Chris-
tian scholarship, Oehlschlaeger is less than hos-
pitable to his readers, understood as primarily
Christians but also including interested
non-Christians. Paragraph breaks are few and far
between, as are guideposts in this complex inter-
disciplinary argument. Oehlschlaeger is at his
best as he capably draws out the Christian dimen-
sions of works by H. James, Crane, and Austen.
But he also claims to be able to describe how “the
Christian reader” will interpret literary texts and
ethical arguments, relying heavily on Hauerwas
for the particulars. Such facile description runs
counter to MacIntyre, who understands any liv-
ing tradition, Christianity included, to be an on-
going argument. The concepts of love and good
reasons are not necessarily at odds, but neither is
their relation as simple, even for Christians, as
Oehlschlaeger would make it.
Julie Meadows
Emory University
ENEMIES WITHIN: THE COLD WAR AND
THE AIDS CRISIS IN LITERATURE,
FILM, AND CULTURE. By Jacqueline
Foertsch. Champaign: University of lllinois
Press, 2001. Pp. vii + 239. $39.95, ISBN
0-252-02637-3.
This book is a fascinating exploration of the
links between the Cold War and the AIDS crisis,
of our struggles to describe and to respond to
these modem “plagues,” and the fear and social
Volume 30 Number 1 / January 2004
brutality they caused. Foertsch argues that a
common response, both socially and linguisti-
cally, was to seek reassurance by describing peo-
ple as inside a “safe zone” that communism or
AIDS could not penetrate. This impulse toward
metonymy, however, is problematic; the longing
for utopia-a realm not “infected’ by whatever
the present crisis-compromises both our ability
to describe and to respond to that crisis. A more
hopeful response is found in metaphor, where
words affect (and “infect”) each other, but which
makes impossible the hope of any safe space. Yet
this recognition of infection, Foertsch says,
makes possible genuine and just response.
Foertsch achieves a complex task-linking de-
scription and response, language and action-al-
most seamlessly. She proceeds by gleaning ex-
amples from literature, plays, and films and
framing these in thoughtful categories, all with
an unusual degree of clarity and readability.
Generous footnotes house supporting details and
arguments. The most disappointing feature of
this book is its title, which fails to suggest the
richness of Foertsch’s study and the passion for
justice that motivates it.
Julie Meadows
Emory University
SECULAR STEEPLES: POPULAR CUG
TURE AND THE RELIGIOUS IMAGINA-
TION. By Conrad Ostwalt. Hamsburg, PA:
Trinity Press International, 2003. Pp. xi + 231.
$27.00, ISBN 1-56338-361-6.
Ostwalt, the author of several other books on
the relationship between popular culture and re-
ligion, challenges the dichotomization of sacred
and secular in the secularization theory debate.
In this book he uses the categories of
spacelplace, text and image to demonstrate the
possibilities for secularization theory if one con-
siders the interplay between the two realms (sec-
ular and sacred) and views the two as coexisting.
Ostwalt’s concem for reconciliation between the
“church” and the “world” belies an interest in
preserving religion and its role in modem life
that sets him apart from other writers in this area.
His examination of fiction, megachurches and
apocalyptic film provide the reader with diverse
examples through which to understand his thesis
of dialogue rather than dichotomy, and his dis-
cussion of secularization theory is thorough.
While the book is clear and accessible to stu-
dents, it would provide better material for lecture
or graduate seminar than it would for undergrad-
uate discussion. Those who have read Ostwalt’s
previous books will be reminded of that material,
but Ostwalt’s approach to secularization theory
is central and makes the use of the earlier mate-
rial compelling.
Hillary Warren
Otterbein College
SLIPPERY PASTIMES: READING CANA-
DIAN CULTURE. Edited by Joan Nicks and
Jeannette Sloniowski. Waterloo, ON: Wilfrid
Laurier University Press, 2002. Pp. vii + 347.
$34.95, ISBN 0-88920-388-1.
This collection of essays on Canadian popu-
lar culture divides into four sections. The first, on
heritage, comprises studies of the imaginary ge-
ography of Niagara Falls, aboriginal cultural
tourism, the image of L. Secord, Canada Post’s
Lp petite liseur, and the ambiguities and anxi-
eties pervading anglophone Canadian cultural
identity. The second, on television, comprises
studies of the newsroom drama, E.N.G.; the QuC-
bec soap, A nous deux!; the teen series, Straight
Up; and the war history, The Valourand the Hor-
ror. The third, on music, comprises essays on
1970s English Canadian rock, the “East Coast
Sound,” Stompin’ Tom Connors, Black Cana-
dian music, and cowboy crooner, IanTyson. The
fourth, on sports, comprises studies of
“Ray-Ban’’ Olympic Games advertizing with an
oddly Canadian slant, and the televising of
ice-hockey’s all-conquering 1972Team Canada.
The editors’ introduction discusses the difficul-
ties involved in pinpointing what’s peculiarly
popular or characteristically Canadian about Ca-
nadian popular culture. Key to their thoughts is
“the plural notion of audiences” and its ef-
fect-multiple interpretations of “popular arti-
facts.” These essays do not explicitly raise issues
of theoretical or practical account for scholars of
religion, but the collection provides helpful in-
sights for anyone interested in religion and popu-
lar culture in North America. V. Blundell’s essay
on aboriginal cultural tourism, for example,
clearly relates to important questions about the
commercialization of indigenous sacred sites
and objects.
Jamie S.Scott
York University
READING IS BELIEVING: THE CHRIS-
TIAN FAITH THROUGH LITERATURE
AND FILM. By David S. Cunningham. Grand
Rapids: Brazos, 2002. Pp. 237. $18.99, ISBN
1-58743-044-4.
This book joins a rapidly growing sub-genre
of new books, including Stone’s Faith and Film
(RSR 27/4) and May’s Nourishing Faith through
Fiction (RSR 28/2), that puts literature andor
films in dialogue with the phrases of the Apos-
tle’s Creed. Cunningham, a professor of theol-
ogy and ethics at Seabury-Westem Theological
Seminary, provides a helpful introduction to the
Apostle’s Creed. He begins each of the following
twelve chapters with a seven-to-nine page theo-
logical introduction to each phrase of the creed.
This is followed by a nine-to-ten page, particu-
larly Christian reading of a novel or film that il-
lustrates how the chapter’s creedal statement
might apply to the readers’ everyday lives.
Cunningham closes each chapter with helpful
questions for discussion and suggestions for fur-
ther reading in both theology and in literature
and films. His goal in engaging literature and
film is to use their narratives to offer readers a
deeper and more experiential knowledge of the
central beliefs of the Christian faith. The book
deals with literature more than film, though sev-
eral chapters discuss books such as Kazantzakis’
The Last Temptation of Christ, Prejean’s Dead
Volume 30 Number 1 / January NXM
Man Walking, and Greene’s The End ofthe Af-
fair, that have been made into films. This book
would be a helpful and accessible supplemental
text for graduate or undergraduate introductory
courses in theology.
Russell W. Dalton
United Theological Seminary
CREATIVE SPIRITUALITY:THE WAY OF
THE ARTIST. By Robert Wuthnow. Berkeley:
UniversityofCaliforniaPress,2001.Pp. x+309.
$45.00, ISBN 0-520-22500-7.
In a narrative style of writing, Wuthnow pres-
ents a study of artists and writers and “their work,
their lives, their spiritualjourneys, and their aspi-
rations and hopes.” Drawing upon one hundred
interviews, collected biographical information,
and bibliographical research, he presents the sto-
ries of most of these artists, looking at the ways in
which their creative lives and journeys have in-
tersected with spiritual themes and struggles. AI-
though he defines spirituality as “an aspect of life
that is concerned with transcendence, whole-
ness, or ultimacy,” how that is lived or practiced
remains intentionally open. Some of the artists
speak of having sensory experiences of the sa-
cred, others of seeking to express symbolically
the mystery of the sacred which cannot be
sensed, while other artists seek to bring into
sharp relief emotions associated with human ex-
istence. What most share is the understanding
that present institutional forms of religious life
are dead to spiritual experiences and that to “go
forward one must seek experiences which are
“unmediated” by such structures and abstract
thought. An engaging read, Wuthnow’s thesis is
that we have much to learn from such artists and
spiritual journeys and that they not only mirror
our contemporary spiritual life, but show how art
can guide us forward, a thesis worth pursuing. I
only wish that he had worked harder at analyzing
some of the theoretical issues which are at the
core of this type of religious practice.
Nadine Pence Frantz
Bethany Theological Seminary
HEARTBEAT OF THE PEOPLE: MUSIC
AND DANCE O F T H E NORTHERN
POW-WOW. By Tara Browner. Music in Amer-
ican Life Series. Urbana: University of Illinois
Press, 2002. Pp. xiv + 163; plates, illustrations.
$29.95, ISBN 0-252-02714-0.
Browner, a Choctaw ethnomusicologist and
former Jingle Dancer, documents the musical,
dance and social practices of northern intertribal
pow-wows that haveevolved since World War11
among Lakota-related and Anishnaabeg-related
tribes. Browner begins by dealing with misun-
derstandings that academics trained in European
music theory or committed to cultural evolution
theory perpetuated throughout much of the past
century. The middle third of the book describes
how dance and music styles are shared, modi-
fied, and refined by intertribal groups in different
parts of the country. With some reluctance she
analyzes musical forms frequently utilized by
the group of musicians who accompany the
dancers (the Drum). Men and Women’s Tradi-
tional, Grass, Fancy, and Jingle dances, usually
judged competitively at pow-wows, receive pri-
mary attention along with the regalia associated
with each dance form. The last third of the book
includes extended interviews with two families
of singers and dancers-one Lakota, the other
Anishnaabeg. Music and dance remain
Browner’s steady focus throughout the book.
She hints at the economic, competitive, political,
and religious aspects of pow-wows, but does not
develop them in her analysis or through her inter-
views. This book provides an interesting view
into the changing nature of public cultural prac-
tices that serve a variety of social purposes.
Rebecca J. Slough
Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary
ENCYCLOPEDIA OF CONTEMPORARY
CHRISTIAN MUSIC. By Mark Allan Powell.
Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2002. Pp. 1088; full
text CD-rom. $29.95, ISBN 1-56563-679-1.
Powell compiled around 1,900 articles span-
ning the breadth of contemporary Christian mu-
sic (CCM) which has been recorded by soloists
and groups over the last thirty years. Rather than
judging whether the content or the intentions of
performers qualify songs as CCM, Powell con-
siders “whatever large numbers of self-identified
fans of contemporary Christian music consider
to fit the genre.” This expansive view pennits
him to explore the work of musicians practicing a
wide range of musical styles from southern gos-
pel to heavy metal, punk, rap, pop, adult contem-
porary, reggae and more. Powell scoured period-
icals, underground newspapers, and websites
covering developments in CCM for articles
about the musicians. Performers’ websites and
material on recording jacket were also consulted.
Each article offers the personnel of each group
(including changes over the years); discography
with year and label; website addresses where
available; essays describing the musical influ-
ences on the performers andor comparisons
with other musicians performing in the same
genre, critical reviews of recordings, develop-
ments in the performers lives, occasional tongue
in cheek commentary, and tidbits for trivia buffs
when available; Christian radio hit lists; and
Dove awards received. A PDF-formatted
CD-rom with complete text of the book is in-
cluded. One of Powell’s intentions was to docu-
ment a significant movement in Christian music.
Hopefully, he will develop additional insights
into the conservative Christian subcultures from
which CCM has emerged in future work. This
book is fun to read and recommended as an
excellent start in mapping the ever-expanding
world of CCM.
Rebecca Slough
Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary
Religious Studies Review / 55
Ancient Near East
THE ART OF THE FIRST CITIES: THE
THIRD MILLENNIUM B.C. FROM THE
MEDITERRANEAN TO THE INDUS. Ed-
ited by Joan Aruz with Ronald Wallenfels. New
York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2003.
Pp.xxiv + 540. $75.00, ISBN 1-58839-044-6.
This beautifully illustrated museum cata-
logue of the exhibit at the Metropolitan Museum
of Art provides a solid introduction to the region
and the art discovered from the first cities. The
volume is divided based on time, space and topic
including major headings in the following areas:
Cities of the South, Cities of the North, The First
Great Empire, From the Mediterranean to the
Indus, The Dynasties of Lagash and Ur, Litera-
ture and Legacy. There are short chapters that
provide more details about a particular group of
artifacts from a specific site or on a technique
such as metalworking. The maps and diagrams
are clear, helpful, and tied to the text. The contri-
butors are all well-established specialists in their
fields. The broad perspective, including both the
Indus and parts of the Mediterranean, is useful
since usual parameters of ancient history leave
out one end or the other, although there is the un-
usual gap of anything about Israel or Jordan. This
is a volume useful for educational libraries but
would also make a great gift.
Tammi J. Schneider
Claremont Graduate University
RECENT DEVELOPMENTS IN HITTITE
ARCHAEOLOGY AND HISTORY. Edited
by K. Aslihan Yener and Harry A. Hoffner, Jr.
Winona Lake, IN: Eisenbrauns, 2002. Pp. vi +
212. $37.50, ISBN 1-57506-053-1.
This collection of articles honoring the late
Hans G. Guterbock presents many of the latest
currents in Anatolian research relating to the
Late Bronze Age. Incorporating the most recent
data from archaeological activity in the region
and epigraphic and historical research, the vol-
ume, laudably, aims for a holistic approach to the
material. Van den Hout discusses royal burials
(or the lack thereof) in the Hittite capital and ar-
gues that the rock reliefs scattered across the
Anatolian plateau served as memorial (hegur)
monuments to the deceased kings. Muller-Karpe
and Sue1 report on their important, ongoing ex-
cavations at Kusakli (Sarissa) and Ortakoy
(Sapinuwa), respectively. Watkins presents his
supposition that Athena’s aegis was a cultural
borrowing from the Hittite object called a
kursa-“hunting bag.” Numerous articles on
Hittite religion reveal an increasingly complex
and intriguing picture of religious practices. Ad-
ditional important articles attest to the vitality of
the field of Hittitology and how much it has to
contribute to our understanding of the ancient
Mediterranean world. Overall, the volume is a
valuable overview in English of the state of the
field and is therefore essential reading for
56 / Religious Studies Review Volume 30 Number 1 / January 2004

specialists in Anatolian studies and related tributions of Aramaic Studies to Biblical Hebrew AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL BIBLICAL CRIT-
fields. Philology and the Study of the Hebrew Bible”; ICISM: BETWEEN TEXT AND SELF. Ed-
Billie Jean Collins A. Wagner, “Die Stellung der Sprechakttheorie ited by Ingrid Rosa Kitzberger. Leiden: Deo Pub-
Emory University in Hebraistik und Exegese”; E. Ulrich, “The Text lishing, 2002. Pp. xii + 209. $39.95, ISBN
of the Hebrew Scriptures at the Time of Hillel 90-5854-0 19-7.
THE STORM-GOD IN THE ANCIENT and Jesus”; C. McCarthy, “Moving from the This volume by international scholars (A.
NEAR EAST. By Alberto R.W. Green. Biblical Margins: Issues of Text and Context in Deuter- Brenner, M. Brett, M. Gruber. I. R. Kitzberger, J.
and Judaic Studies from the University of Cali- onomy”; G . Dorval, “Septante et texte Koosed, F. Landy, R. Maldonado, D. Patte, L.
fornia, San Diego, 8. Winona Lake, IN: massorkique. Le cas des psaumes”; H. Weippert, Rowlett, R. Seesengood, and J. Staley) gathers
Eisenbrauns, 2003. Pp. xviii + 363. $42.50, “Der U r m e und die Stille. Ethno-archaologie up the papers of the 2000 Nashville AAWSBL
ISBN 1-57506-069-8. Annaherungen an das biblische Alltagsleben”; Semiotics and Exegesis Section ona new species
This impressive volume examines the role of U. Rutersworden, “Dtn 13 in der neuen of postmodern biblical criticism-“autobio-
the Storm-God in the ancient Near East through a Deuteron o m i u m f or s c hu ng ” ; H. graphical criticism,” asking what precisely
careful analysis of iconography, texts, and ar- Schungel-Straumann, “Feministische Exegese makes it “critical” and even essential for biblical
chaeology. The author is careful to examine the ausgewahlter Beispiele aus der Urgeschichte”; studies in its current form. Self-consciously situ-
concept not as a frozen moment in time but con- H. Barstad, “Isa. 40,l- I 1. Another Reading”; B. ating its questions about interpretation in “the
siders the evolution of the deities over time and Janowski, “Theologie des AT. Pladoyer fur eine liminal space between text and self,’’ authors
with acareful eye towards what the differing data integrative Perspective”; C. Meyers, “From show that critical reflection on one’s own read-
for any one period can and cannot substantiate. Household to House of YHWH: Women’s Reli- ing practices and how they were shaped by iden-
The areas covered are Mesopotamia, Anatolia, gious Culture in Israel”; J. Levenson, “The Res- tity and experience is a crucial but often subli-
Upper Syria, and Coastal Canaan where urrection of the Dead and the Construction of mated process for every interpreter. Taking on
Yahwehism is examined. Each chapter begins Personal Identity in Ancient Israel”; I . so-called “objective discourse” in biblical re-
with an examination of the physical environ- Finkelstein, “Archaeology and Text in the Third search, the authors show that it is seldom “objec-
ment. The study provides a good example of the Millenium: A View from the Center”; T. Romer, tive,” and only one among many varieties of le-
importance of examining the relationship be- “Le Pentateuch toujours en question. Bilan et gitimate literary conventions of the discipline.
tween such things as iconography and text. Be- perspectives apres un quart de siecle de debat”; The interjection of self in interpretation (which
cause of the chapter on the role of the Storm-God and T. Willi, “Hebraica veritas in Basel. happens whether it is owned or not) is a not sim-
in the development of the Israelite cult the book Christliche Hebraistik aus judischen Quellen.” ply “personal matter” but rather impinges on
should be of interest to scholars of the Bible as Marvin A. Sweeney one’s “public” readings. Lively writing, fasci-
well as ancient Near East. Claremont Graduate University nating footnotes, and clear-headed analysis put
Tammi J. Schneider this volume on the “Method” shelf of every
Claremont Graduate University INCLUSIVE VOICES IN POST-EXILIC JU- biblical scholar interested in interpretive
DAH. By Anna L. Grant-Henderson. integrity.
A GOD SO NEAR: ESSAYS ON OLD TES- Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2002. Pp.xxi Carole R. Fontaine
TAMENT THEOLOGY IN HONOR OF + 178. $17.95, ISBNO-8146-5387-1. Andover Newton Theological School
PATRICK D. MILLER. Edited by Brent A. Grant-Henderson addresses the problem of
Strawn and Nancy R. Bowen. Winona Lake, IN: inclusivity in the Roman Catholic church, i.e., at- READING THE PENTATEUCH: A HIS-
Eisenbrauns. 2003. Pp. xviii + 439. $47.50, tempts to exclude others based on gender, race, TORICAL INTRODUCTION. By John J.
ISBN 1-57506-067-1. physical, or mental differences, by demonstrat- McDermott. Mahwah, NJ: Paulist, 2002. Pp.v +
The organizers of this volume have honored ing that inclusive voices appear in the HB. Un- 250. $19.95, ISBN 0-8091-4082-9.
Patrick D. Miller by designing a volume that is fortunately, she begins with a fundamentally This book concerns itself with historical
far more unified than most festschrifts. All the flawed premise, that Ezrmehemiah and Ezekiel questions related to the Pentateuch. Do the books
twenty-four essays either focus on the Psalms (or represent dominant strong exclusionist voices of the Pentateuch record actual historical events?
tangents to Psalms) or Deuteronomy (and/or until the advent of Christ. She seems not to rec- How can one distinguish the materials that are
concerns of Deuteronomy), interests of the ognize that Ezra’s reforms did not call for the ex- historically accurate from legendary or purely
honoree. Many of the essays also pick up on the pulsion of foreign men who had converted to Ju- fictional material? Does the historical quality of
issue of prayer and praxis (and here praxis ex- daism or that Ezekiel’s prohibition of foreigners the Pentateuch validate its theological message?
tends to feminist concerns), another topic of con- in Ezek 44:7 specifies those who were not cir- The author, however, pays more attention to ex-
cern to Miller throughout his career. Thus the es- cumcised of spirit or of heart, i.e., who had not plaining the Pentateuch story in light of histori-
says gathered here, written by an impressive list converted. Indeed, she goes so far as to charge cal background information than he does to
of contributors, honor an important scholar and Ezekiel with hatred of foreigners. The call for in- proving (or disproving) its actual historicity. He
create a useful, fairly unified, collection of clusion of foreigners in Isa 56: 1-8 is based on di- understands a historical approach to the Bible
essays. For seminaries and research libraries. vine justice and righteousness, although the text mainly as discovering what the social, political,
Tammi J. Schneider calls for adherence to covenant. Trito-Isaiah’s and cultural situations in biblical times were,
Claremont Graduate University inclusion challenges Second Isaiah’s “national- how they changed, and what impact they had in
ism,” which envisioned the restoration and exal- shaping the biblical texts. The result is an easy
CONGRESS VOLUME: BASEL, 2001. Ed- tation of Israel. Ruth challenges Ezra/Nehemiah reading of the storyline from Genesis to Deuter-
ited by A. Lemaire. Vetus Testamentum Supple- in its acceptance of a Moabite, but onomy, retold against the historical background
ments, 92. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2002. Pp.vii + 409; Grant-Henderson seems not to note that the for- stemming from available non-biblical, ancient
plate. $126.00, ISBN 90-04-12680-5. eign women expelled by Ezra had not converted. texts and archeological evidences. This can be
This volume publishes the major lectures of Jonah illustrates divine mercy to Gentiles, but used as a textbook for undergraduate Bible
the XVIIth Congress of the International Organi- she seems not to understand the concern with courses.
zation for the Study of the OT, Basel, August theodicy, insofar as Nineveh would ultimately Won W. Lee
5-10, 2001. Papers include E. Jenni’s presiden- destroy Israel. Inclusive voices appear, but she Calvin College
tial address, “Hofliche Bitte im AT”; M. misconstrues the issues.
O’Connor, “Discourse Linguistics and the Study Marvin A. Sweeney RAPE PLOTS: A FEMINIST CULTURAL
of Biblical Hebrew”; S. Kaufman, “Recent Con- Claremont Graduate University STUDY OF GENESIS 34. By Susanne Scholz.
Volume 30 Number 1 / January 2004
Studies in Biblical Literature, 13. New York Pe-
ter Lang, 2002. Pp. xv + 232. $32.95, ISBN
0-8204-6 107-5.
As a case study of cultural biblical criticism,
this book demonstrates the relationship between
the history of interpretation of Genesis 34 and the
“rape culture” of Western societies. Based on an
analysis of Christian commentaries on Genesis
34 in nineteenth-century Germany and forensic
medical textbooks of the same period, Scholz
notes that they share a common discourse: they
do not consider the issue of rape in its own right.
This observation indicates that the commenta-
tors were part of a broader cultural discourse.
Even contemporary readings of Genesis 34 from
1970 to 1997 tend to marginalize Dinah’s rape.
Instead, they focus on the male characters, the
love between Dinah and Shechem, xenophobia,
early Israelite tribal relations to the Canaanite
city, or source critical issues. In contrast the au-
thor, informed by feminist research that stresses
rape and the situation of victim-survivors, argues
that the text should be read as a rape story or
Dinah’s story. In so doing, she calls for an ethical
self-evaluation of whether biblical scholarship
on Genesis 34 has contributed to the contempo-
rary prevalence of rape. This book is a good
example of an innovative multidisciplinary
approach to a biblical text.
Won W. Lee
Calvin College
MIRJAM: EINE FEMINISTISCH-
RHETORISCHE LEKTURE DER
MIRJAMTEXTEIN DER HEBR&SCHEN
BIBEL. By Ursula Rapp. Beihefte zur
Zeitschrift f u r d i e Alttestamentliche
Wissenschaft, 317. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter,
2002. Pp. xiv + 434. $129.60, ISBN
3- 11-017384-0.
As the subtitle indicates, this book examines
Hebrew texts that mention Miriam through a
feminist-rhetorical perspective. However, this
combination of methods may mislead readers to
suppose the book is similar to what P. Trible has
done with the book of Jonah. Instead of focusing
on textual meanings, Rapp employs these meth-
ods to articulate what the authors wanted to per-
suade their specific audiences of concerning the
role that Miriam should play in reconstituting the
postexilic community. The result is two views of
Miriam that conceptually conflict with each
other: Exod 15:19-21; Num 10:1-13,26:59; and
Mic 6:8 stress her divinely ordained prophetic
leadership, reflecting the position of those who
remained in Judah during the exile; whereas
Num 12 and Deut 24:8-9 oppose her playing
such a leadership role, indicating the stand of the
returning exile group. This book contributes sig-
nificantly to understanding not only the
Miriamic texts themselves, as is evident in
Rapp’s meticulously detailed exegesis, but also
the role of female characters, like Miriam, in Is-
rael’s sociopolitical and religious struggles for
reestablishing their postexilic community. It
belongs in every research library.
Won W.Lee
Calvin College
DEUTERONOMY: ISSUES AND INTER-
PRETATION. By Alexander Rof6. Old Testa-
ment Studies. New York: T & T Clark, 2002. Pp.
xiii + 258. $49.95, ISBN 0-567-08754-9.
This volume presents Rof6’s fifteen essays
on Deuteronomy, written mostly in Hebrew and
published over twenty-eight years from 1972 to
2000. After a brief summary of the literary, his-
torical, and theological aspects of Deuteronomy
as a whole, four essays demonstrate the contribu-
tions of historico-literary criticism to the textual
criticism of Deut 4:32-40, 5:28-6:1, 32:43, and
the late history of the biblical text. Built on
Cassuto’s insights, the sixth essay argues that the
editorial activity evident in the arrangement of
the laws in Deuteronomy is not only
well-planned and systematic, but unitary as well.
The next four essays illustrate Rof6’s exegetical
depth and breath: interpreting the tenth com-
mandment in light of four deuteronomic laws
(19:14; 23:25; 23:26; 24:lO-11); demonstrating
how the differentiation of layers in Deuteronomy
assists in tracing the movement of its centraliza-
tion of worship; reconstructing the organization
of the judiciary in Deuteronomy; and analyzing
Deut 28:69-30:20 comparatively and form criti-
cally. He also investigates the history of legal
matters, such as the cities of refuge, warfare, and
family and sex. This volume ends with Rof6’s re-
view of M. Wienfeld’s book, Deuteronomy and
the Deuteronomistic School in i t s
methodological stand. It belongs in research
libraries.
Won W. Lee
Calvin College
DEUTERONOMY: A COMMENTARY. By
Richard D. Nelson. The Old Testament Library.
Louisville: Westminster John Knox, 2002. Pp.
xv + 424. $44.95, ISBN 0-664-21952-7.
In this significantly upgraded commentary on
Deuteronomy (following its OTLpredecessor by
von Rad), Nelson pays special attention to the
book’s linguistic character, literary features, and
rhetorical arguments that highlight the urgency
of listening, evoke a response of renewed com-
mitment, and demand a faithful obedience to the
law. This synchronic reading is convincingly re-
lated to his reconstruction of the compositional
process of Deuteronomy. For him, the core of
Deuteronomy most likely originated from dissi-
dent Jerusalem scribes collaborating with aristo-
crats, priests, and sages in the reign of Manasseh
and Josiah. The result is an “underground reform
theology” that calls for a reform, demanding the
centralization of sacrifice, the eradication of ri-
val religions, Israel’s convenantal response in re-
lation to Yahweh’s election, and humanitarian
ethics. Their collaboration accounts for its cohe-
sive, unified theology in the midst of conceptual
inconsistencies and ambiguities in that the pres-
ence of different viewpoints should not be coor-
Religious Studies Review / 57
dinated into layers or stages of literary growth.
Subsequently, this scribal activity of
“microredaction” is coupled with several
large-scale brackets (e.g., 4:25-28//29:21-28;
429-3 1//30: 1-10) and additional materials (e.g.,
chapters 1-3, 27, 31) that produced the present
form of Deuteronomy. This book is essential for
those studying Deuteronomy.
Won W.Lee
Calvin College
ORIGEN HOMILIES ON JOSHUA. Edited
by Cynthia White. The Fathers of the Church,
105. Washington, DC: Catholic University of
America Press, 2002. Pp. viii + 232. $34.95,
ISBN 0-8132-0105-5.
The heart of this volume, and its chief contri-
bution to scholarship, is the presentation of a
complete English rendering of Origen’s
twenty-six homilies on the book of Joshua. Al-
though originally composed in Greek, these are
for the most part extant only in the Latin transla-
tion prepared a century later by Rufinus. In her
expert and elegant introduction, translator
Barbara J. Bruce succinctly covers an array of is-
sues relating to Origen’s approach to the biblical
text, the place of these homilies in his life and ca-
reer, the varying appraisals and reappraisals to
which Origen and his work have been subjected,
and the value of Rufinus’s work as witness to
Origen’s original. Bruce’s careful and cautious
judgment that Rufinus can in general be relied
upon is crucial to the entire enterprise repre-
sented by this volume. Her well-phrased and an-
notated translation should appeal to specialists
and general readers alike. Joshua, as Jesus pre-
figured, assumes enormous significance for
Origen, who argues with both passion and erudi-
tion that this figure from the OT shows the way
for his hearers, who must meet and overcome the
struggles that mark the spiritual journey of each
Christian.
Leonard J. Greenspoon
Creighton University
SOCIAL WORLD OF THE HEBREW
PROPHETS. By Victor H. Matthews. Peabody,
MA: Hendrickson, 2001. Pp. xi + 205. $24.95,
ISBN 1-56563-417-9.
This undergraduate introduction focuses on a
socio-historical reading of the prophets of the
HB. Matthews stresses that the prophets were
concerned primarily with the current events of
their own day and not with predicting future
events. The first chapters of the volume intro-
duce the reader to the historical geography of the
land of Israel and its ancient Near Eastern neigh-
bors, the characteristics of prophecy and pro-
phetic speech, and prophecy in the ancient Near
East. Discussions of pre-monarchic prophets,
such as Moses and Balaam, and early monarchic
prophets, such as Samuel, Nathan, Ahijah, etc.,
are based largely on the presentation of the narra-
tives in which they appear with brief attention to
historical and thematic factors. Treatment of the
prophetic books appears in historical, not canon-
ical order. Matthews’s focus on socio-historical
58 / Religious Studies Review
issues, for example, notes Amos’s agricultural
background, although it pays little attention to
his identity as a Judean at the northern Israelite
sanctuary. Treatment of his message tends to fo-
cus on classic themes of adherence to YHWH,
social justice, etc., but Judah’s relationship to Is-
rael in this period is not explored. In general
Matthews focuses on historical and political
background, but treatment of social identity, e.g.,
Jeremiah as Levite, Ezekiel as Zadokite priest, is
often overlooked. The bibliography should be
expanded.
Marvin A. Sweeney
Claremont Graduate University
THE CONSTRUCTION OF SHAME IN
THE HEBREW BIBLE: THE PROPHETIC
CONTRIBUTION. By Johanna Stiebert. Jour-
nal for the Study of the Old Testament Supple-
ment Series, 346. New York: Sheffield Aca-
demic Press, 2002. Pp. x + 196. $95.00, ISBN
1-84127-268-X.
This Glasgow dissertation (R. Carroll, super-
visor) examines shame in the Major Prophets as
an aspect of biblical ideology, because the vo-
cabulary of shame is most prevalent in Isaiah,
Jeremiah, and Ezekiel. Stiebert avoids concern
with establishing the date of composition of
these works, although she assumes a date of
composition in the Second Temple period.
Shame is a compelling human emotion of nega-
tive self evaluation that is frequently contrasted
with notions of honor in discussion of Mediterra-
nean social organization. Such a model is de-
rived from anthropological field studies con-
ducted in contemporary agricultural communi-
ties. Stiebert contends that such a model is not
entirely appropriate for the HB, which consti-
tutes textual phenomena and not a living social
community on which field study can be based.
Isaiah contains a great deal of shame and honor
vocabulary where it describes human beings and
YHWH respectively. A social scientific model is
likewise unsuited to Jeremiah, although ideolog-
ical study of shame appears to be much more ap-
propriate due to the subjective nature of claims
made in the text. In Ezekiel, shame functions in
relation to deliberate transgression, and it is cen-
tral to the internal purging process. Stiebert’s
work emphasizes the need to consider the
psychological dimension of shame in textual
study rather than the social dimension.
Marvin A. Sweeney
Claremont Graduate University
“THE EARTH MOURNS”: PROPHETIC
METAPHOR AND ORAL AESTHETIC. By
Kathenn M. Hayes. Academia Biblica, 8. At-
lanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2002. Pp.
xiv + 286. $39.95, ISBN 1-58983-034-2.
This slightly revised Catholic University of
America dissertation (Douglas M. Gropp. super-
visor) examines nine passages from the prophets,
Amos 1:2; Hos4:l-3; Jer423-28; 12:1-4,7-13;
23:9-12; Isa 24:l-20; 33:7-9; and Joel 1:15-20,
that employ images of a mourning earth turned to
barren wilderness because of the actions of its in-
habitants. Hayes contends that these texts consti-
tute a discrete tradition. Her major goal in this
study is “to explore how the diachronic dimen-
sion of the literary tradition influences and is in-
fluenced by the synchronic meaning of particular
prophetic texts, how the body of tradition, which
has evolved through time, enriches and shapes
the particular instance and how that instance
both evokes and contributes to shaping the tradi-
tion as a whole.” Past scholarship has treated
these passages largely as redactional insertions
into the text. The body of her study employs a va-
riety of literary critical tools to examine each
passage with a particular interest in tracing the
strands that connect the passages and provide the
basis for their interrelationships. Her study indi-
cates that the passages are closely related to their
respective literary contexts and originate from
them. Her study concludes by calling for recog-
nition of a creation tradition in the prophets well
before the time of Second Isaiah. For all libraries.
Marvin A. Sweeney
Claremont Graduate University
VOM PROPHETISCHEN WORT ZUR
PROPHETISCHEN TRADITION: STU-
DIEN ZUR TRADITIONS- UND REDAK-
TIONSGECHICHTE INNERPROPHE-
TISCHER KONFLIKTE IN DER HEB-
RAISCHEN BIBEL. By Armin Lange.
Forschungen zum Alten Testament, 34.
Tubingen: J. C. B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck), 2002.
Pp. xi + 371. €74,00, ISBN 3-16-147732-4.
This Tubingen Habilitntionschrift (B.
Janowksi, director) reexamines the interrelation-
ship between the original words of the prophets
and the tradition of redaction and reinterpreta-
tion that conveyed those words with respect to
prophetic conflict. Lange’s study focuses espe-
cially on the question of false prophecy in the
book of Jeremiah. A survey of texts from Amos,
Micah, Isaiah, and Zephaniah prior to Jeremiah
concerned with prophetic conflict indicates that
none of these figures reject prophecy as such.
Jeremiah’s conflicts with prophetic opponents
likewise indicates no fundamental rejection of
prophecy, but the compiler of Jeremiah places
salvation prophecies under the rubric of false
prophecies in Jer 23:9-3 1. Following a medley of
positions in Ezekiel, Lamentations, and
Deuteronomic texts, the final redaction of Jere-
miah demonstrates a marked rejection of proph-
ecy altogether as called prophets are subsumed
to prophetic tradition. Lange correctly notes the
phenomenon of prophetic conflict in the tradi-
tion, but his reading of purported redactional
statements, such as Jer 23:9, is far too stringent.
He needs to reconsider the extensive and positive
use of Isaian material in Jeremiah, Jeremiah’s so-
cial role as Levite, and the rabbinic identification
with prophecy. Nevertheless, his work opens an
important question in prophetic hermeneutics.
Marvin A. Sweeney
Claremont Graduate University
ISAIAH. By Trent C. Butler. Holman Old Testa-
ment Commentary, 15. Nashville: Broadman &
Volume 30 Number 1 /January 204
Holman, 2002. Pp. xii + 387. $19.99, ISBN
0-8054-9473- I .
Butler’s commentary on Isaiah attempts to
answer “the church’s questions rather than rais-
ing issues that scholars usually admit they cannot
adequately solve.” For each unit of the book,
Butler presents an introductory lesson from
modern life relevant to the passage; a sparse ex-
position; a concluding overview of principles; a
life application; a prayer that addresses concerns
from the text to G-d; deeper discoveries concern-
ing historical, geographical, and grammatica1
background; a teaching outline based on Butler’s
exposition; and issues for discussion. Butler ar-
gues that Isaiah can only be the product of one
author because the book states that G-d foretells
what is to happen (e.g., Cyrus). To posit that the
book speaks of events after the fact negates the
contrast between G-d and idols, and yet Butler
never explains the presence of third person nar-
ratives about Isaiah in the book. His discussion
of those who doubt that Isaiah wrote the whole
book points to “the Jewish rabbi Ibn Ezra,” but
we never hear about the Swiss scholar B. Duhm.
In general, Butler’s exposition points to the need
for faithful and submissive suffering servants to
G-d, which stand in contrast to the arrogant and
sinful (and idiotic, see on Isa 44:9-20) people of
Isaiah’s time. There is a need for responsible
commentary on Isaiah addressed to a lay
Christian audience, but this is not it.
Marvin A. Sweeney
Claremont Graduate University
ISAIAH 28-39: A CONTINENTAL COM-
MENTARY. By Hans Wildberger.Translated by
Thomas H. Trapp. Minneapolis: Fortress Press,
2002. Pp. xvi + 781. $75.00, ISBN 0-8006-
9510-0.
This is an English translation of the third vol-
ume of Wildberger’s magisterial Biblischer
Kommentar treatment of Isaiah 1-39 (Jesaja
[ BKAT X11-3; Neukirchen-Vluyn:
Neukirchener, 1972-821). Translations of the
first two volumes appeared in 1991 (Isaiah 1-12)
and 1997 (Isaiah 13-27). The present volume in-
cludes commentary for Isaiah 28-39, a 200-page
introduction to Isaiah 1-39,an extensive bibliog-
raphy with updates through 1999, and indexes.
Wildberger organizes his commentary accard-
ing to the individual small pericopes that com-
prise Isaiah 28-39. Each section includes a bibli-
ography of relevant literature, (English) transla-
tion of the passage, extensive textual notes, dis-
cussions of form and setting, commentary to the
individual verses, and discussion of the purpose
and thrust of the passage. The introduction pro-
vides Wildberger’s overviews of the book. He
conceives text criticism as the reconstruction of
the original text, and generally holds that the MT
constitutes the basic text for Isaiah. He views the
formation of Isaiah 1-39 as a process of growth in
which the original words of the prophet were ex-
panded by later writers to form Isaiah 1-39by ca.
400 BCE. Isaiah’s message of judgment and sal-
vation is rooted in the Jerusalem traditions of
Volume 30 Number 1 / January 2004
YHWH’s kingship. A rich and authoritative
commentary that belongs in all libraries.
Marvin A. Sweeney
Claremont Graduate University
THE GOD OF ISRAEL AND THE NA-
TIONS: STUDIES IN ISAIAH AND THE
PSALMS. By Norbert Lohfink and Erich
Zenger. Translated by Everett R. Kalin.
Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2000. Pp. vii
+ 234. $39.95, ISBN 0-8146-5925-X.
This volume is rooted in the theological
re-evaluation of Judaism that has been taking
place in the Roman Catholic Church in the after-
math of the Shoah/Holocaust and Vatican 11. It
presupposes that G-d has not renounced the cov-
enant with Israel and that the Church has not su-
perseded Judaism. Although it is deeply con-
cerned with the implications for Jewish Christian
dialogue, this volume can hardly be character-
ized as an example of such dialogue, since en-
gagement with Jewish scholars and interpreta-
tion is relatively sparse. Rather, it appears to be
addressed to Roman Catholic readers in an effort
to explain a new basis for the Church’s interpre-
tation of two key biblical books, Isaiah and
Psalms, which both have tremendous imptica-
tions for understanding the interrelationships be-
tween Israel and the nations. Lohfink and Zenger
maintain that both Jews and Gentiles will ulti-
mately be redeemed through Christ (Rom 9- 1 1);
that Torah is central to the covenant for both
Jews and Christians (Isa 2:2-5/Mic 4: 1-4); and
that both Jews and the nations will make an es-
chatological pilgrimage to Zion (Psalm 25); the
covenant formula in Ps 33: 12 opens access to the
covenant to the nations; Zion represents the es-
chatological goal for the nations (Psalm 87); and
Psalms 90-106 point to YHWH’s universal reign
over all creation. An essential first step toward
dialogue.
Marvin A. Sweeney
Claremont Graduate University
JEREMIA ALS LEHRER DER TORA:
SOZIALE GEBOTE DES DEUTERON-
OMIUMS IN FORTSCHREIBUNGEN DES
JEREMIABUCHES. By Christ1 Maier.
Forschungen zur Religion und Literatur des
Alten und Neuen Testaments, 196. Gottingen:
Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2002. Pp. 422.
€74,00, ISBN 3-525-53880-4.
This Berlin Habilitationsschrift (P. Welten
supervisor) follows on recent contentions that
Jeremiah was shaped by Deuteronomistic redac-
tion. Specifically, Maier attempts to demonstrate
that Dtr redaction of the book changed the image
of Jeremiah from a prophetic conveyer of the di-
vine word to a teacher of Torah in keeping with
the concerns of post-exilic Judaism. Her exami-
nation of passages concerned with Torah
throughout the book includes demarcation of the
text, study of its synchronic literary form, a text-
and literary-critical study of the pericope that ad-
dresses the question of textual coherence, and
traditio-historical examination of textual view-
point and redaction. Texts studied include Jer
7:1-8:3 and 26:1-24; 11:1-17; 17:19-27; 22~1-5;
3423-22; and a host of smaller texts in which To-
rah appears. Although Jeremiah is heavily ed-
ited, Maier’s study is governed by some rather
questionable (and unquestioned) premises, viz a
vis, the Dtr movement is entirely exilic or
post-exilic, despite arguments over the past
thirty years for a monarchic setting; parallels
with Ezra-Nehemiah automatically date to the
later period despite thirty years of study that
show Ezra-Nehemiah’s dependence on proph-
ecy. Priests and prophets are diametrically
opposed. A very circular and unconvincing
argument.
Marvin A. Sweeney
Claremont Graduate University
EZEKIEL AND THE ETHICS OF EXILE.
By Andrew Mein. Oxford Theological Mono-
graphs. New York Oxford University Press,
2001. Pp. xii + 298. $72.00, ISBN
0- 19-829992-3.
Mein’s revised Oxford dissertation (John
Barton, supervisor) analyzes the ethical perspec-
tives of the book of Ezekiel as a response to the
experience of exile. Mein emphasizes the social
location of the prophet as a member of the Judean
elite who found himself dislocated in Babylonia.
Much of the book’sperspectives represent an at-
tempt to bridge the social gap by drawing upon
the social perspectives and presuppositions of
both locations. Ezekiel’s new moral world pre-
supposes social location in Judean state institu-
tions, but reflects a domestication of ethical per-
spective that shifts to individual and family con-
cerns in an effort to provide social cohesion and
to ensure communal survival in a foreign envi-
ronment. Ezekiel is concerned with politics and
sees Judah’s foreign relations as a basis for di-
vine anger. His concern with religious
syncretism focuses on expressions within the
state cult rather than foreign influence. His con-
cern for purity in exile reflects the perspectives
of his priestly identity, but he expands such con-
cerns to lay a foundation for moral life of the peo-
ple in exile. His concern with law likewise shifts
from state judiciary to the religious sphere of in-
dividual and community. Mein’s discussion pro-
vides social contextualization for Ezekiel’s
moral perspective and serves as an accessible
introduction to the prophet’s thought. Highly
recommended for all libraries.
Marvin A. Sweeney
Claremont Graduate University
A NEW HEART AND A NEW SOUL:
EZEKIEL, THE EXILE AND THE TORAH.
By Risa Levitt Kohn. Journal for the Study of the
Old Testament Supplement Series, 358. New
York: Sheffield Academic Press, 2002. Pp. xii +
148. $85.00, ISBN 0-8264-6057-7.
This revised University of California, San
Diego dissertation (W. H. C. Propp, supervisor),
attempts to establish the extent to which Ezekiel
relied on earlier thought and the extent to which
he adumbrated the theology of Israel. Kohn notes
the striking affinities between Ezekiel’s thought
Religious Studies Review / 59
and language with the Priestly source of the Pen-
tateuch and Deuteronomy and the
Deuteronomistic History. In an effort to investi-
gate Ezekiel’s relationship to both of these bod-
ies of literature and his place in the evolution of
Israelite history, theology, and literature, Kohn
proposes an examination of key terms shared by
Ezekiel and P (ninety-seven terms) and by
Ezekiel and DlDtr (twenty-one terms). Her ex-
amination of this terminology together with the
understanding and use of the terms in each con-
text indicates that Ezekiel is familiar with
P-source and DDtr material. Her study further
indicates that Ezekiel does not know the entire
Torah, but anticipates the Torah’s production.
Ezekiel modeled himself on Moses, the ancient
law-giver, to issue laws in anticipation of the sec-
ond Exodus and resettlement of the land. Such
conclusions correctly challenge the long-stand-
ing Wellhausenian view that P was dependent on
Ezekiel as well as recently emerging views of a
Dtr redaction of Ezekiel. Although fuller literary
analysis is necessary, this study is a useful first
step.
Marvin A. Sweeney
Claremont Graduate Universily
NAHUM. By Julia Myers O’Brien. Readings: A
New Biblical Commentary. New York: Sheffield
Academic Press. Pp. 162. Cloth, $85.00, ISBN
1-84127-299-X; paper, $24.95, ISBN
1-84127-300-7.
O’Brien’s literary reading of Nahum places
the question of ethics, particularly Nahum’s de-
piction of violence, at the center of her commen-
tary. She follows Carroll in seeing poets and not
prophets behind the intentionally constructed
works of literature that we now read as prophetic
books. She therefore emphasizes the literary and
ideological dimensions of the text rather than a
historical reconstruction of the prophet and his
times. This is not to say that she is not concerned
with history, but she reads the historical dimen-
sions of the book as claims placed before the
reader in the literary presentation of Nahum.
Nahum represents the cry of the oppressed, and it
demonizes Nineveh as the cosmic enemy of
YHWH. The book is therefore not concerned
with the sins of Judah that brought the Assyrians
as YHWH’s agent of punishment as one so fre-
quently sees in other prophetic books, which
prompts her to consider the role of Nineveh as
victim in the book. Although this is a legitimate
question, it potentially prompts readers to side-
step Judah’s victimization and to see it and
YHWH as the potential oppressors. This is par-
ticularly pertinent in relation to her grouping to-
gether Auschwitz and Deir Yassin in an attempt
to treat victimization even-handedly. Additional
chapters examine Nahum in relation to gender
portrayal, atrocity, and the nations.
Marvin A. Sweeney
Claremont Graduate University
THE BIBLE AS BOOK: THE HEBREW BI-
BLE AND THE JUDAEAN DESERT DIS-
COVERIES.Edited by Edward D. Herbert and
60 / Religious Studies M e w
Emanuel Tov. New Castle, DE: Oak Knoll, 2002.
Pp. x + 360; illustrations. $60.00, ISBN
1-5846-083-5.
This volume comprises papers presented by
almost two dozen scholars, from almost a dozen
nations, at a conference held in 2000 at Hampton
Court and sponsored by The Scriptorium: Center
for Christian Antiquities. The assembled mate-
rial is well edited and indexed and is accompa-
nied by eight high-quality illustrations. This col-
lection is divided into five parts: Canonical De-
velopments, Rewritten Scriptures at Qumran,
The Bible as Used and Quoted in the Non-Bibli-
cal Texts from Qumran, Text and Textual Criti-
cism in the Light of the Qumran Discoveries, and
The Qumran Biblical Texts Today. Even a cur-
sory examination of the volume confirms that it
constitutes valuable contributions to the
“whats,” “whens,” “wheres,” and “whys” of
Dead Sea Scrolls research by a veritable “who’s
who” of Qumran scholars. Of course, this collec-
tion merits far more than a glance; careful read-
ing and rereading should result in both increased
understanding on the part of the user and
enhanced gratitude to all of those responsible for
this fine effort.
Leonard J. Greenspoon
Creighton University
THE TEXTS FROM THE JUDAEN
DESERT: INDEXES AND AN INTRODUC-
TION TO THE DISCOVERIES IN THE
JUDAEAN DESERT SERIES. Edited by
Emanuel Tov, et al. Discoveries in the Judaean
Desert, 39. New York: Clarendon Press, 2002.
Pp. x + 452. $140.00, ISBN 0-19-924924-5.
This is the capstone of the monumental Dis-
coveries in the Judaean Desert Series edited by
E. Tov with contributions from several scholars.
The volume includes an insightful history of the
series, which is itself something of a history of
Dead Sea Scrolls scholarship. It provides a list of
texts, another list of texts annotated and classi-
fied by content and genre, and lists of biblical
texts as well as passages from biblical texts.
There are lists of types of texts (e.g., papyrus,
paleo-Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic, Cryptic) and a
concordance of proper nouns. The catalogue of
scribal notations is useful, which is enhanced by
illustrations of the notations. The volume con-
cludes with a chronological index of texts in-
cluding a summary of carbon-14 evidence. An
invaluable resource for scholars working in the
Dead Sea Scrolls.
William M. Schniedewind
University of California, Los Angeles
Volume 30 Number 1 /January 2004
~~ ~
languages, 4) Latin and other languages. The
Greece, Rome, range of the book is impressive, with studies on
elite and non-elite Greco-Roman bilingualism;
Greco-Roman Jewish and Christian communities in Italy; the
fate of indigenous languages of Asia Minor
Period (Phrygia, Lycia and modem Cappadocia); Ro-
man Egypt; the Near East (Syriac, Aramaic, Per-
sian and Parthian); the Septuagint; and Goths
SECRET OF THE MUSES RETOLD: and Franks in the late impenallearly medieval
CLASSICAL INFLUENCES ON ITALIAN period. Owing to the nature of the available texts
AUTHORS OF THE TWENTIETH CEN- there is much in the book that will be of interest
TURY.By John T. Kirby. Chicago: University of to students of bible translation, as well as classi-
Chicago Press, 2000. Pp. xviii + 167. $44.00, cists and historians. The value of the papers var-
ISBN 0-226-43747-7. ies markedly, as often in a large collection; there
The contrast between Kirby’s title and his are essential studies by C. Brixhe (Greek and
subtitle leaves the reader initially uncertain Phrygian) and F. Biville (the Graeco-Romans
whether he means to argue for the timeless value and Graeco-Latin) which alone make the volume
of antiquity or to disclose the presence of allu- invaluable; also an insightful comparison of the
sions and subtexts that might otherwise go unno- status and function of koine Greek and standard
ticed. Kirby does both, although, in the final Arabic by K. Versteegh. It must be admitted that
analysis, he seems most interested in reasserting some of the Anglophone contributions are disap-
the importance of the classical tradition for a pointing by comparison, with tedious and ques-
world suspicious of its enduring value. The core tionable treatments of familiar material inter-
of the book justifies the subtitle, consisting of larded with references to standard modem
five chapters on contemporary Italian writers literature. Nevertheless, the book will remain a
whose work actively engages the classics. The reference work of central importance.
writers themselves include well known intema- Stephen Colvin
tional figures: P. P. Passolini, U. Eco, I. Calvino, Yale University
and R. Calasso, together with the contemporary
neo-Latin poet J. Tusiani. Kirby shows clearly TEXTS, IDEAS, AND THE CLASSICS:
their indebtedness to the classical tradition, with SCHOLARSHIP, THEORY, AND CLASSI-
a wealth of stimulating observations, although CAL LITERATURE. Edited by S. J. Harrison.
the difficulty of bringing together such disparate New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. Pp.
landscapes occasionally shows through, as the xiii + 330. $85.00, ISBN 0-19-924746-3.
need to sketch the classical background leaves The concatenating, supplementing title of
insufficient room to treat the Italian authors in this book is a fair index of its conceptual coher-
detail. Focusing simply on the book’s core, how- ence: serial association in lieu of productive con-
ever, obscures its larger architecture, represented junction, encompassing breadth rather than piv-
in Kirby’s “Prelude,” a sensitive discussion of otal focus. The product of a 1977 conference at
the decline of classical learning in the West, a Oxford’s Corpus Christi College, it gathers pa-
subject implicit in his treatment of Passolini, et pers ostensibly centered on the idea of coopera-
al., to which he retums in the book’s “Coda.” tion between practitioners of traditional scholar-
Kirby presents an eloquent plea for the preserva- ship and those who have taken up literary theory
tion of the Muses’ “secret,” not in the service of in one form or another. In his introduction Harri-
an all-white, all-male, heterosexist cult of antiq- son makes a valiant and correct case for the idea
uity but as a renewable resource for the under- of “working together,” arguing that neither party
standing of contemporary culture. Given Kirby’s can function well without involving the tools of
deep love for the subject and his extensive the other. Introductions and essays in selected
learning, one hopes that he will retum to it in a subject areas follow: “Literary Language” ( H a -
future work. rison, M. Silk, and J. Danielewicz); “Narrative”
Charles Platter (D. Fowler, Harrison, I. de Jong, and L.
University of Georgia Doherty); “Genre” (S. Morton Braund, A.
Barchiesi, and M. Wilson); “Historicism” (S.
BILINGUALISM IN ANCIENT SOCIETY: Swain, J. Moles, and J. Henderson); “Recep-
LANGUAGE CONTACT AND THE WRIT- tionMistory of Scholarship” (M. Reeve, I. De
TEN WORD. Edited by J. N. Adams, Mark Smet, C. Stray, and P. L. Schmidt). There is not
Janse, and Simon Swain. New York: Oxford Uni- an unintelligent or uninteresting essay in this en-
versity Press, 2002. Pp. x + 483. $98.00, ISBN tire volume. The problem is that while all discuss
0- 19-924506-1. theory, some engage it critically (Silk and Wil-
The fifteen papers in this collection reflect, son), some only superficially. How traditional
broadly, an attempt to re-analyze language con- scholars might involve some of the more palat-
tact in the ancient and medieval worlds in the able aspects of recent critical thinking is the
light of modem work in sociolinguistics and re- broad impression given: evangelizing or aggres-
lated fields. After a useful introduction and over- sive voices from the critical left function as foils
view by the editors, there are four sections cover- (the Fowlers in Silk, Habinek and Too in Wil-
ing 1) introductory theoretical considerations, 2) son). But the strengths of any collection are its
Greek-Latin bilingualism, 3) Greek and other exemplary contributions: Barchiesi (re-reading
Volume 30 Number 1 / January 8004
the Kreuzung der Gattungen) and Henderson
(reading Walbank reading Polybius) are
must-reads, and the witty introductions of Swain
and Reeve delightful.
D. M. Hooley
University of Missouri
MILETOS: A HISTORY. By Alan M. Greaves.
New York: Routledge, 2002. Pp.224; illustra-
tions. $75.00, ISBN 0-415-23846-3.
Greaves says out front that this brief survey of
Miletos is a “personal interpretation of the pub-
lished data currently available.” The book does
contain much useful information, but far too of-
ten it is couched in prose which can only be char-
acterized as poor. The writing is plagued with
problems in punctuation, capitalization, consis-
tency in tenses, non-sequiturs, use of the passive
voice to hide assumptions, various other im-
proper usages, and typographical errors. Only
one of the many examples: “From the early sixth
century BC (Fontenrose 1988: 179-80, citing
Milet 1.3: 178). the cult at Didyma was sacred to
that most Greek of Greek gods, Apollo, is
claimed to have had originated in Anatolian ori-
gins (e.g. Bayladi 1996: 137-42),as well as other
places.” These problems, coupled with altemat-
ing lapses and leaps of logic, make the book dif-
ficult to read. The existence of a single seal im-
pression, for example, is taken as confirmation
that all seals were used for administrative pur-
poses. The discussion of colonization is nothing
short of confounding. In the space of two para-
graphs, Greaves takes us from a mythic connec-
tion between Miletos and Minoan Crete, to an as-
sumption that the myths represent a “reason-
ably” accurate fact to a solid statement that
Miletos was indeed a Minoan colony. Greaves
mentions “a number of reasons for identifying
the name ‘Millawanda’ with the site known in
classical times as Miletos,” but then mentions
only one major argument and one minor. There
are no advances here from D. Page’s Sather Lec-
tures of the late 1950s. Although Greaves’
bibliography is useful, we still await a good
English book on this important site.
Timothy Winters
Austin Peay State University
RANSOM, REVENGE, AND HEROIC
IflENTITyIN THE IUAD. By Donna F. Wil-
son. New York: Cambridge University Press,
2002. Pp. ix + 236. $55.00, ISBN
0-52 1-80660-7.
A revised version of a 1997 University of
Texas doctoral dissertation, written under the di-
rection of Erwin Cook. Wilson draws on recent
theoretical work on compensation, exchange and
power to explain the quarrel between Agamem-
non and Achilleus, and in particular Achilleus’
refusal to come to terms in Iliad 9, as reflecting a
sharp distinction between apoina (ransom) and
poine (revenge). Agamemnon seeks to end the
dispute by offering apoina (which will allow him
to maintain his dominant position in a fixed so-
cial system, while casting Achilleus as the out-
sider), but Achilleus insists on extracting poine
Religious Studies Review / 61
(which will improve his standing in the Achaean authors, of Greek words, and tables giving corre-
army). The argument is frequently abstract and sponding numbers of fragments in the editions of
schematic and obscures a number of difficulties, Bergk, Diehl, and West complete the edition.
chief among them the fact that in Book 9 Odys- The introduction contains grammatical and met-
seus, Phoenix and Ajax do not describe Aga- rical notes on the poets and an extensive bibliog-
memnon’s revised offer of compensation to raphy. Pages 183-233give an edition with exten-
Achilleus as apoina, but frame the matter in sive annotations of the fragments of Simonides
much more appealing terms, and that Achilleus recovered in the Oxyrhynchus papyri. This too
tums them down flat nonetheless. Wilson sug- has an index nominum to the fragments. It is an
gests that Achilleus must intuit what Agamem- exemplary edition that will be of interest to
non really said; a more economical explanation scholars of ancient poetry. It belongs in the
is that the hero’s deep and abiding wrath must be library of every university that teaches classical
explained in some other way. All Greek is Greek civilization.
translated or transliterated. Suitable for Edgar Krentz
advanced undergraduates and up. Lutheran School of Theology
S. Douglas Olson
University of Minnesota ANTIPHON THE SOPHIST: THE FRAG-
MENTS. Edited and translated by Gerard J.
HOMER AND THE RESOURCES OF Pendrick. Cambridge Classical Texts and Com-
MEMORY SOME APPLICATIONS OF mentaries, 39. New York: Cambridge University
COGNITIVE THEORY TO THE ILIAD Press, 2001. Pp. xi + 472. $75.00, ISBN
AND THE ODYSSEY. By Elizabeth Minchin. 0-521-65 161- 1.
New York: Oxford University Press, 2001. Pp. The almost simultaneous publication of two
viii + 247. $74.00, ISBN 0-19-81527-4. major studies on the same subject, but approach-
This book,a cohesive combination of a num- ing it from diametrically opposite points of view,
ber of previously published articles, presents may be a treat for scholars interested in the field,
Minchin’s use of cognitive psychology to ex- but is also an indication of the inconclusive na-
plain the role of memory in the composition of ture of this debate. The identity of Antiphon, one
the Iliad and Odyssey. It is argued that everyday of the pioneers of Attic prose, is a 2,000-year old
methods of structuring and recalling data, in- controversy. While Michael Gagarin in his book
cluding auditory and visual systems, can help ex- Antiphon the Athenian argues for a unitarian po-
plain how an oral poet could create the long Ho- sition identifying Antiphon the Sophist with
meric poems. Attention is focused especially on Antiphon of Rhamnous, the orator and politi-
elements of great detail, such as catalogues, arti- cian, Pendrick’s book is based on a separatist po-
fact descriptions, similes, and ring composition. sition and the assumption that Antiphon the
The study provides new perspectives and the ar- Sophist was a fifth century intellectual, author of
guments are convincingly grounded within the the works On Truth, On Concord, Politicus and
context of Homeric studies. Occasionally the ap- On Breams, and thus a different person from the
proach strains to reduce exclusively historic or orator. The separatist position of Pendrick rests
poetic phenomena into recognizable elements upon his detailed study of the ancient testimonia.
(for example, invocation of the Muses is likened Although he considers stylistic matters and con-
to a student consulting an academic supervisor). tent, he correctly argues that the evidence pro-
Excellently written and organized, the book of- vided by these is inconclusive. I remain uncon-
fers a lucid introduction to the potentially vinced by his interpretation of the testimonia,
intimidating field of cognitive psychology and and I would still be inclined to side with the uni-
successfully demonstrates its relevance to tarian position championed by Gagarin. Yet this
Homer. should not undermine the importance of
Jonathan Burgess Pendrick‘s contribution. This is a scholarly book
University of Toronto with many strengths. In the introduction the au-
thor provides a thorough discussion of the iden-
POETAE ELEGIAC1 TESTIMONIA ET tity of Antiphon, his style and thought in the con-
FRAGMENTA. Edited by Bruno Gentile and text of fifth-century Athens. The text of all the
Carl Prato. Pars 11. Editio altera, novis Simonidis testimonia and fragments of Antiphon, with de-
fragmentia avcta. Bibliotheca Scriptorum tailed apparatus criticus and facing translation, is
Graecorum et Romanorum Tevbneriana. Leip- derived from reliable editions. The commentary
zig: K. B. Saw, 2002. Pp. xxiii + 231. €80.00, is a rich source of information for many issues re-
ISBN 3-598-71702-4. lated to fifth-century thought, philosophy, legal
Many Greek poets who wrote elegies survive and theological perceptions and social issues.
only as names in references by ancient authors. The reader will find thoroughly documented dis-
Yet they are part of the history of the literary cussions on nature p s i s ) , law (nomos), the at-
form. This volume prints the testimonia for fif- tempts of Antiphon to square the circle, his views
teen such poets. There are seven surviving frag- on civil concord and many other important
ments from Ion of Chius, seven from Dionysius themes of early classical prose. This is a good
Chalcus, two from Socrates, eight from Critias, reference book on the works of Antiphon, and
ten from Evenus, twenty-six (more or less) from despite any reservations on individual issues, it
Antimachus, two from Aristotle, and fifty that
can be ascribed to no ancient writer. An index of
62 / Religious Studies Review
will prove useful to classical scholars and
students of philosophy.
K. Kapparis
University of Florida
GREEK DRAMA AND DRAMATISTS. By
Alan H. Sommerstein. New York: Routledge,
2002. Pp. ix + 192. Cloth, $75.00, lSBN 0-415-
26027-2; paper, $29.95, ISBN 0-4 15-26028-0.
As many histories and handbooks of Classi-
cal Literature as there are, there is always space
for a lively guide that gives the details uncovered
by recent scholarship their proper place and sig-
nificance. This book was first published in Ital-
ian (by F. De Martino: Odarpou: Teatro greco,
Bari 2000). In its English version, Sommerstein,
an expert in the field, examines the five main dra-
matists and some sixty other minor tragic and
comic authors. The best features of the book are
the anthology of translated texts and the
testimonia. The former includes an ample selec-
tion of fragmentary texts, records, inscriptions,
and minor authors, thus far not easily accessible
to non-specialists. The testimonia present the ex-
tant sources on the life and work of the five major
dramatists (scholia, ancient literary critics, biog-
raphers, inscriptions, the suda, etc.) accompa-
nied by a caveat on their relative value and reli-
ability. The testimonia constitute a very useful
guide to research in ancient drama, listing the
major but also less known sources, the collec-
tions of inscriptions and papyrological frag-
ments. The picture is completed in the critical
bibliography in which Sommerstein does not fail
to indicate areas of need for future studies. In this
comprehensive guide the only glaring omission
is the total lack of illustrations, although there
are some references to visual remains. Other-
wise, it includes enough details to make it a very
usehl introduction both for undergraduates and
neophyte graduate students. An interested ama-
teur will also find it an enjoyable and informative
reading.
Tatiana Tsakiropoulou-Summers
University of Alabama
THE ALCESTIS OF EURIPIDES. Translated
by John E. Thorbum, Jr. Studies in Classics, 16.
Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen, 2002. Pp. xlv +
203. $89.95, ISBN 0-7734-7396-3.
This commentary is a useful introduction to
ancient drama for students with very little or no
knowledge of Greek. The introductory essay dis-
cusses briefly the factors that make this elusive
play defy classification. The translation is not
poetic but reproduces the metrical patterns of the
original Greek, conveying a sense of rhythm. It is
also quite literal and follows closely the line
numbers of the Greek text, facilitating reference
to it. The commentary is thorough, although light
on philology, including only necessary informa-
tion on difficult or suspect passages, and heavier
on the interpretative aspect, focusing on the
play’s characters and themes. It guides the nov-
ice in ancient drama, explaining the different
parts of Greek drama and addressing questions of
how one deduces information about stage direc-
tions, actor’s movements, costumes, masks, and
the particulars of the production, without giving
too many details. The commentary, useful as it
is, nonetheless lacks the presence of the Greek
text, to which it refers very often, quoting it in
Latin characters, in order to make linguistic and
interpretative observations as well as comments
on the ambiguities of the Greek language or the
literal meanings of Greek words and offer expla-
nations on the rationale of particular translation
choice. It even refers to figures of speech in the
original and their effect on the ancient audience.
1 find, therefore, the absence of the Greek text as
the most important shortcoming of this commen-
tary. It constitutes a nice introduction to Greek
tragedy and the way it should be approached,
studied, analyzed, discussed, and problematized.
Tatiana Tsakiropoulou-Summers
University of Alabama
ARISTOTLE: HISTORIA ANIMALIUM:
VOLUME I: BOOKS I-X:TEXT. Edited by D.
M. Balme. Prepared for publication by Allan
Gotthelf. Cambridge Classical Texts and Com-
mentaries, 38. New York: Cambridge University
Press, 2002. Pp. xxiv + 628. $125.00, ISBN
0-521-48002-7.
Balme died in 1989 with the material for this
volume, and a second one to follow, nearly but
not totally completed. Gotthelf undertook the
complex task, working from various sources, of
bringing Balme’s work to a final publishable
state. This is a major work of scholarship dedi-
cated to one of Aristotle’s least studied treatises.
It is not likely to be overtaken by other work ded-
icated to this subject for a long time to come.
Balme collated the twenty-six known extant
manuscripts and provided for this volume an ex-
tensive apparatus criticus. Gotthelf, with the as-
sistance of other scholars, has arranged for the
updating and expansion of Balme’s introduction
to the manuscripts and for the creation of a sub-
stantial index. This first volume is dedicated to
presenting the text of the treatise and all related
matters; the second volume will offer Balme’s
introduction to the work, his commentary and
other supplementary materials of use in under-
standing Aristotle’s work. The two volumes will
be indispensable for the study of the Historia
Animalium.
Leon Golden
Florida State University
DIOGENES LAERTIUS, VITAE
PHILOSOPHORUM LIBRI. Edited by H.
Gartner. Bibliotheca Teubneriana. Leipzig: K. G
Sauer, 2002. Pp. x + 183. €54.00, ISBN
3-598-71319-3.
There are presently three Greek editions of
Diogenes Laertius’ Vitae Philosophorum in
print: H. S. Long’s in the Oxford Classical Texts
(1964), R. D. Hicks’ Loeb Classical Library edi-
tion (1925). and the Teubner edition of Miroslav
Marcovich (1999). The present volume contains
1) a list of important bibliographical supple-
ments to Marcovich’s list, and 2) an “lndex
nominum” that both greatly expands and cor-
Volume 30 Number 1 / January 2004
rects that in Long’s volume two, “Index
avctorvm ope rum loc orum a Diogene
lavdatorum,” and a list of “Errata Corrigenda”
for the two text volumes. It also goes beyond the
longer index in Hicks’ second volume. The sec-
ond index identifies every citation by author and
gives a precise reference to the standard critical
edition of the author. No matter which of the edi-
tions of Diogenes one uses, this index volume
will be a valuable resource. It belongs in the
library of every university and seminary.
Edgar Krentz
Lutheran School of Theology
MY LAOCOON: ALTERNATIVE CLAIMS
IN THE INTERPRETATION OF
ARTWORKS. By Richard Brilliant. Califor-
nian Studies in the History of Art, Discovery Se-
ries, 8. Berkeley: University of California Press,
2000. Pp. xvi + 146; illustrations. $50.00, ISBN
0-520-2 1682-2.
This book is about the act of interpretation
and how interpretation shapes the reception of an
artifact. For the author the ancient sculptural
group known as the Laokoon, while being an ob-
ject from Greco-Roman antiquity, has become
for modem art historians a “critical construct”
that constitutes a “sign, or signpost, that also re-
quires interpretation.” To interpret the construct,
the author identifies multiple, interconnected
“Laokoons”: Laokoon A (Pliny’s Laokoon),
Laokoon B (an alleged prototype for Laokoon
A), Laokoon 1 (the sculptural group found in
1506 and restored in the sixteenth century),
Laokoon I1 (the constructed Laokoon that be-
came a “vehicle for critical discourse on the na-
ture of art and its powers” ) and Laokoon I11 (the
sculptural group Laokoon 1 restored in the
5Os).The Sperlonga sculptural groups, which
have had such a major impact on the interpreta-
tion of the Laokoon, are tackled in association
with Laokoon Ill (and, yet, dare we suggest that
the radical shift in discourse engendered by the
Sperlonga sculptural groups in fact announces
the birth of Laokoon IV?). For the author these
Laokoons reflect two phenomena, neither of
which is stable: the visible idea of a Laokoon,
which “grasps so convincingly the dynamic na-
ture of man’s struggle to survive” and the carved
marble itself, a “damaged survivor of antiquity.”
In the end, the author leaves the fates of all of
these Laokoons in limbo. He entices, however,
the reader (in Part two) to consider the control-
ling effect of naminghdentification on interpre-
tation by exploring three famous paintings that
also carry assumed titles: Titian’s Sacred and
Profane Lave, Velazquez’s Las Meninas and Pi-
casso’s Les Demoiselles d’Avignon.
Mark B. Garrison
Trinity University
KINGDOM OF SNOW ROMAN RULE
AND GREEK CULTURE IN CAPPA-
DOCIA. By Raymond Van Dam. Philadelphia:
University of Pennsylvania Press, 2002. Pp. x +
290. $49.95, ISBN 0-8122-368 1-5.
Volume 30 Number 1 / January 2004
This is the first volume in a trilogy of studies
on the remote Roman province of Cappadocia, a
cultural backwater in comparison with other ar-
eas of the eastern Mediterranean, but perhaps the
best-documented region in Asia Minor for the
fourth century. The second volume, Families
and Friends in Late Roman Cappadocia (2003),
has recently appeared, and the third, Becoming u
Christian in Late Roman Cappadocia, is to fol-
low shortly. The eleven chapters are divided into
three sections, the “Badlands,” “Empire and
Province,” and “Culture Wars.” The focus is the
prominent ecclesiastical figures of Basil of
Caesarea, his brother Gregory of Nyssa, and their
friend Gregory of Nazianzus, with discussions of
their role as patrons and brokers in Cappadocian
society, and their relation to Classical Greek cul-
ture. Confrontations and rivalries are the empha-
sis, involving this local elite with other church-
men, imperial administrators, provincial gover-
nors, tax assessors, municipal magistrates, local
landowners, and even emperors. Van Dam has
provided an especially illuminating and poi-
gnant analysis of the Cappadocian Church Fa-
thers, with a helpful listing of the editions and
translations of their works. Whether the author
succeeds in his aim of interjecting Cappadocian
society into the mainstream of research on Ro-
man history or not, he has ensured that the region
will not be neglected in future studies. It is
essential reading for theological students and
any inquiry into the world of Late Antiquity.
David F. Graf
University of Miami
GREEK LITERATURE AND THE ROMAN
EMPIRE: THE POLITICS OF IMITATION.
By Tim Whitmarsh. New York: Oxford Univer-
sity Press, 2001. Pp. xiv + 377. $80.00, ISBN
0- 19-924035-3.
Whitmarsh’s book is an original and impor-
tant study of Greek literary culture in the Roman
empire from the mid-first to the early third cen-
tury CE, the period commonly referred to as the
“Second Sophistic.” Drawing on current literary
and cultural theory Whitmarsh argues for the
central importance of literature as a means of
constructing Greek cultural identity for the pe-
riod. The first half of the book focuses on literary
culture as a means of creating Greek identity
through exploring the relationship between the
past and the present. The second part deals di-
rectly with the contemporary Roman context.
Whitmarsh examines a series of key works by
major authors of the period (including Dio
Chrysostum, Plutarch, Philostratus, Lucian,
Favorinus and the Greek novelists) to show how
these authors engaged with the literary past to ar-
ticulate an energetic and sophisticated response
to their present socio-political circumstances.
This book will be of interest to those interested in
the history of ethnicity and imperialism as well
as to scholars of classical literature and cultural
studies.
Carl A. Anderson
Michigan State University
THE HAND OF CICERO. By Shane Butler.
New York: Routledge, 2002. Pp. ix + 165.
$75.00, ISBN 0-415-25149-4.
In the dominant view oral expression is more
important than texts in organizing the power
structure of Roman society in the last century
BCE. Butler’s book, based in part upon a 2000
Columbia dissertation, is a partial corrective. He
explores the roles of texts of all kinds, including
laws, financial accounts, letters, and published
speeches in the dynamics of power in the
Ciceronian age. While there is some necessary,
competent cataloguing of the evidence, the vehi-
cles for Butler’s explorations are preserved texts
of Ciceronian speeches, and students of persua-
sion will find especially valuable his explanation
for the publication of the Actio Secunda in
Verrem (to represent as a prestigious oratorical
victory what had been a more banausic victory
gained with documentary evidence), his treat-
ment of the purely symbolic and malleable value
of written evidence in the third Catilinarian, and
his insistence upon reading the second Philippic
in conjunction with De Oficiis. Despite its en-
gaging style and selective bibliography, this is a
specialized work. Serious students of Roman
cultural history, of orality and literacy, and of
Ciceronian oratory will want to read it.
Christopher Craig
University of Tennessee
CICERO, RHETORIC,ANDEMPIRE. By C.
E. W. Steel. Oxford Classical Monographs. New
York: Oxford University Press, 2001. Pp. x +
254. $65.00, ISBN 0-19-924847-8.
This book, the author’s 1998 Oxford D. Phil.
Thesis, extracts from speeches of Cicero the
ideas about Rome’s empire that he sets before his
audiences. The three principal contexts are pro-
vincial misgovernment (Verrines, pro Flacco),
the granting of Roman citizenship (pro Archia,
pro Balbo), and the granting of extraordinary
commands ( d e imperio Cn. Pompeii, de
provinciis consuluribus). Steel’s overarching
idea is that Cicero’s prestige is built upon ora-
tory, that successful oratory does not offend its
audience, and thus that Cicero’s tools as well as
his political aspirations constrain him to invoke
“an agreeably unproblematic parallel universe,”
framing issues of empire in terms of individual
virtue and vice rather than analyzing the dynam-
ics of institutional structures. The orator, lacking
a coherent structural view, fosters the very ex-
traordinary military commands that lead to the
collapse of the conditions of his public life.
Steel’s argument is well executed and sheds im-
portant light on the rhetorical situations and per-
suasive strategies of the speeches she treats. This
book will be of use to historians of the period and
to political theorists. It will be essential reading
for serious students of Cicero the man and of
Ciceronian persuasion.
Christopher Craig
University of Tennessee
SALLUST: THE HISTORIES. VOLUME I,
BOOKS i-ii. Translated by Patrick McGushin.
Religious Studies Review / 63
Clarendon Ancient History Series. New York:
Oxford University Press, 1992. Pp. xi + 274.
$29.95, ISBN 0-19-872140-4.
The reputation of Sallust in the modem world
resides primarily in his monographs focusing on
Catiline and Jugurtha. Unfortunately, his most
ambitious work, the five books of the Histories,
which covered events from 78-67 BCE, was
mostly lost. Nineteenth-century German schol-
ars attempted to give identity to the work by ar-
ranging the surviving 500 fragments into a cohe-
sive structure; in 1891 the most important of
these men, Bertold Maurenbrecher, produced the
definitive edition of the lost text. With Sallusr:
The Histories, McGushin builds upon
Maurenbrecher’s work while providing a wel-
come English translation and commentary. In
this, the first of a two-volume enterprise,
McGushin translates 251 fragments and assigns
them to specific locations in Books i and ii of
Sallust’s Histories. The accompanying com-
mentary focuses on the historical background of
each passage and justifies any deviations from
Maurenbrecher’s arrangement. McGushin pro-
vides very few philological comments, although
he demonstrates a strong familiarity with Latin
literature with helpful citations of other authors.
One warning: McGushin does not provide the
Latin text, although he sometimes examines spe-
cific phrases in his commentary. Nevertheless,
this is an important work that scholars and
students of the Late Roman Republic will find of
great value. Recommended for all university
libraries.
David Christiansen
Truman State University
VIRGIL AND THE AUGUSTAN RECEP-
TION. By Richard F. Thomas. New York: Cam-
bridge University Press, 2001. Pp. xx + 324.
$65.00, ISBN 0-521-78288-0.
Did Virgil detest Augustus? Did he wish to
bum the unfinished Aeneid so that Augustus
could not appropriate it for his own self-glorifi-
cation? Have readers for two millenniadone vio-
lence to the Aeneid by actively silencing Virgil’s
doubts about the heroism of Aeneas and his de-
scendant Augustus? These are some of the valu-
able questions that this book by an influential
Harvard Latinist raises in making a case for the
intentional ambiguity of the Aeneid, which
overtly celebrates the actions of Aeneas, but im-
plicitly condemns his violence. The book refutes
the premise that Virgil’s chief aim as a poet was
to praise Augustus through Aeneas and argues
that a long tradition of poets, critics, and transla-
tors such as Horace, Servius, and John Dryden
have turned the Aeneid’s profound doubt into an
unequivocal celebration of Augustanism.
Thomas first demonstrates the ambivalence of
Virgil’s representations of Aeneas and Augustus
through close philological analysis, and then
shows how readers since antiquity have used the
tools of philology and hermeneutics to “cleanse”
the Aeneid of unsavory contradictions. Thomas
contends further that modem attention to the
non-Augustan voice in the Aeneid is not an
64 / Religious Studies Review Volume 30 Number 1 / January 2004

anachronistic brainchild of the anti-war move- sics. Hardie has astutely divided this Companion HYGINUS: FABULAE. Second revised edi-
ment in the 60s. but that isolated readers through- among three sections: four initial chapters on tion. Edited by P. K. MARSHALL. Munich: K.
out history have hearkened to the voices of resis- Contexts and History (such as Tarrant’s on G. Saur, 2002. Pp. xxi + 242. $54.50, ISBN
tance in the Aeneid. Although the book patches “Ovid and ancient literary history”); ten central 3-598-7 1237-5.
together evidence from disparate times, places, chapters on Themes and Works, which cover Hyginus is absolutely essential for the study
and traditions, it should be essential reading for Ovid’s entire poetic oeuvre and also topics like of ancient mythography, and Marshall’s first edi-
Latinists and highly recommended for students gender, myth, landscape, and narratology; and fi- tion (1993) was the only text we had that was
of western literature and civilization. nally six on Reception, which include English substantially free of errors. After Marshall’s
Stephen Wheeler translations of Ovid, his importance for the Mid- death in 2001, his notations to his first edition
Pennsylvania State University dle Ages and Renaissance, recent creative read- were forwarded to the publisher, and their incor-
ings as in the novel of Ramsmayr, and Ovid’s poration makes this new edition even more accu-
HORACE’S CARMEN SAECULARE: RIT- re-appearances in Renaissance painters such as rate, although the changes are slight enough that
UAL MAGIC AND THE POET’S ART. By Poussin, Titian, and Rubens (nicely illustrated). the first will still suffice for everyday purposes
Michael C. J. Putnam. New Haven, CT: Yale At the close of the twentieth century and the for all but specialists. I note thirty-four changes
University Press, 2001. Pp. 192. $30.00, ISBN dawn of the twenty-first, when Ovid attracts so to the text: fifteen minor corrections of spelling
0-300-08333-5. wide a response from Latinists and students of to match what is printed in F (= Moltzer’s 1535
Putnam’s text focuses on the Carmen later European Ovidianism, this volume, packed editio princeps, the basis for the text); thirteen
Saeculare as a majestic opus that has been ne- with information and creative criticism, consti- changes-the most important being the addition
glected by scholars and dismissed as a colorless tutes a basic necessity for any college library and of atque ita eos disfraxir after futmen misir in
and compulsory element in Augustus’ public for various courses on the Ovidian tradition. 3 1.3-to restore F’s readings where Marshall
ceremony: “The quality of the Carmen itself is William S. Anderson had (apparently) mistakenly followed H. J. Rose
evidence enough to disprove such a contention, University of California. Berkeley (1933); and six corrected typographical errors.
or to phrase matters more positively, to evince By my count fourteen additions were made to the
the poet’s honest commitment to his words and SATIRES OF ROME: THREATENING apparatus where attributions were omitted. Two
their optimistic tonality.” His defense of the POSES FROM LUCILIUS TO JUVENAL. new errors (ouluit for voluit in 3 I .6 and set etiam
Carmen gives readers a contextual survey of the By Kirk Freudenburg. New York: Cambridge for sed etiam in 69.6) were introduced in the pro-
poem’s significance; he compares the first three University Press, 2001. Pp. xviii + 289. Cloth, cess, which has also left some amateurish traces
books of the Odes to the Carmen, contrasts the $70.00, ISBN 0-521-80357-8; paper, $26.00, of photographic meddling, along with a mis-
poem with Horace’s other hymns and hymn-like ISBN 0-521-00621-X. matched apparatus and sectionnumber at 316-7.
odes, and examines the Hellenic writers whose This book looks at the three extant Roman These changes are not applied consistently (e.g.,
poems shaped the Carmen. The strongest contri- satirists, Horace, Juvenal, and Persius, in terms Ulixes has lost his -x- in most places where F has
bution to his argument, and the central focus of of two important influences: the ancient tradi- -ss-, but not at 96.3; bracchium has lost a “c” in
the book, is his close reading of the poem. tions of satire and hostile poetic speech (includ- most places to match the orthography of F, but
Putnam’s emphasis on the relationship between ing Lucilius’ fragments) and the political context not always), but the improvements are welcome.
topographical and temporal space vindicates in which these satirists wrote. Freudenberg’s Stephen M. Trzaskoma
previous claims of the poem’s dull content and readings are meticulously inter-textual, and we University of New Hampshire
tone. Putnam extends the topographical reading learn much here about Latin poetry and its Greek
to his study of the poem’s intertextual nature progenitors. Freudenburg’s greatest contribution AMBROSE DE OFFICIIS. Edited and trans-
with the work of several other Latin poets, in- to our reading of these satires is his thoughtful lated by Ivor J. Davidson. Oxford Early Christian
cluding Catullus, Vergil and Tibullus. The book consideration of how the loss of free speech that Studies. Two volume set. New York: Oxford
concludes with an overview of the use of carmen accompanied an increasingly totalitarian Roman University Press, 2001. Pp. xxv + 982. $200.00,
in the Carmen. Putnam’s examination of the state strangled the naturally oppositional im- ISBN 0- 19-924578-9,
Carmen Saeculare achieves its goal of thought- pulse of satiric speech. To understand the genre, Volume one contains an introduction and
fully reconsidering Horace’s text: instead of Freudenburg contends, one needs to see how sat- Latin text with facing English translation. Vol-
viewing the poem as a propaganda-driven survey ire’s outspoken opposition was rechannelled and ume two contains the commentary. In his thor-
of the emperor’s Rome, Putnam’s vision for Hor- distorted, but not quelled. Using the tools of a ough introduction, Davidson summarizes previ-
ace’s poetry claims that the poet could generate philologist and historian, Freudenburg offers ous theories and argues clearly for his positions
excitement about the new age Rome was enter- dazzling moments of analysis, such as his exem- on Ambrose’s purpose, (transformational) rela-
ing, while both maintaining his voice as an indi- plary treatment of Persius’ difficult prologue; his tionship to Cicero’s de OfJiciis, composition, au-
vidual and achieving a unifying monumentum. recreations of the poets’ own personae often dience, and socio-historical context, especially
Highly recommended. match satire’s mirth (Juvenal enters “armed in relating to Ambrose’s part in the Nicene-Arian
Jennifer Rea Lucilian battle-gear, failing to notice how over- controversy and late fourth-century politics and
University of Florida dressed he is”). The author’s evident sense that ecclesiastical life. Other sections treat the ques-
his thesis is revolutionary, however, leads to tion of the title, date, later influence, and
THE CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO some unhappy polemicizing, and his boisterous, Latinity. The Latin text is based on Testard’s
OVID. Edited by Philip Hardie. New York: spirited writing can bully the reader with asser- Bude, but with some changes. Although there is
Cambridge University Press, 2002. Pp. xvi + tions instead of persuading by argument. The no apparatus criticus, the commentary includes
408; illustrations. Cloth, $65.00, ISBN book, so embedded in the culture of Classics and discussion of some readings. The translation is
0-521-77281-8; paper, $23.00, ISBN its history of criticism, is not the place to begin a the first English translation since De Romestin’s
0-521-77528-0. study of Roman satire. But if the reader has al- (A Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fa-
Designed as a handbook to introduce the poet ready formed some opinions and impressions of thers of the Christian Church, second series, 10).
Ovid to a mature and literate audience, this book Horace, Juvenal, and Persius, then Davidson’s is freer and more fluid, attempting to
consists of twenty substantial chapters by some Freudenburg’s provocative and, in fact, often represent Ambrose’s style as well as content. It is
of the best Ovidian scholars of this time. Many, satirical treatment will make for a bracing and generally true to the meaning, adapting most of-
not all, contributors are former students at Cam- rewarding read. ten by adding emphasis, interpreting, or recon-
bridge, and their chapters exhibit the heady liter- Catherine Schlegel structing complex sentences. He does retain
ary language associated with Cambridge Clas- Notre Dame University “man” for “homo” and sometimes in the com-
Volume 30 Number 1 / January 2004
mentary, although he uses “person” in translat-
ing generalizing constructions. The commentary
gives a general introduction to each section fol-
lowed by detailed commentary on particular
(Latin) phrases or words. The notes, which are
clear and insightful, include comparative pas-
sages and discussion, especially of Cicero, clas-
sical philosophy, and other Christian texts, as
well as discussion of relationships to Ambrose’s
didactic purpose and his prior activities and to
contemporary issues. Davidson’s command of
Latin semantics and philology is also evident. In
general the commentary provides ample bibliog-
raphy for further study yet is complete in itself
for the needs of most readers. Volume two also
includes an extensive bibliography and four use-
ful indexes (Cicero-Ambrose, other ancient au-
thors, scripture, and general). Davidson exhibits
the rare combination of a thorough grounding in
both the classical tradition and early Christianity
of late antiquity. Indispensable for anyone
interested in Ambrose or the late fourth century.
Rebecca R. Harrison
Truman State University
THE NEOPLATONISTS: A READER. Sec-
ond edition. By John Gregory. New York:
Routledge, 1999. Pp. viii + 189. $28.95, ISBN
0-415-18785-0.
A thorough revision of The Neoplatonists
(Trafalgar Square, 1992) that focuses primarily
on Plotinus, with selected readings and transla-
tions about his views of the One and the Good,
the intellect, the soul, matter and evil, humans,
purification and virtue, beauty, intellectual con-
templation, and mystical union with the One.
Part two, “The Neoplatonists after Plotinus,”
deals with Porphyry, Iamblichus, and Proclus.
Part three is a short summary of the Neoplatonic
legacy. Judicious selections, crisp introductions,
and readable translations make this a helpful
reference and textbook, particularly on Plotinus.
Caterina Norlin-Brage
Alingsds, Sweden
A VIEW FROM THE PALATINE: THE
ZWENZUA OF THEODORE DE BfiZE. By
Theodore de Beze. Translated by Kirk M. Sum-
mers. Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Stud-
ies, 237. Tempe: Arizona Center for Medieval
and Renaissance Studies, 2001. Pp. xxxvi + 462.
$40.00, ISBN 0-86698-279-5.
An edition of the poetry of Theodore de Beze,
scholar and theologian, appeared first in 1548,
with other editions to follow during and after his
lifetime, the most recent in 1879.These later edi-
tions did not retain the entire range of content of
the first, which was often criticized for its youth-
ful indiscretions. Summers details the criticisms
and omissions and presents the 1548edition with
translation and commentary as “a foundation on
which others might build according to their own
expertise.” Beze’s poems are divided into five
sections: Sylvae, Elegies, Epitaphs, Icons, and
Epigrams. Summers opens each section with the
texts and translations on facing pages. The trans-
lations are uniformly fresh and appealing. An ap-
paratus to the Latin text reports variant readings,
although there are a few variations within the re-
porting (e.g., adfin. and adfinem; and omn. al.
edd. habent perhaps for cett.). The commentary
for each section follows the texts, and each opens
with an informative essay on the genre repre-
sented and its importance in the Renaissance.
The entry for each poem begins with a list of
which later editions omit the poem and which of
the anthologies include it. A general note for
each poem follows with additional commentary
on particular passages. The commentary en-
riches the reading and fills many gaps for the
reader which the text alone would leave. This
Beze should interest both the specialist for its de-
tailed reporting of Beze’s text and its fate and the
general reader for its translation and for placing
Beze and his Iuvenilia well within the context of
the Renaissance.
Bruce W. Swann
University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Christian origins
AN ANNOTATED GUIDE TO BIBLICAL
RESOURCES FOR MINISTRY. By David R.
Bauer. Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2003. Pp.
viii + 327. $16.95, ISBN 1-56563-723-2.
Contains critical and explanatory comments
on some 2,200 selected titles by 1,300 scholars.
Among the criteria for the choices is utility for a
Christian explanation of the Bible, with empha-
sis upon scholarly representatives of evangelical
persuasion. The major divisions are those of the
Bible as a whole, OT, early Judaism, and NT.
Minor divisions follow for the most part the indi-
vidual biblical books, together with entries for
bibliographical aids, periodicals, editions of the
original texts, grammars, concordances, biblical
theology, apocrypha-in short, all those ele-
ments that can help the uninitiated. Bauer makes
it clear that any endeavor such as this is bound to
be subjective. In this regard, it is well that he has
avoided a direct confrontation with a treatment
of the English versions. Be that as it may, his
treatise can be highly recommended for its in-
tended audience, which should include all but the
most professional of professionals.
Casimir Bernas
Holy Trinity Abbey
MOULTON AND GEDEN: A CONCOR-
DANCE TO THE GREEK NEW TESTA-
MENT. S i
xth edition. Edited by I. H. Marshall.
New York T & T Clark, 2002. Pp. xxi + 1,121.
$100.00, ISBN 0-567-08571-6.
This edition of Moulton and Geden (MG6) is
based on a text that “is normally that of UBS,”
i.e., the UBS fourth edition. In continuity with
previous editions, MG6 also indicates what
words are found in the texts of Tischendorf,
Westcott and Hort, and Souter’s version of the
text behind the English Revised Version, about
the same as the American Standard Version.
Religious Studies M e w / 65
MG6 has also adopted the orthography of UBS4.
All the entries from H. K. Moulton’s supplement
to MG5 (five prepositions, the conjunction hoti,
and particle o m ) are now integrated alphabeti-
cally into the main body of entries. Numbers
from Strong’s concordance placed at the begin-
ning of entries in MG5 have been removed, so
those without Greek will have difficulty using
MG6. While this edition is adapted to text critical
advances provided by UBS committees (e.g.,
brackets for textually contested material, such as
the long ending of Mark), it is inconsistent in en-
gagement with the intertextuality of NT authors.
Although the OT references of some composite
quotations are noted completely (Rom 9:27,33),
others are linked only to one OT text (Rom 11:8;
1 4 11-mad Isa 4523 instead of “Isa 54:23” of
MG6, p. 558). And while the new introduction
acknowledges that many of the OT quotations
come from the LXX, the concordance continues
to provide only the MT text for all these quota-
tions. Despite this infelicity, the sixth edition is a
welcome addition to our library of NT research
tools.
Mark Reasoner
Bethel College
NEW DOCUMENTS ILLUSTRATING
EARLY CHRISTIANITY, VOLUME 9: A
REVIEW OF THE GREEK INSCRIPTIONS
AND PAPYRI PUBLISHED IN 1986-87. Ed-
ited by S. R. Llewelyn. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans,
in association with the Ancient History Docu-
mentary Research Centre, Macquarie Univer-
sity, 2002. Pp. xvi + 136. $35.00, ISBN
0-8028-45 19-3.
In contrast to the three previous volumes,
whose contents were arranged topically, this lat-
est installment of “New Docs” groups its offer-
ings under the headings of Inscriptions, Papyri,
Judaica, and Ecclesiastica-an odd arrange-
ment, in that everything in the last two categories
is of course either an inscription or on papyrus.
The first category includes a number of entries
dealing with honorifics (e.g., savior, benefactor),
a theme carried over into the second category by
the discussion of a third-century BCE papyrus
whose multiple honorifics ascribed to a king in-
clude “living image of Zeus.” Other items touch
on a wedding invitation, “paying to the last far-
thing,” and the successful delivery of a child as
an “escape.” The third category includes the
(now well-known) Aphrodisias “god fearer” in-
scription with a nice summary of the debate and
bibliography, a reference to Jewish elders and
rulers (archons),and a marriage contract written
in Hebrew. The last category includes an addi-
tional fragment from the “Unknown Gospel”
(Pap. Egerton 2), a reference to the “trumpet of
God,” and three hymns, two to Christ and one to
Mary. In short, as is typical of the “New Docs”
series, there is something here for nearly
everyone.
Michael W. Holms
Bethel College
66 / Religious Studies Review
IN SEARCH OF THE EARLY CHRIS-
TIANS: SELECTED ESSAYS. By Wayne A.
Meeks. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press,
2002. Pp. xxviii + 314. $35.00, ISBN
0-300-09 142-7.
These essays, all previously published, are
not a melange but are assembled by the volume
editors, Allen R. Hilton and H. Gregory Snyder,
into a narrative about NT scholarship over the
past forty years. At the same time essays are ar-
ranged to show the maturation of Meeks’s
thought, which is given in a helpful overview in
an introduction by Meeks himself. Part one in-
cludes eight essays: “The Image of the
Androgyne: Some Uses of a Symbol in Earliest
Christianity”: “The Man from Heaven in
Johannine Sectarianism”; “Equal to God”; “The
Man from Heaven in Paul’s Letter to the
Philippians”; “Breaking Away: Three New Tes-
tament Pictures of Christianity’s Separation
from the Jewish Communities”; “‘And Rose Up
to Play’: Midrash and Parenesis in I Corinthians
1O:l-22”; “Judgment and the Brother: Romans
14:1-15:13”; and “The Circle of Reference in
Pauline Morality.” Part two includes two essays
on Meeks’s response to the work of G. Lindbeck
and B. Williams, a study of Romans 9-1 1, and the
“Vision of God and Scripture Interpretation in a
Fifth-Century Mosaic” (that of Senouphios’s vi-
sion). In an afterword Meeks reflects on the task
and practice of NT scholarship. An important
book for understanding Meeks’s work and the
development of scholarship on the social world
of early Christianity.
Fred W. Burnett
Anderson University
PAUL, LUKE AND THE GRAECO-RO-
MAN WORLD: ESSAYS IN HONOUR OF
ALEXANJIER J. M. WEDDERBURN. Edited
by Alf Christophersen, Carsten Claussen, Jorg
Frey and Bruce Longenecker. Journal for the
Study of the New Testament Supplement, 217.
New York: Sheffield Academic Press, 2002. Pp.
xvi + 290. $115.00, ISBN 1-84127-259-0.
The fourteen essays in this volume are di-
vided into three sections reflecting the distin-
guished honoree’s publication interests (Paul,
Luke, Graeco-Roman world): H. Raisanen on
Paul’s expectation of an earthly kingdom; R.
Bell on the myths of Adam and Christ (Rom
5:12-21); R. Jewett on “Impeaching God’s
Elect” (Rom 8:33-37); M. Thrall on “Paul’s mis-
sion in Corinth”; 0.Wischmeyer on “Paul’s reli-
gion”; H. Klein on Paul as a “craftsman”; c .
Hoegen-Rohls on new creation in Paul; F. Hahn
on soteriology in Ephesians and Colossians; D.
E. Aune on Luke 1: 1-4; D. Moessner comparing
the narrative epistemologies of Dionysisus of
Halicamassus and Luke; S. Porter on the Lukan
census; C. Wolf on tongues in Acts; R.
Bauckham on Jews with Latin names; and H.-W.
Kuhn on the Qumran meal and the Lord’s sup-
per. In a final essay J. Dunn engages “in dialogue
with A. J. M. Wedderburn” by addressing the lat-
ter’s notion of the “historical impasse” concern-
ing the resurrection, continuing a debate be-
tween the two scholars when they were col-
leagues at Durham University. A comprehensive
bibliography of Wedderburn’s works, compiled
by C. Claussen, concludes the book. This is a fine
collection of essays covering a diverse range of
important topics in Paul and Luke-Acts.
Richard S. Ascough
Queen’s Theological College
THE FORGOTTEN GOD: PERSPECTIVES
IN BIBLICAL THEOLOGY: ESSAYS IN
HONOR OF PAUL J. ACHTEMEIER ON
THE OCCASION OF HIS SEV-
ENTY-FIFTH BIRTHDAY. Edited by A. An-
drew Das and Frank J. Matera. Louisville: West-
minster John Knox, 2002. Pp. xv + 300. $24.95,
ISBN 0-664-22276-5.
After a foreword by Leander Keck, fifteen
contributors submit essays on a wide range of
biblical topics. Among them S. D. McBride, Jr.
(Pentateuch); J. L. Mays (Psalms): P. D. Miller
(Prophets); R. J. Clifford (Wisdom books): J. D.
Kingsbury (Mark); J. T. Carroll (Luke); F. J.
Moloney (John): P. Perkins (Corinthians): J. A.
Fitzmyer (Pastorals); H. W. Attridge (Hebrews);
D. E. Aune (Apocalypse). The concluding essay
by E. Achtemeier expounds the pastoral use of
the Bible in preaching and ministry; it contains
healthy reminders that the Bible is meant primar-
ily for the people, not for academics, while at the
same time passing over several fundamental
questions. For example, which church’s inter-
pretation of biblical faith and morals among so
many is the right one? Or again, did the Bible cre-
ate the church or vice-versa? This Festschrift,
unlike most, is blessedly non-technical, and
should prove of more interest to general readers
than to scholars.
Casitnir Bernas
Holy Trinity Abbey
THE CHALLENGE OF BIBLE TRANSLA-
TION: COMMUNICATING GOD’S WORD
TO THE WORLD. Edited by Glen G. Scorgie,
Mark L. Strauss, and Steven M. Voth. Grand
Rapids: Zondervan, 2003. Pp. 428. $29.99, ISBN
0-3 10-24685-7.
The eighteen essays in this Festschtft in
honor of Ronald Youngblood, noted evangelical
OT scholar and long-term member of the NIV
translation team, address issues of the theory,
history, or practice of Bible translation for the
most part. Essays of widest interest include “Are
Translators Traitors? Some Personal Reflec-
tions” (M. Silva); “Bible Translation Philoso-
phies with Special Reference to the New Interna-
tional Version” (K. L. Barker); “The Limits of
Functional Equivalence in Bible Transla-
tion-and Other Limits, Too” (D. A. Carson);
“Current Issues in the Gender-Language Debate:
A Response to Vern Poythress and Wayne
Grudem” (Strauss); “English Bible Translation
in Postmodern Perspective: Reflections on a
Critical Theory of Holistic Translation” (C. H.
Cosgrove); “Translation Was Not Enough: The
Ecumenical and Educational Efforts of James
‘Diego’ Thomson and the British and Foreign
Volume 30 Number 1 / January 2004
Bible Society” (K. A. Eaton); “That Fabulous
Talking Snake” (R. A. Veenker); “Slip of the
Eye: Accidental Omission in the Masoretic Tra-
dition” (D. N. Freedman and D. Miano); “Justice
andor Righteousness: A Contextualized Analy-
sis of Sedeq in the KJV (English) and RVR
(Spanish)” (Voth); “Translating John’s Gospel:
Challenges and Opportunities” (A. J.
Kostenberger); “‘Flesh’ in Romans: A Chal-
lenge for the Translator” (D. J. Moo); and “Faith
as Substance or Surety: Historical Perspectives
on Hypostasis in Hebrews 1 1 :1” (J. D. Smith 111).
In all a fitting and well-produced tribute.
Michael W. Holmes
Bethel College
RHETORICAL ARGUMENTATION IN
BIBLICAL TEXTS. Edited by Anders
Eriksson, Thomas H. Olbricht, and Walter
Uberlacker. Emory Studies in Christianity. Har-
risburg, PA: Trinity Press International, 2002.
Pp. xviii + 436. $47.00, ISBN 1-56338-355-1.
Twenty-three essays united in their focus on
the argumentation of texts (rather than on the ar-
rangement of texts or just the rhetorical figures
they use). Four essays deal explicitly with
method; two with the historical background of
the enthymeme in the first century BCE and the
first century CE, and letter writing in the
Greco-Roman world; two with argumentation in
the HB (Chronicles and 1 Kings 22); four on the
gospels (Luke-Acts, Matt 10, John 5, and
AmoslLuke); nine on the Pauline letters
(Romans; two on 1 Corinthians; two on 2 Corin-
thians; Galatians; Ephesians; Philippians, and
Colossians); one essay on Hebrews, and one on
the Acts of Peter and the Shepherd of H e m s .
They demonstrate that some knowledge of
Greco-Roman and modern rhetorical theories is
necessary for biblical scholars. But how much?
If a great deal of argumentation is implicit, how
do ancient and modem rhetorical theories help
one find embedded argumentation in texts?
What, if anything, is unique about argumentation
in the Bible that cannot be elucidated by non-bib-
lical rhetorical theories? What distinguishes a di-
dactic biblical text from an argumentative one?
This volume deals with these issues and more,
and it is crucial for any biblical interpreter.
Fred W. Burnett
Anderson University
THE NEW HISTORICISM. By Gina Hens-Pi-
azza. Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2002. Pp.viii
+ 94. $ I I .00,ISBN 0-8006-2989-2.
This slim volume in the Guides to Biblical
Scholarship series attempts to explain the impact
of New Historicism (now evidently dignified by
the use of upper case) upon biblical studies.
Originally, the province of university depart-
ments specializing in Renaissance literature,
New Historicism, according to Hens-Piazza, de-
fies precise definition. Is it a “trajectory,” a “set
of beliefs,” an “orientation”? For some it is
“unmethodological”; for others it is “steps,”
“strategies,” “stages.” Despite this confusion,
Hens-Piazza assures us that the situation is not
Volume 30 Number 1 / January 2004
hopeless: New Historicism resists overall expla-
nations of a text; it looks at the ephemeral, the in-
consequential, the easily overlooked issues lurk-
ing on the perimeter of texts. It sees within innoc-
uous biblical passages any number of diverse
hidden agenda-political, social, sexist, eco-
nomic. Hens-Piazza is short on specific biblical
examples of the New Historicism: cited are stud-
ies on gender and the Talmud; biblical violence
and gender; interpretations of Jonah. My judg-
ment: whatever the New Historicism as applied
to the Bible may be, it shows itself a self-ab-
sorbed product of academe, paying little or no at-
tention to the main function of the Bible, which is
not to be the plaything of academicians but a
dynamic source of life f o r church and
synagogue.
Casimir Bemas
Holy Trinity Abbey
NIETZSCHE UND DAS NEUE TESTA-
MENT. By Hans Hiibner. Tiibingen: J. C. B.
Mohr(Pau1 Siebeck), 2000. Pp.xi + 290. €24,00,
ISBN 3-16-147489-9.
A lecture in 2000 on the centenary of Nietz-
sche’s death provided Hubner with the inspira-
tion and impetus to proceed further and publish
this revised version of his discourse on certain
theological aspects of the philosopher’s opera.
After recounting a brief biography of Nietzsche,
Hubner expounds a number of his salient theo-
logical teachings with constant reference to the
texts themselves. Thus, the nihilism of Nietzsche
finds resonances in the OT, as in Ps 905-10 or
Koh 1:l-11, tociteonlyafewinstances.Further-
more, if there is a close connection between sin
and death (annihilation) in the OT, in the NT this
association is even more conclusive. Thus, in
Rom 5 :12, human beings as sinners are aban-
doned and become beings of nothingness. Noth-
ingness for Nietzsche and for the NT are, of
course, very different matters. An appeal to ver-
bal similarity is not enough, and Nietzsche’s pro-
foundly anti-Christian stance cannot be simply
brushed aside. Throughout Hubner’s treatise
there are cited many other similarities between
the thought of Nietzsche and that of the NT.
Hubner has done the reader a real service by his
positive assessments, couched in enthusiastic
language, on a philosopher who continues,
despite misunderstandings, to be hailed as one of
the most influential of modern thinkers.
Casimir Bemas
Holy Trinity Abbey
HORIZONTE NEUTESTAMENTLICHER
CHRISTOLOGIE. By Samuel Vollenweider.
Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen
Testament, 144. Tiibingen: J. C. B. Mohr (Paul
Siebeck), 2002. Pp. viii + 425. €89,00. ISBN
3-16-14779 1-X.
This book is composed of seventeen
exegetical essays that appeared in a variety of
journals during the 1990s.The consistent feature
of all of the essays is the integration of histori-
cal-philological reconstruction and
hermeneutical reflection on the significance of
the texts in the contemporary situation. In part
one the author examines Jewish monotheism and
traditions about wisdom, angels, and the image
of God as a background for earliest Christology.
He also focuses on the implicit Christology in the
exorcisms of Jesus that is exemplified in the fall
ofSatan(Luke 1018).Parttwogivesspecialem-
phasis to the experience of the believer in light of
the death and resurrection of Christ. After the ini-
tial essay on Paul’s view of time, Vollenweider
examines the experience of the Spirit and the
transformation of the believer in light of the
Christ hymn (Phil 2:6-11). Part three includes
three essays on the relationship among early
Christian eschatology, Gnosticism, and Platon-
ism. With the book’s excellent use of ancient
sources to illuminate biblical texts, it will be
valuable for scholars and advanced graduate stu-
dents.
James W. Thompson
Abilene Christian University
DIMENSIONS OF BAPTISM: BIBLICAL
AND THEOLOGICAL STUDIES. Edited by
Stanley E. Porter and Anthony R. Cross. Journal
for the Study of the New Testament, 234. New
York: Shefield Academic Press, 2002. Pp. xvi +
401. $160.00, ISBN 0-8264-6203-0.
An introduction by the editors precedes the
articles of nineteen contributors, divided into
three parts: Baptism in the NT, in the early
church, and in contemporary theology. H. Mar-
shall believes that not only the more usual baptis-
mal immersion but also affusion and even sprin-
kling were practiced in the early church. B.
Chilton argues that the mass baptism practiced
by John was anti-sectarian in that it contrasted
with the particularist baths of Qumran, Phari-
sees, Sadducees, and others. C. J. Ellis expounds
upon the baptism of disciples and the nature of
the church, using as his springboard diverse doc-
trines maintained by Baptist Christianity. J. B.
Green opines that the early missionaries’ conver-
sion of those living together under the same roof
established the household as the new cultural
focal-point for Christians. Testifying to the per-
petual interest in baptism, this entire collection
demands the attention of libraries specializing in
biblical, patristic, and theological research.
Casimir Bemas
Holy TrinityAbbey
CHARACTER AND SCRIPTURE: MORAL
FORMATION, COMMUNITY, AND BIBLI-
CAL INTERPRETATION. Edited by William
P. Brown. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002. Pp. xx
+ 440. $34.00, ISBN 0-8028-4625-4.
This volume extends and broadens ideas de-
veloped in Brown’s previous book, Character in
Crisis, collecting essays, almost all of them orig-
inal, by twenty-two distinguished scholars from
the fields of theological ethics and biblical stud-
ies. All the essays are united by the thesis that
biblical interpretation and the moral formation of
reading communities are concerns bound to each
other. Three introductory essays elaborate the
notion of ethics understood herein under the cat-
Rellgtous Studies Revim / 67
egory of character. These are followed by the
bulk of the collection, a series of essays that ap-
ply the idea of character to biblical topics andor
texts ranging from a case study of the character
of David to an illuminating discussion of the
character of God in Jeremiah to a character ethics
interpretation of the Puter Noster. The contribu-
tors uniformly avoid moralizing but instead
insightfully apply idea of character as a
hermeneutical category. There is not a weak es-
say in the collection. Each is imaginative and lu-
cid, and the volume richly deserves the wide
readership that is its intended audience. Up-
per-level undergraduates will find it accessible,
biblical scholars rewarding, and teachers of reli-
gious ethics illuminating, as will religious
educators. The volume should be in all seminary
andor religious studies libraries.
Merle D. Strege
Anderson University
HOLY WORD:THE PARADIGM OF NEW
TESTAMENT FORMATION. By J. Arthur
Baird. Journal for the Study of the New Testa-
ment Supplement, 224. New York: Shefield Ac-
ademic Press, 2002. Pp. 268. $95.00, ISBN
0-8264-6025-9.
From a manuscript left at Baird’s 1995 death,
this book, edited by C. A. Evans, S. E. Porter, and
S. N. Dolff, draws heavily upon his previous
writings and argues that the NT has an intrinsic,
theological unity that determined the history of
its formation. Baird claims that the NT canon de-
rives “naturally” and “inevitably” from the ac-
tual words of Jesus, memorized and venerated by
his earliest followers as the “living and abiding
Word.” The consensus of the early Christian
community recognized the sanctity of the Word,
and this established a trajectory along which
other NT materials, such as narratives, “the gos-
pel,” and paradosis, were then developed, with
more or less deviation from the Word, in the at-
tempt to counter heretical encroachments. Baird
claims that computerized content analysis of the
language of the gospels according to his method
of audience criticism provides scientific
evidence for his thesis. Includes indexes of
modern authors and ancient texts.
George Aichele
Adrian College
SCRIPTURAL ALLUSIONS IN THE NEW
TESTAMENT: LIGHT FROM THE DEAD
SEA SCROLLS. By Dale C. Allison, Jr. Dead
Sea Scrolls and Christian Origins Library, 5.
North Richland Hills, TX: Bibal Press, 2000. Pp.
x + 69. $13.95, ISBN 0-941037-78-9.
Six chapters are framed by an introduction
and summary of conclusions. Chapter two deals
with the descent of the Spirit “like a dove” at Je-
sus’ baptism. The Synoptics seem to allude to
44521 which, in turn, alludes to Gen 1:2. In
chapter three Allison concludes that the
Matthean typology of Jesus as the new Moses
has thematic allusions to several texts from
Qumran and ultimately to Deut 18:15, 18. In
chapter four Allison elucidates Matt 18:15-20 in
68 / Religious Studies Review
terms of comparison with 1QS 5:24-5:2, CD
9:2-8, and T. Gad 6:l-5. Chapter five deals with
the Sanhedrin’s questioning of Jesus in Mark
1453-65. Allison uses Zech 6:12-13; 2 Sam
7:12-16; 4QFlorilegium 1-3 and 4Q246 to sug-
gest that there is an allusional link between Je-
sus’ saying on the Temple (Mark 1458) and the
implication that he has claimed to be the Son of
God (Mark 14:61). In chapter six Allison shows
with a complex web of scriptural allusions that
early Christians recognized Jesus as the end-time
messenger who was particularly concerned with
the poor and the meek. Chapter seven deals with
allusions to Zech 9-14, the Psalms (22, 41, 69,
71) and Isaiah 53 in the Synoptic Gospels’ por-
trayals of Jesus approaching Jerusalem for the
last time. Although this book will be used by
scholars, it is very appropriate for a student
audience.
Caterina Norlin -Brage
Arlingsds, Sweden
EARLY JUDAISM: THE EXILE TO THE
TIME OF JESUS. By Frederick J. Murphy.
Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 2002. Pp. xviii +
414. $34.95, ISBN 1-56563-087-4.
A revised version of Murphy’s The Religious
World of Jesus: An Introduction to Second Tem-
ple Palestinian Judaism (Abingdon, 1991), the
new title suggests a subtle shift of emphasis away
from Jesus to the Judaism that formed him, al-
though the actual material contained herein has
not significantly changed. Among the topics
treated a brief history of Israel before, during,
and after the exile; the Hellenistic period; the
world of apocalyptic; Qumran, the Pharisees,
and other sectarian assemblies; Roman influ-
ence; the person and mission of Jesus; the Jewish
revolt. Murphy does well to include Christianity
within the purview of “early Judaism.” The bibli-
ographies are excellent. In sum, we have here a
competently written textbook for beginners that
explains in jargon-free language the accepted
wisdom of mainline scholarship taken from
many disparate historical sciences on the issues
in question. Although experts may quibble about
the significance of numerous points, the overall
portrait of early Judaism is presented here with
sympathy and depth. Murphy’s study brings to a
wider audience the hackneyed realization that
Christianity arose as a Jewish sect and that Jesus
was truly a man of his time and place.
Casirnir Bernas
Holy Trinity Abbey
PHIL0 OF ALEXANDRIA: ON THE CRE-
ATION OF THE COSMOS ACCORDING
TO MOSES. By David T. Runia. Philo of Alex-
andria Commentary Series, 1. Leiden: E. J. Brill,
2002. Pp. xviii + 443. $120.00, ISBN
90-04-12169-2.
Runia is convinced that the OpiJ is the open-
ing work of Philo’s series on the laws of Moses.
His commentary first gives a literary analysis of
the place of each chapter in the entire corpus.
Second, the main themes of each chapter are
summarized and elucidated in light of both Jew-
Volume 30 Number 1 / January 2004
ish and Greek thought. Detailed comments on
concepts and terms in Philo form the bulk of each
chapter, and selected intertextual connections to
other philonic, biblical, and philosophical texts
are made. Runia gives his own translation and
provides a suggested bibliography in each sec-
tion. On the vexed question of Philo’s Sirz im
Leben. Runiaupholds Philo’s commitment to Ju-
daism, but his Judaism is so sui generis that it is
difficult to conclude much about it. Runia does,
however, discuss some rabbinical materials, par-
ticularly Genesis Rabbah. Much more intelligi-
ble is Philo’s Hellenism, and Runia concludes
that Philo was very well versed in Platonism,
Stoicism, Aristotle’s main doctrines, and skepti-
cism. “Philo writes .. . like an educated Greek,”
and his “erudition is thus broad and often genu-
inely profound.” An excellent and very helpful
first commentary in this series on Philo’s major
works.
Fred W. Burnett
Anderson University
THE LOST LETTERS OF PERGAMUM: A
STORY FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT
WORLD. By Bruce W. Longenecker. Grand
Rapids: Baker, 2003. Pp. 192. $14.99, ISBN
0-8010-2607-5.
This is a fictional account using the genre of
letters to illuminate part of the world of early
Christianity. As good historical fiction, how-
ever, it is based upon good historical and
socio-cultural biblical scholarship in order to il-
luminate the social, political and normal ways of
life in the first century. The main character of the
narrative is Antipas, who is mentioned in Rev
2: 13, and the story tells of the political and social
circumstances that culminated with Antipas’
martyrdom. The book is helpful on two levels: it
is engaging fiction, and it illuminates a plausible
view of the world in which early Christians lived.
Many of the historical circumstances and con-
clusions that Longenecker follows are those of
B. Witherington 111 in New Testament History
(reviewed in RSR 28:37 I), and they would make
excellent complementary textbooks in a course
on the origins of Christianity. The fictional and
factual weave should spark imaginations and
substantive discussions. Very helpfully, there
are three appendixes with separate maps of the
Mediterranean world, Judea and Galilee, and
Pergamum; a list and description of the charac-
ters; and a summary of the fictional and factual
aspects of each letter. An enjoyable and
informative read.
Fred W. Burnett
Anderson University
PAUL AND JESUS: THE TRUE STORY. By
David Wenham. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002.
Pp. 195. $20.00, ISBN 0-8028-3983-5.
Librarians be warned: this is an Ameri-
can-purchased edition of a SPCK book. That is
not bad in itself, but the volume was produced in
England. It is not on acid-free paper and has a
fall-apart binding. Thus any library copy will
need to be rebound before lending. Substan-
tively, the work will be useful to someone who
may have to study for a series of Bible studies or
for a set of sermons. Nothing in it is original or
challenging, but it is well crafted and unambigu-
ous. Essentially, the volume is a harmonization
of Paul’s letters, the gospels, and Acts. Implic-
itly, it is a rejection of most modem scholarship
on the relationship of Paul and Jesus and of the
disjuncture between Acts and Paul’s epistles.
The book can safely be given to Sunday school
teachers without any danger of upsetting them.
Donald Hannan Akenson
Queen’s University
FAITH IN JESUS AND PAUL: A COMPARI-
SON WITH SPECIAL REFERENCE TO
“FAITH THAT CAN REMOVE MOUN-
TAINS” A N D “YOUR FAITH H A S
HEALEDBAVED YOU.” By Maureen W.
Yeung. Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum
Neuen Testament 11, 147. Tubingen: J. C. B.
Mohr (Paul Siebeck), 2002. Pp. 341. $97.50,
ISBN 3-16-147737-5.
Yeung argues that Paul’s teaching about faith
derives from Jesus’ own ideas. She first focuses
on Jesus’ talk about faith that can move moun-
tains, arguing that Paul’s similar expression in 1
Cor 13:2 must be dependent on Jesus’ saying,
since there exist no other satisfactory parallels.
Yeung then turns to Jesus’ saying “Your faith has
healedsaved you,” suggesting that his words
represent a call for faith in himself and an offer of
inclusion to outcasts. This finds resonances in
Paul’s inclusion of Gentiles among the “children
of Abraham.” Yeung’s suggestive study often at-
tempts to prove too much too quickly. Even if
one accepts that these sayings originated with Je-
sus, it is difficult to see why Yeung has chosen to
focus on only two. The core of her study involves
a broad thematic examination of faith in Paul
which would be better compared with a similarly
broad treatment of Jesus’ thinking. The book is
also riddled with grammatical errors. Many ad-
vanced students will find the author’s proposals
worth pursuing further, and her challenge to the
usually sharp distinction between “miracle
faith” and “salvation faith” is well taken.
Yeung’s overall thesis, however, will need both
clarification and further confirmation.
Ian W. Scott
King‘s College, University of
Western Ontario
PETER: THE MYTH, THE MAN AND THE
WRITINGS: A STUDY O F EARLY
PETRINE TEXT AND TRADITION. By Fred
Lapham. Journal for the Study of the New Testa-
ment Supplement Series, 239. New York: Shef-
field Academic Press, 2003. Pp. xii + 276.
$120.00, ISBN 0-8264-6214-6.
Originating as a doctoral thesis presented to
the University of Wales, this study attempts to
draw a portrait of Peter and his teaching through
the use of numerous second-century texts
(long-known or recently discovered) that go be-
yond the sparse evidence presented by the NT it-
self. To this end, Lapham acquaints the reader
Volume 30 Number 1 /January 2004
with pertinent themes from the Gospel of Peter,
Acts of Peter, Pseudo-Clementines, Apocalypse
of Peter, and other apocryphal writings, besides
the canonical First and Second Epistles of Peter
(for Lapham, both these last-mentioned are
pseudonymous). The treatise as a whole (written
in a lucid style) provides an excellent compen-
dium of the interplay between the canonical and
apocryphal writings in their depiction of the per-
son and work of Peter-ceding neither too much
nor too little to either side of the coin. Lapham is
interested less in what actually happened than in
what tradition says happened-an entirely de-
fensible position that short-circuits many a con-
troversy. All in all, one of the better recent stud-
ies of Peter, although I hardly believe that Paul
was one to “jettison both reason and law” in
order to accommodate Jews and Gentiles in the
church.
Casimir Bernas
Holy Trinity Abbey
WHICH MARY? THE MARYS OF EARLY
CHRISTIAN TRADITION. Edited by F. Stan-
ley Jones. Society of Biblical Literature Sympo-
sium Series, 19. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Lit-
erature, 2002. Pp. x + 141. $29.95, ISBN
1-58983-043-1.
This collection of seven essays, originating
with the 2000 meeting of the SBL, deals with the
various Marys found in Christian apocryphal lit-
erature. After a brief introduction and summary
by the editor, the contributors ply their academic
specialities. Several of their contributions are
briefly mentioned here. S. J. Shoemaker studies
the identity of the gnostic Mary (Mary Magda-
lene or Mary of Nazareth?) and urges caution be-
cause of the many ambiguities presented by the
relevant texts. Jonathan Knight treats of Mary of
Nazareth in the Ascension of Isaiah; its author
and the canonical Gospel of Matthew probably
used customary patterns of information in dis-
similar fashions, a phenomenon of the highest
importance in evaluating the worth of the Ascen-
sion in the development of early Marian tradi-
tion. G. T. Zervos attempts to expand and modify
the position of Knight by the use of the
Protevangelium of James in his article ‘Seeking
the Source of the Marian Myth: Have We Found
the Missing Link?” On the whole, the volume is a
worthy contribution to scientific Marian studies
based upon solid textual research.
Casimir Bernas
Holy Trinity Abbey
MARY MAGDALENE, THE FIRST APOS-
TLE: THE STRUGGLE FOR AUTHORITY.
By Ann Graham Brock. Harvard Theological
Studies, 5 1. Cambridge, MA: Harvard Univer-
sity Press, 2003. Pp. xviii + 235. $25.00, ISBN
0-674-00966-5.
Throughout this published form of her Har-
vard dissertation, Brock pursues several ques-
tions: What is an apostle? In what sense does
Mary Magdalene fit the definition? Who exer-
cises authority in the church? Making good use
of the secondary literature, together with her own
discriminating application of the apocryphal
writings inspired by the NT, Brock presents a co-
herent picture of authority in the early church
and the contentious challenges and controversies
that saw the gradual eradication of any claim to
apostolic authority on the part of women (as ex-
emplified by Mary Magdalene in her role as re-
cipient of resurrection appearances). Still other
topics treated: apostolic authority in the canoni-
cal and apocryphal gospels; rivalry between the
depictions of Peter and Mary Magdalene; the
turning point in the power to influence or com-
mand in the church. One may quibble with de-
tails (for example, I would question whether
Martha’s words in John 11:27 refer to the divin-
ity of Jesus), but as a whole Brock has produced a
workable analysis of widely disparate texts that
should be of service to the professionals for
whom it is mainly intended.
Casimir Bernas
Holy Trinity Abbey
THE PLACE OF THE GOSPELS IN THE
GENERAL HISTORY OF LITERATURE.
By Karl Ludwig Schmidt. Columbia, SC: Uni-
versity of South Carolina Press, 2002. Pp. xxxiii
+ 88. $24.95, ISBN 1-57003-430-3.
Form criticism and the issues that it raises for
research into the gospels and the historical Jesus
will simply not go away, as this publication of
Schmidt’s 1923 essay attests. Just when the ma-
jority of gospel critics think that it is “an assured
result” that the NT Gospels are within the pale of
ancient biographical narratives, Schmidt’s influ-
ential essay reemerges to argue that the NT gos-
pels are 1) unique among the literature of the an-
cient world; 2) not a form of ancient biography
but “folk-literature,” which 3) are not the result
of authorial creativity but of different communi-
ties’ religious lives. The only sense in which the
gospels are “biographical” is in the same sense as
collections of folk-legends such as those of
Faust. Still, on the whole, “questions of tradition
and composition can be answered with greater
certainty for a Faust-book than for the gospels.”
The frameworks in which gospel writers have
placed the sayings and legends are not only sec-
ondary but are almost historically and theologi-
cally worthless, since “the collectors of these
pieces did not emphasize the framing [or the
framework].” Schmidt’s essay raises key issues
that students of the gospels, particularly graduate
students, will want to reexamine.
Fred W. Burnett
Anderson University
THE DISCIPLES IN NARRATIVE PER-
SPECTIVE: THE PORTRAYAL AND
FUNCTION OF THE MATTHEAN DISCI-
PLES. By Jeannine K. Brown. Academia
Biblica, 9. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Litera-
ture, 2002. Pp. xii + 171. $29.95, ISBN
1-58983-048-2.
A revised dissertation (Luther Seminary,
2001, directed by Arland Hultgren) that “offers a
narrative-critical reading of Matthew focused on
the disciples’ characterization.” Brown makes
Religious Studies Review / 69
contributions on both the theoretical level (in
terms of a theory of characterization) and the
exegetical level (about the Matthean disciples).
In terms of characterization theory, Brown fol-
lows the generally accepted view that in ancient
literature, and particularly in biblical literature,
characters were more types and narrative func-
tions than they were personalities in any modem
sense of the term. She does allow for thepossibil-
ity of some individual portrayal that does not
serve the plot, but she focuses primarily on the
disciples as plot functionaries. Brown analyzes
the disciples in Matthew at the story and dis-
course levels and in their effect upon the implied
reader. In contrast to most redaction and narra-
tive critics, Brown’s overall conclusion about
the Matthean disciples is that they are not just
“weak,” i.e., that they have “little faith,” but that
they truly misunderstand Jesus’ teaching and, on
that basis, do not fulfill their mission. A solid
contribution to characterization in the gospels
and to Matthean scholarship.
Fred W.Burnett
Anderson University
HEARING MARK: A LISTENER’S GUIDE.
By Elizabeth Struthers Malbon. Harrisburg, PA:
Trinity Press International, 2002. Pp. xi + 114.
$13.00, ISBN 1-56338-379-9.
Scrupulously written, this book is scholarly
but not for scholars. With particular “communi-
ties” of readers in mind, this work is specifically
for “laity in Christian churches.” Thus, Malbon
employs a style suited to oral presentations-fa-
miliar, direct and witty-in order to engage her
assumed audience and emphasise the aural quali-
ties of her subject, Mark’s gospel. Her work fol-
lows the Mar@ narrative in a thematic fashion.
We are introduced to the themes of kingdom,
community, discipleship, and suffering, which
Malbon identifies in the text. Her approach is in-
formed by historical and ecclesiastical sensibili-
ties, and by paraphrasing the original text.
Malbon does get what she wants: a captive audi-
ence paralleling those of the first century. Fur-
thermore, the liturgically styled prayers that
open and close each chapter serve the purpose of
rooting the hearing of Mark in confessional
grounds. Malbon’s flair and reverence for the
gospel of Mark are inspiring, and her new book
reminds us all of the multifaceted value of
biblical text in general and the devotional
character of Mark’s gospel in particular.
Liliana M.Nutu
University of Shefield
BEYOND FEAR AND SILENCE: A FEMI-
NIST-LITERARYREADING OF MARK. By
Joan L. Mitchell. New York Continuum, 2001.
Pp. xiii + 152. $17.95, ISBN 0-8264-1354-4.
Mitchell’s book is an interesting study that
engages with the silence of the female characters
in Mark 16:8 and their continued muted state in
the Christian canon and subsequent biblical in-
terpretation. Mitchell suggests that the Markan
narrative suspends the three women (Mary Mag-
dalene, Mary the mother of James and Joses and
70 / Religious Studies Review
Salome) in fear and “unspeakable, numinous si-
lence” for rhetorical purpose; that the original
ending of Mark offers a “much needed model of
catechesis that calls its hearers to participate in
interpreting the story and performing its com-
mission,” while the Matthean and Lucan treat-
ments of the story subordinate the female eye-
witnesses to their male counterparts and dilute its
rhetorical power, thus creating a synthetic sepa-
ration between the text and its later readers. Con-
sidering the women’s experience of the
mysterium tremendum to be the true beginning of
the dissemination of the gospel, Mitchell pro-
poses an “intergenerational” reading of Mark
16:8, where feminist suspicions find a voice and
the women significant roles as faithful disciples
of Christ. Mitchell’s work is a valuable
contribution to biblical studies.
Liliana M. Nutu
University of Shefield
SLAVE OF ALL: THE PARADOX OF AU-
THORITY AND SERVANTHOOD IN THE
GOSPEL OF MARK. By Nany F. Santos. Jour-
nal for the Study of the New Testament Supple-
ment Series, 237. New York: Sheffield Aca-
demic Press, 2003. Pp. xii + 337. $ 1 30.00, ISBN
0-8264-6225- 1.
In a revision of his 1994 dissertation, Santos
defines paradox as a departure from accepted
opinion and as an apparently self-contradictory
statement. Mark 8:35, 9:35, and 10:43-44 state
Mark’s key paradox, that the way of authority is
the way of service, variously, while the dis-
courses in Mark 8:36-38,9:36-50, and 10:45 ex-
plore it metaphorically. These discourses call
disciples and readers to “lose their life for Jesus’
sake” by eschewing cultural notions of honor
and authority and by becoming a slave of all
through accepting the insignificant and the
stranger, forsaking family and property, and fol-
lowing the example of Jesus. In Santos’s reading,
Mark I : l-8:2 I stresses Jesus’ authority, and
Mark 1 1 :1 - 1 6 3 emphasizes his service, but
Mark 8:22-1052 (and its key discourses) dem-
onstrates the connection of these two apparently
contradictory statements. Attending to narrative
critical and rhetorical concerns, Santos’s ap-
proach is a reader-response study quite like that
pioneered by R. Fowler (Loaves and Fishes
[Scholars Press, 19811, and Let the Reader Un-
derstand [Philadelphia: Fortress, 19911). While
Santos’s readers, like the Markan disciples,
struggle to accept the Markan paradox, they are
adept, idealized reader-critics in whom the text’s
intention reaches its fulfillment. In Santos’s
story of disciple-readers, reading never goes
awry.
Richard Walsh
Methodist College
THE LOST COIN: PARABLES O F
WOMEN, WORK AND WISDOM. Edited by
Mary Ann Beavis. The Biblical Seminar, 86.
New York: Sheffield Academic Press, 2002. Pp.
344. $29.95, ISBN 1-84127-313-9.
Volume 30 Number 1 / January 2004
From a variety of feminist perspectives, these
sixteen essays deal with “women parables” un-
der five headings. Part one (‘“Lost’ Parables of
Women”) includes separate essays on Luke
15%-9(L. Maloney), Luke 15: 10 (Beavis), Luke
18:2-5 (M. W. Matthews, C. Shelley and B.
Scheele), Matt 25:l-13 (V. Balabanski), and
Luke 15: 1 1b-32 (Beavis). Part two (“Parables of
Women’s Work”) includes Mark 2:21-22, Matt
9:16-17, and Luke 5:36-37 (P. Perkins);
“Women’s Work in the Realm of God” by H.
Hearon and A. C. Wire (Matt 6:28-30; 13:33;
Luke 12:27-28; 13:20,2 1 ;and GosThom 36.96);
GosThom 97 (K. Blessing); GosThom 22 (K.
Nash); and Luke 12:41-45 (D. Core). Part three
(“Johannine Metaphors of Mother and Bride”)
includesJohn3:l-10; 16:21-22(K.Rushton)and
John 3:29 (A. Reinhartz). Part four (“Parables of
WisdodSophia”) includes Matt 23:37-39 (E.
Guillemin); Matt I1:28-30 (E. M. Humphrey);
and Matt 11:16-19 and Luke 7:31-35 (B. E.
Reid). Part five is a engaging tale of earth-based
spirituality (C. L. Weber). A foreword (E.
Schussler Fiorenza) and an introduction
(Beavis) preface the collection. An indispens-
able collection both for feminist methodologies
and for filling the exegetical lacuna about the
lives of women in the ancient Mediterranean
world generally and the Jesus movement in
particular.
Fred W. Burnett
Anderson Universiry
DAS ALTE TESTAMENT BE1 LUKAS. By
Dietrich Rusam. Beihefte zur Zeitschrift fur die
neutestamentliche Wissenschaft und die Kunde
der alteren Kirche, 1/2. Berlin: Walter de
Gruyter, 2003. Pp. xiv + 570. €128,00. ISBN
3- 11-0 17524-X.
After an obligatory history of research, this
200 1 Bonn Habilitationsschri~has seven chap-
ters: 1) the Jesus narrative as part of the portrayal
of the Lukan pre-history; 2) the meaning of no-
mos; 3) the mainly proleptic definition of the ful-
fillment of scripture; 4) the mainly analeptic def-
inition of the fulfillment of scripture; 5) the rea-
son for the necessary rejection of the Christian
gospel by the Jews; 6) the function of quotation
in narrative texts of other ancient authors; and 7)
the OT in the Lukan narrative (summary). A bib-
liography and index conclude the book. The au-
thor’s research on the OT in Luke-Acts is a study
of the origin, character, use and interpretation of
allusions and explicit quotations from Israel’s
graphai. One important hermeneutical concern
of the “Auctor ad Theophilum” is to show that
there is continuity from Israel’s rejection of its
prophets to the rejection of Jesus and the destruc-
tion of the temple. Luke tries to convince the
readers of the plausibility of this new, prophetic
way of understanding scripture. All in all, this is
a very useful book, which should be on the
bookshelves of every theological library.
Gerbern S. Oegema
McGill University
THE CANONICAL FUNCTION OF ACTS:
A COMPARATIVE ANALYSIS. By David E.
Smith. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2002.
Pp. 136. $15.95, ISBN 0-8146-5103-8.
The title echoes (and Smith cites)
Brennemans’s definition of canonical function:
“how a community interpreted a tradition for its
own ... setting.” This is not, however, the book’s
primary focus. Smith instead adopts as his “oper-
ative principle” J. Sanders’ “principle of value,”
which generates two key questions: “What is it
about Acts that secured for it a place in the patris-
tic canon? Ofwhat value was it to the developing
catholic network of churches?” Smith’s thesis
and conclusion: “Acts functioned ... both as the
unifier of the developing biblical canon and as a
justification for the episcopal claims of
hermeneutical authority because of its
pneumatology.” That is, “Acts provided the or-
ganizing centerpiece for the primary catholic
collection of religiously authoritative texts
through its unification of the canonical and ec-
clesiastical authorities (the prophets, Jesus, Jeru-
salem apostles, Paul, and ‘bishops’) by means of
the Spirit.” He arrives at this conclusion via an
examination-the book’s main contribution-f
the function of Acts in the polemics andor theol-
ogy of Irenaeus, Tertullian, Cyril of Jerusalem,
Chrysostom, and Bede. But in a discussion that
so emphasizes (especially in anti-Gnostic po-
lemics) the unifying role of the pneumatology of
Acts, the absence of any mention of Montanism
is a surprising (but certainly not the only) omis-
sion, many of which seem due to the brevity of a
book that asks or raises many more questions
than it answers, ultimately distracting from its
central contribution.
Michael W. Holmes
Bethel College
PAUL OF TARSUS. By T. R. Glover. Peabody,
MA: Hendrickson, 2002. Pp.xi + 256. $19.95,
ISBN 1-56563-728-3.
This reprint of the 1925 original is offered
without any introductory essay or bibliographic
updates and preserves the original typeface and
pagination. Paul of Tarsus is an exploration of
the life and writings of Paul within the context of
Greco-Roman religion and culture. Glover as-
serts, “In the story of the Christian church two
men stand out, qualified beyond others by genius
and experience, to understand Paul-Augustine
and Luther,” and although there is much “new”
material, Glover questions, “whether it really
matters at all, compared with the insight, which
in Augustine and Luther was given by God and
developed in life. Genius rather than scholarship
is the touchstone by which to test genius.”
Glover’s thesis takes on a new, possibly ironic,
significance in this reprint. Glover’s text is at
odds with any “New Perspective” on Paul, out of
dialog with current classics scholarship on the
“decline” of Greek religion, finds Paul unique
among his peers, and suggests Christianity was
energetically innovative and distinctive. Paul of
Tarsus will be of most interest and use to schol-
Volume 30 Number 1 / January 2004
ars of the history of NT criticism and Paul. It is
not suitable as an introductory textbook.
Robert Paul Seesengood
Drew University
PAUL: THE FOUNDER OF CHRISTIAN-
ITY.By Gerd Ludemann. Amherst, NY: Prome-
theus, 2002. Pp. 292. $22.00, ISBN
1-59102-021-2.
In this short introduction to Paul’s life and
thought Ludemann argues that Paul, not Jesus, is
responsible for the pattern of later Christianity.
Positively, Ludemann affrms Paul’s Jewish-
ness, and his revisionist chronology of the apos-
tle’s life deserves close consideration. Less hap-
pily, Ludemann returns to a psychological expla-
nation of Paul’s “conversion” in terms of a sup-
pressed sense of inadequacy, and many will con-
test the suggestion that such reductionism is un-
avoidable for the critical historian. Ludemann’s
argument for Paul’s radical break with Jesus is
likewise based on a characterization of the apos-
tle’s attitude toward Torah as a rejection of Juda-
ism. Yet this does not take into account the affin-
ity between Paul’s position and earlier impulses
in places like Antioch or the variety of Jewish at-
titudes to Torah. Finally, despite Ludemann’s
opening claim to offer a sympathetic reading of
Paul, his liberal use of quotations from such
anti-Pauline writers as Porphyry and Nietzsche
are representative of what seems to be a perva-
sive suspicion of the apostle. All of this makes
Ludemann’s book a poor introduction to Paul for
the student audience toward which it seems to be
aimed. It is more valuable as an entrke for ad-
vanced students into Ludemann’s more
specialized writings.
Ian W. Scott
King’s College, University of
Western Ontario
NARRATIVE DYNAMICS IN PAUL: A
CRITICAL ASSESSMENT. Edited by Bruce
W. Longenecker. Louisville: Westminster John
Knox, 2002. Pp. vi + 253. $24.95, ISBN
0-664-22277-3.
This interesting collection of essays explores
the viability of using narrative criticism to un-
derstand Paul’s letters. Each essayist tests the
claim that “The discourse of Paul’s letters ... is
best understood as the product of an underlying
narrative bedrock.” A diverse range of scholars,
and not simply those predisposed to be favorable
towards the method, were invited to produce pa-
pers on five narrative components of Paul’s the-
ology: God and creation, Israel, Jesus, Paul, and
“prior stones.” Each essay also gives particular
attention to Romans and Galatians. The collec-
tion includes five contributors (E. Adams,
Longenecker, D. Campbell, J. Barclay, and A.
Lincoln), each with a respondent (B. Matlock,
M. Hooker, G. Stanton, D. Horrell, and H. Mar-
shall), and two assessors of the whole volume (J.
Dunn, and F. Watson). This laudable collabora-
tive approach, described in Longenecker’s intro-
duction, results in a mixture of acclaim and re-
straint for applying n m t i v e criticism to Paul
and leads to the conclusion that a narrative ap-
proach is of limited, albeit interesting, help in un-
derstanding Paul’s theology. The book will ap-
peal to Pauline specialists and those interested in
hermeneutics.
Richard S. Ascough
Queen ’s Theological College
NEW CREATION IN PAUL’S LETTERS
AND THOUGHT. By Moyer V. Hubbard. Soci-
ety for New Testament Studies Monograph Se-
ries, 119. New York: Cambridge University
Press, 2002. Pp. xii + 293. $60.00, ISBN
0-521-8 1485-5.
Hubbard contradicts the trend of reading
“new creation” cosmologically, reasserting
an anthropological interpretation. Jubilees
and Joseph and Aseneth are the primary
comparative materials. Hubbard admits that
the cosmological horizon of new creation is
dominant in apocalyptic but believes it is
because this literature typically offers a so-
lution to “a pessimistic appraisal of the his-
torical situation.” Joseph and Aseneth
offers a different (i.e., anthropological) so-
lution because it addresses “a pessimistic
appraisal of the human condition.” Part two
argues that Paul’s new-creation statements
should b e understood in the theological
context of his death-life symbolism and cul-
tural anthropology’s analysis of life-crisis
rituals. New creation is, therefore, a biologi-
cal analogy that speaks about human trans-
formation (i.e., anthropological). Part three
is an exegesis of 2 Cor 5:17 and Gal 6:15
(note the order). Hubbard finds no evidence
for a cosmological reading in either text: It
is not the world that has changed, but peo-
ple. Making k i n e ktisis the criterion for iso-
lating the featured Pauline texts while
suspending the criterion to include Joseph
andAeseneth as the mediator between Jubi-
lees and Paul indicates the study’s anthro-
pological bias. That said, this is a fine,
well-argued book.
James C. Walters
Boston University School of Theology
BELLY AND BODY IN THE PAULINE
EPISTLES. By Karl Olav Sandnes. Society for
New Testament Studies Monograph Series, 120.
New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
Pp.xiv + 318. $60.00, ISBN 0-521-81535-5.
Sandnes’s examination springs from his in-
terest in Pauline texts that link the belly to idola-
try. He sets out to demonstrate that Paul is rely-
ing on a recognized rhetoric of the belly and sup-
ports that claim with evidence from a wide selec-
tion of ancient sources, including Greco-Roman
comments from medical and philosophical liter-
ature (with a separate chapter on Epicureanism)
and references to banquets in Philo and other
Hellenistic Jewish sources. Next, the book takes
up Paul’s three uses of the belly topos (Phil 3: 19;
Religious Studies Redew / 71
Rom 16:18;and 1 Cor 6: 13), then assesses patris-
tic interpretations of these same three passages.
In addition to providing a valuable compilation
of relevant ancient sources on the belly, the book
advances an exegetical argument. Sandnes dem-
onstrates the stock role of belly in a cultural dis-
course about greed and control of the passions,
but refutes its use by Paul in polemics against
Jewish dietary laws. He argues that Paul is draw-
ing on that topos, and, further, that Paul has
integrated it into his own larger, coherent
theology of the body.
Colleen A. Shantz
University of St. Michael’s College
ENCOUNTERING THE BOOK OF
ROMANS A THEOLOGICALSURVEY. By
Douglas J. Moo. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2002. Pp.
230. $24.99, ISBN 0-8010-2546-X.
This highly accessible college-level textbook
by a leading evangelical scholar makes a valu-
able contribution to Baker’s Encountering Bibli-
cal Studies series. The book is organized in seven
sections with nineteen chapters, including an in-
troduction that conveys Moo’s understanding of
Romans’ overall purpose. Throughout his sec-
tion-by-section exposition of the letter, Moo pro-
vides a so-called “modified Reformation ap-
proach” to Romans that affirms the importance
of traditional themes such as divine sovereignty,
individual salvation, freedom from Torah obser-
vance and social harmony within the Christian
community. Students and instructors will appre-
ciate the clear statements of chapter objectives,
study questions, illustrations and sidebars. Those
who seek a more thorough analysis and exposi-
tion by this author should consult his substantial
commentary in the NICNT series (Epistle to the
Romans, Grand Rapids: Eirdmans, 1996).
David Charles Aune
Ashland University
IL TEMPO CHE RESTA: UN COMMENT0
ALLA LETTERA A1 ROMANI. By Giorgio
Agamben. Torino: Bollati Boringhieri, 2000. Pp.
177; Appendix of interlinear (Greek and Italian)
selections from Paul’s letters; bibliography;
name index. €18,08, ISBN 88-339-1254-X.
Agamben, a philospher from the University
of Verona (famous among English readers for his
Homo Sacer), provides a needed antidote to the
neglect of time as a significant philosophical is-
sue in Romans. It is not an exegetical,
verse-by-verse commentary of the whole letter,
but rather a philosophical argument on Paul’s
presentation of messianic time in Romans. The
first six chapters of this volume, “The Time that
Remains,” are organized around the six days of
creation. Each of these chapters receives a head-
ing from the prescript of the letter: first day,
Paulos dodos christo Iesou; second day, kletos;
third day, aphorismenos; fourth day, apostolos;
fifth day, eis euaggelion theou; sixth day, eis
euaggelion theou again; and finally the seventh
chapter, “Soglia o tornada” (perhaps “Threshold
or Recapitulating”). The author, depending
heavily on W. Benjamin, argues that Paul’s idea
72 / Religious Studies Review
of messianic time must become our understand-
ing of historical time. Among other things, mes-
sianic time means that the identities of the person
Jesus Christ and communities who follow him
are erased in the messianic time in which all live
“as not” ( 1 Cor 7:29), expecting salvation in the
present time (ho nun kairos), with political im-
plications. The work is dedicated to J. Taubes
and seeks to continue Taubes’s reading of
Romans, thus showing sensitivity to Jewish con-
cerns. This volume needs to be translated into
English. For those who cannot wait, it is avail-
able in French: Le Temps qui reste: U n
commentaire de I’Eph-e aux Romains (trans-
lated by J. Revel; Broche, 2000).
Mark Reasoner
Bethel College
WHERE IS BOASTING? EARLY JEWISH
SOTERIOLOGY AND PAUL’S RESPONSE
IN ROMANS 1-5. By Simon J. Gathercole.
Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002. Pp. xii + 311.
$32.00, ISBN 0-8028-3991-6.
This study is directed against the New Per-
spective on Paul and Judaism. More than half of
the book explores the soteriology of early Juda-
ism, arguing against E. P. Sanders that the texts
strongly emphasize eschatological vindication,
based not only on election but also on obedience
to the Torah. Thus Paul in Romans 1-5 is attack-
ing a Jewish confidence in obedience to God, not
just a boasting in national distinctiveness, as the
New Perspective has maintained. At the same
time, Gathercole shows that the traditional Lu-
theran assumption of Jewish insecurity is also
wrong. In essence, Gathercole argues for a more
complex view of Jewish soteriology, and this
seems generally right. He maintains that in
Romans 1-5 Paul’s point is that only through the
transforming power of Christ can any human be-
ing be found obedient in the final judgment. The
strength of this book is its more adequate under-
standing of the Jewish material, but the
exegetical work on Romans leaves a number of
vexing questions. This is an important
contribution to the study of Pauline theology.
David W. Kuck
United Theological College of the
West Indies
CONFLICT IN CORINTH: REDEFINING
THE SYSTEM. By C. K. Robertson. New York:
Peter Lang, 2001. Pp. 257. $57.95, ISBN
0-8204-5569-5.
Robertson’s book provides a substantial
addition to the methodological analysis of 1
Corinthians. A strong case is made for
intra-church conflict in the Corinthian com-
munity derived from members’ overlapping
and competing relational networks (new
church members who operate simulta-
neously in two or more networks such as the
household, the civic gathering, the civic
courts, collegia, religious cults, and syna-
gogues). Networks of involuntary depend-
ence (e.g., the household relationship
Volume 30 Number 1 / January XW4
remaining between true siblings such as a
Christian and a non-Christian brother) have
not been properly perceived or analyzed by
traditional linear thinking. Systems analysis
concerning the familial structures of the
ekklzsiu proves more illuminating. Paul’s
role is to provide “conflict management”
and to teach and structure the community to
do its own “conflict management.” Robert-
son illustrates his method and analysis by
examining the conflict evident in the civic
court cases alluded to in 1 Corinthians 6.
The book is well written, defines terms well,
and moves through the stages of method
clearly. Robertson’s innovative framework
and paradigm now cast much doubt on stud-
ies of 1 Corinthians that seek to find a single
underlying cause to manifestations of con-
flict at Corinth.
Rollin A. Ramsaran
Emmanuel School of Religion
PHIL0 AND PAUL AMONG THE SOPH-
ISTS: ALEXANDRIAN AND CORIN-
THIAN RESPONSES TO A Walker must explain that Paul was in aposi-
JULIO-CLAUDIAN MOVEMENT. Second
edition. By Bruce W. Winter. Grand Rapids:
Eerdmans, 2002. Pp. xix + 302. $32.00, ISBN
0-8028-3977-0.
In the first edition (Cambridge University
Press, 1997) Winter cogently argued that there
was a mid-first-century sophistic movement and
that its elucidation could help explain the
socio-rhetorical context of Corinthians and of
Philo’s portrayal of sophists. In turn, Winter
shows that both Paul and Philo are important
sources for understanding the development of a
Second Sophistic movement (see the review in
RSR 25: 195). Winter feels that several publica-
tions subsequent to his first edition have both
supported his original conclusions and have
greatly broadened the general picture of
first-century education and sophistry (e.g., T.
Morgan, Literate Education in the Hellenistic
and Roman Worlds [Cambridge University
Press, 19881; and particularly M. Alexandre,
Jr.’s Rhetorical Argumentation in Philo of Alex-
andria [Scholars Press, 1998, reviewed in RSR
26:289]). In light of these works and the remarks
of his own reviewers, Winter has revised (really
expanded) his conclusions on Philodemus’ rhet-
oric and on 2 Corinthians 10-13, and he has in-
cluded new material (particularly a study of ora-
tors in l Thess l and 2: 1-8, which seem to pro-
vide an analogous life-situation for 1 Cor 2: 1-5).
He has also updated his notes and bibliography.
This book grows more important with each new
edition.
Fred W. Burnett
Anderson University
PAUL’S OFFER OF LENIENCY (2 COR
1O:l): POPULIST IDEOLOGY AND RHET-
ORIC IN A PAULINE LETTER FRAG-
MENT. By Donald Dale Walker.
Wissenschaftliche Untersuchungen zum Neuen
Testament 11,152. Tubingen: J. C. B. Mohr (Paul
Siebeck), 2002. Pp. xvi + 443. $105.00, ISBN
3- 16-147891-6.
Walker’s exhaustive work concerning
the phrase in 2 Cor 1O:l most often trans-
lated as “through the meekness and gentle-
ness of Christ” (NRSV) argues that the
Greek pruutzs kai epeikeias is more appro-
priately translated “leniency and clem-
ency.” Walker excels at exploring the larger
semantic field for these words, particularly
when they are used in tandem in antiquity.
He shows that this language is generally
used by or in reference to rulers who exer-
cise self-restraint in the use of their author-
ity. It is in the application of this broader
meaning to Paul’s situation that Walker is
less successful. Walker must first argue that
Paul’s Christology has the kingship of
Christ as a central theme. He relies chiefly
upon Phil 2:6-11, Rom 1:3-4, and 1 Thess
4: 13-18; all passages (he concedes) whose
authorship likely is pre-Pauline. Next,
tion of enough authority in this letter (2 Cor
10-13) to offer the Corinthians clemency,
despite the fact that Paul concurrently de-
scribes himself as humble, weak, and un-
skilled. Walker’s unconvincing response is
that Paul is utilizing a rhetoric of modesty.
This book should prove valuable to Pauline
scholars for its semantic research, but not
for its subsequent argumentation.
L.eeA.Johnson
Methodist Theological Schoo! in Ohio
EPHESIANS: AN EXEGETICAL COM-
MENTARY. By Harold W. Hoehner. Grand
Rapids: Baker, 2002. Pp. xxix + 930. $54.99,
ISBN 0-8010-2614-8.
This is a massive and clearly written
stand-alone commentary on Ephesians, without
rival as far as exegetical detail is concerned. No
stone is left unturned. Pauline authorship is
staunchly defended. The author’s stated aware-
ness of the limited value of word studies does not
keep him from pursuing them in great number
and detail. The same applies to syntactical classi-
fications. Some new exegetical suggestions are
made, although they are well buried in the sheer
mass of detail provided. The literature consulted
is wide ranging and multiple approaches to
exegetical problems are introduced. Sometimes
such proposals are mentioned and then ignored
without offering specific reasons. There are
eight excurses on theological aspects of Ephe-
sians. However, as with most commentaries, lit-
tle or no theological synthesis of the letter as a
whole is offered. The exception is an introduc-
tory section of seven pages which brings some
classic systematic theological classifications to
bear on Ephesians. One might have wished for
less grammatical and lexical detail and more
Volume 30 Number 1 / January 2004
synthetic reflection, especially following the
exegetical sections. Scholars will want to use this
commentary as a reference tool. Students will
turn to it as a useful example of old-fashioned
lexical and syntactical exegesis.
Thorsten Moritz
Bethel Seminary
DAS WELTBILD DES EPHESERBFUEFES.
By Rainer Schwindt. Wissenschaftliche
Unterswhungen zum Neuen Testament 11, 148.
Tiibingen: J. C. B. Mohr (Paul Siebeck), 2002.
Pp. xiii + 649. €119,00, ISBN 3-16-147848-7.
At 640 pages this may not look like an
abbreviated version of a doctoral thesis, but
that is precisely what it is. It was acceptedas
such by the University of Trier. The reader
is presented with an extremely detailed and
tightly argued case for placing Ephesians on
a trajectory somewhere between Paul and
the Gnostics of the early second century.
This is based on the thesis that one of the
main achievements of Ephesians is to pro-
claim the church as a new kind of
duimonion which confronts the cosmic evil
powers with the plZroma of divine salva-
tion. The assumption is that a writer who en-
visions such a specific role for the church
postdates the apostle. The range and use of
little known primary sources is impressive,
although it is not always clear that these
sources can actually bear the weight placed
on them by the author, especially since their
sheer diversity in setting and background is
not always accountedfor. Having said that,
the author has added some important details
to our understanding of the theology of indi-
vidual passages in Ephesians. The style of
writing is advanced and requires that read-
ers have a close familiarity with academic
German.
Thoisten Moritz
Bethel Seminary
1 PETER, JUDE, AND 2 PETER. By Donald
P. Senior and Daniel J. Harrington. Sacra Pagina
Series, 15. Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press,
2003. Pp. xv + 315. $39.95, ISBN
0-8146-5817-2.
For Senior, 1 Peter is a pseudonymous writ-
ing, a circular letter, that plausibly was produced
in Rome during the period 75- 100 as a message
of encouragement for Christians who were under
stress and duress by being spiritually and so-
cially estranged from the community in which
they lived. The letter, immersed in traditional
Christian thought and language, and written in a
good Greek style, is a call to perseverance and a
convinced attestation to the Christian faith at a
time of covert, if not overt, persecution. For Har-
rington, Jude and 2 Peter are likewise pseudony-
mous writings, dating in this case from the late
f m t to the early second century. Although both
documents are presented as letters, Jude is in re-
Religious Studies Review / 73
ality a homily, while 2 Peter (dependent on Jude tradition (Did. 1-6) that was “taken over by early
and not vice-versa) qualifies as a testament. The Christians.” The Greek form of it appears in sev-
place of 2 Peter in the development of early eral early Christian documents such as the Letter
Christianity is important on two counts: its posi- of Barnabas. The earliest form or archetype of
tion in the recent debates on “early Catholicism,” the Two Ways tradition in Christian literature is
and its teaching regarding the delay of the The Doctrina Apostolorum. The evidence points
parousia. The bibliographies furnished by Senior to a Two Ways manual that circulated independ-
and Harrington are imposing and helpful. De- ently from its later use by Christians. The au-
spite the plethora of excellent commentaries on thors’ reconstruction of the “Greek Two Ways”
these NT writings, the Sacra Pagina series for (GTW) manual is a thoroughly Jewish document
which Senior and Harrington write demands, that is similar to apocalyptic thought at Qumran,
willy-nilly, to be complete, and they have particularly the Manual of Discipline. The GTW
accomplished the task. document is concerned with maintaining purity
Casimir Bernas and exclusiveness, and it is strongly represented
Holy Trinity Abbey in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew. Mat-
thew’s emphasis on the Two Ways suggests that
THE NEW INTERPRETER’S BIBLE VOL- both Matthew’s community and Jesus himself
UME W: HEBREWS,JAMES, 1 & 2 PE- worked in life-situations that were “preceded or
TER,1,2, & 3 JOHN, JUDE, REVELATION. prepared in the history of this hassidic milieu.”
Edited by Leander E. Keck Nashville: An important book for Christian origins.
Abingdon, 1998. Pp. xix + 748; 8 color plates. Fred W. Burnett
$60.00,ISBN 0-687-27825-2. Anderson University
This final volume in the series follows the
same format as the previous volumes: an intro- THE APOSTOLIC TRADITION: A COM-
duction with the basic issues of setting, date and MENTARY. By Paul F. Bradshaw, Maxwell E.
authorship, theological themes, an outline of the Johnson, and L. Edward Phillips. Hermeneia.
literary structure, a suggested bibliography, and Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2002. Pp. xviii +
translations in the NTV and NRSV of discreet 249. $47.00, ISBN 0-8006-6046-3.
textual units, followed by commentary and re- This is a masterpiece of historical-, redac-
flections. Scholars include F. B. Craddock (He- tion-, and tradition-critical detective work. The
brews); L. T. Johnson (James); D. L. Bartlett (1 authors offer a critical appraisal o f the
Peter); D. F. Watson (2 Peter; Jude); C. C. Black compositional history of The Apostolic Tradi-
( 1 , 2 , 3 John); and C. C. Rowland (Revelation). tion, arguing that the final text represents a com-
Excurses are “Suffering in 1 Peter”; “The House- plex history of development. As such they build
hold Tables”; “‘Fornication’ and Idolatry”; on the earlier studies which read The Apostolic
“God‘s Throne, the Heavenly Merkabah, and the Tradition as a composite work, spanning several
Human Figure”; ‘The Tribulations of the Messi- centuries, representing independent and geo-
anic Age”; ‘TheFall in 1 Enoch”;“The Parousia graphically distinct liturgical and theological
in the NT”; “The Millennium”; and “Biblical traditions. For the first time, all the textual wit-
Suspicion of the Temple.” Expanded reflections, nesses are laid out in parallel columns in literal
charts and/or outlines include “The Circuit of English translation. While the authors agree that
Love in 1 John”; “The Seven Churches of Reve- the Latin translation is probably closest to the
lation”; ‘The Sequence of Seven Seals, Trum- original text, they identify places where that
pets, and Bowls”; “Hearing and Seeing in the translation reflects later liturgical and theologi-
Book of Revelation”; “Roman Emperors 49 cal interests. They insist that the relative age and
BCE-138 CE”;and “OT and Other Texts Alluded witness of the document’s various passages to
to in Revelation.”This volume will be most help early traditions must be argued on a case by case
ful to those who expound the NT theologically, basis, which the substance of the commentary
but it will aid scholars as well. seeks to do. They thus offer what has been miss-
Fred W.Burnett ing in earlier studies: “a comprehensive com-
Anderson University mentary on each chapter of the document, and
within that commentary ... what the textual his-
THE DIDACHE: ITS JEWISHSOURCES tory of the various chapters might have been.” In
AND ITS PLACE IN EARLY JUDAISM doing so they have offered an indispensable
AND CHRISTIANITY. By Huub van de Sandt study that will be the definitive commentary for
and David Flusser. Compendia Rerum years to come.
Iudaicarum ad Novum Testamentum, 5. Minne- Harry 0.Maier
apolis: Fortress Press, 2002. 4. xviii + 431. Vancouver School of Theology
$58.00, ISBN 0-8006-3471-3.
A source- and redaction-critical investigation WHAT IS GNOSTICISM? By Karen King.
of the Didache that elucidates its trajectory from Cambridge, MA: Belknap (Harvard University
a Jewish-Christian to a Gentile-Christian com- Press), 2003. Pp. xii + 343. $29.95, ISBN
munity seeking an identity that is distinct from 0-674-0107 1-X.
Judaism. This trajectory best explains the “Why is Gnosticism so hard to define?” An-
Didache’s strongly Jewish flavor alongside ele- swer: “there was and is no such thing as
ments that seem to be anti-Jewish. The Gnosticism.” The rest of the book consists of a
Didache’s main source is a Jewish Two Ways post-colonialist and postmodern critique of those
74 / Religious Studies Review
who have attempted to write about Gnosticism,
from the ancient heresiologists, to Hamack and
his theory of acute Hellenization, to some of the
scholars of the History of Religions School, to
W. Bauer, H. Jonas, and C. Colpe, and to the
scholars working with the Nag Hammadi texts.
Most of them (including myself) are accused of
skewing their studies out of an apologetic at-
tempt to define the boundaries of Christianity, a
characterization which is patently absurd. King
predicts that “the term ‘Gnosticism’ will most
likely be abandoned.” She concludes the book
with a Note on Methodology, in which she con-
fesses that her approach is influenced by M.
Foucault and P. Bourdieu. Those interested in an
answer to the question posed in the title of this
book are advised to look elsewhere.
Birger A. Pearson
University of California, Santa Barbara
THE MANDAEANS: ANCIENT TEXTS
AND MODERN PEOPLE. By Jorunn
Jacobsen Buckley. American Academy of Reli-
gion, The Religions Series. New York: Oxford
University Press, 2002. Pp. xv + 200. $45.00,
ISBN 0-19-515385-5.
The Mandaeans (“Gnostics”) represent the
sole survivors of the ancient Gnostic religion.
Many of them have left their homes in the marsh-
lands of Iran and Iraq and migrated to the US and
Europe. Buckley, who has studied the
Mandaeans since the late sixties, has become one
of the few real experts in their religion today.
What is especially interesting about her latest
book is that much of it is based on extended con-
tacts with real people, including Mandaeans liv-
ing in Iran, California, New York, and Sweden.
In her study of colophons of Mandaean manu-
scripts she has discovered that the earliest at-
tested Mandaean scribe was a woman who lived
ca. 200 CE.This book is divided into three parts.
The first part deals with Mandaean origins and
mythology, the second with Mandaean ritual life
(baptism, Tabahata Masiqta, and the initiation of
a tarmida), and the third with “native hermeneu-
tics.” This book is required reading for students
of ancient Gnosticism, but it will also be of inter-
est to anyone interested in the comparative study
of religions, ancient and modem.
Birger A. Pearson
University of California, Santa Barbara
History of
chrisuanity
A BRIEF HISTORY OF HEAVEN. By Alister
E. McGrath. Blackwell Brief Histories of Reli-
gion. Oxford: Blackwell, 2003. 4. x + 203;
plates. Cloth, $54.95, ISBN 0-631-23353-9; pa-
per, $1 l .99, ISBN 0-63 1-23354-7.
This first volume in a new series of popular
texts surveys prominent images of heaven in
Christian art, music and literature and explores
associated theological concepts. The opening
Volume 30 Number 1 / January 2004
chapters focus on the depictions of heaven as the
city of the New Jerusalem and as the garden of
paradise. Chapter three explores the doctrine of
the atonement. Chapter four focuses on the long-
ing for heaven expressed in poetry and other lit-
erature with special attention to the writings of C.
S. Lewis. Chapter five highlights the “consola-
tion of heaven,” including a treatment of
Feuerbach, Marx, and Freud who debunk the
“dream of heaven.” The final chapter draws on
scripture and spirituality to establish the theolog-
ical foundations of heaven as “the goal of the
Christian life.” One blooper on p. 8 (corrected on
p. 175): “Assyrians” should be “Babylonians”
(who destroyed the first temple). Equipped with
a list of works consulted and an index, it lacks
any notes for the many citations given in the text.
This engaging study, although repetitious in
parts, is recommended for anyone interested in
the notion of heaven and could serve as an
undergraduate text in religious and cultural
studies courses.
Peter J. Bernardi
Loyola University, New Orleans
SACRED TRACKS: 2,000 YEARS OF
CHRISTIAN PILGRIMAGE. By James
Harpur. Berkeley: University of California
Press, 2002. Pp. 192; plates. $29.95, ISBN
0-520-23395-6.
This history of Christian pilgrimage gives a
basic and largely reliable summary of its origins,
its medieval heyday, its decline in modernity,
and its remnants today. Along the way, Harpur
pauses to explain the phenomenon’s traditional
grounding in the doctrines of sin, penance, and
purgatory, as well as its intimate connection with
sainthood and relics. Lavish color illustrations
and lively, lucid prose give the volume sparkle
and spirit. Although the author is not an expert,
he has in my judgment read surprisingly far into
the best scholarly literature on the subject.
Denis R. Janz
Loyola University, New Orleans
A BRIEF HISTORY OF HERESY. By G. R.
Evans. Blackwell Brief Histories of Religion.
Oxford: Blackwell, 2003. Pp. xvi + 195; plates.
Cloth, $54.95, ISBN 0-631-23525-6; paper,
$11.99, ISBN 0-631-23526-4.
This second volume in a new series of popu-
lar texts surveys the history of heresy, introduc-
ing readers to the problems of heresy, schism and
dissent in the history of Christianity. The author
has served on the Church and Order Advisory
Group of the Church of England and specializes
in medieval church history. In seven chapters the
author deals with the “boundaries of orthodoxy,”
the classifying of heresies and their social chal-
lenge, and the responses to heresy. Wyclif (d.
1384) and Hus (d. 1415) are highlighted as
“whistle-blowers,” opposed to ecclesiastical es-
tablishment. This very readable study is marred
by some outright errors and erroneous impres-
sions: Maximus the Confessor was a staunch op-
ponent, not supporter of the Monothelite heresy;
the Catholic doctrine of transubstantiation also
rejected Radbertus’s literal “physicalism”; nep-
otism is confused with simony; the generally
critical treatment of the papacy, commencing
with Pope Gregory VII’s centralization, is silent
about the Bishop of Rome’s constructive role in
first millennium controversies including the
Easter date controversy and Pope Leo’s inter-
vention at the Council of Chalcedon. Lacking,
also, is an adequate treatment of false teaching in
the NT. Provocative questions are posed about
the unity of faith, the limits of dissent, and the
requirements of Church order. Notes,
suggestions for further reading, and an index are
included.
Peter J. Bernardi
Loyola University, New Orleans
History of
Christianity
(through Early
Modern Period)
THE TREASURE CHEST OF THE EARLY
CHRISTIANS: FAITH, CARE AND COM-
MUNITY FROM THE APOSTOLIC AGE
TO CONSTANTINE THE GREAT. By David
Batson. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2001. Pp. xvi
+ 128. $18.00, ISBN 0-8028-3945-2.
Batson’s book offers a fresh look at the social
work of the early church, a community of faith
deeply concerned for providing relief for the des-
titute. After pointing out the need to discard pre-
suppositions and assumptions resulting from two
thousand years of Christian history, he provides
the general reader-his targeted audience-with
an insightful and thorough journey through the
complex historical, political, cultural, and reli-
gious settings within which the care for the poor
and afflicted took shape. From an overview of re-
lief work in the ancient world, to a reflection on
Hebrew and Judaic traditions from Joshua to the
Talmud, to an analysis of NT and patristic writ-
ings, Batson maps out the steps leading to the ori-
gins, developments, and consolidation of Chris-
tian social action that became the envy of the Ro-
man world and the model for subsequent genera-
tions, up to the present. The emphasis on social
action leads Batson to omit theologically ori-
ented documents. For example, he quotes occa-
sional remarks from Cyprian’s treatise concern-
ing works and alms but never mentions
Cyprian’s eighth treatise entirely devoted to that
subject.
Paul Ciholas
Danville. KY
WRITING THE WRONGS: WOMEN OF
THE OLD TESTAMENT AMONG BIBLI-
CAL COMMENTATORS FROM PHIL0
THROUGH THE REFORMATION. By John
L. Thompson. New York: Oxford University
Volume 30 Number 1 / January 2004
Press, 2001. Pp. xv + 288. $52.00, ISBN
0-19-5 13736-1.
Thompson has written a fine book that seeks
to engage the critiques of feminist biblical schol-
ars regarding the assumed silence of the tradition
about Trible’s “texts of terror.” This project is
perfect for the history of exegesis. Answering a
particular question for which the method is ex-
traordinarily apposite, the method and the book
shine. Thompson examines the exegetical tradi-
tion from the f m t century through the sixteenth
on Hagar, daughter of Jephthah, and the Levite’s
concubine from Judges 19, supplemented by the
story of Lot’s daughters from Genesis 19.
Thompson demonstrates that the Christian and
Jewish exegetical traditions display significant
resources for considering these, frequently dis-
closing the author’s discomfort or h o m r with
the message of the text. If there is a weakness, it
is his supplementing one story by another. The
reader may wonder whether treatment of the
daughters of Lot gives enough to speculate how
the Levite’s concubine would have been treated.
Thompson acknowledges this, but includes it be-
cause of the tradition’s linkage of the two texts.
Besides proving its point, the book acquaints the
audience with some of the riches of the
exegetical tradition, and warns against too-facile
critiques of an unknown heritage.
R. Ward Holder
Saint Anselm College
THE PERZ PASCHA ATTRIBUTED TO
MELITO OF SARDIS: SETTING, PUR-
POSE AND SOURCES. By Lynn H. Cohick.
Brown Judaic Studies Series, 327. Providence,
RI: Brown University Press, 2000. Pp.x + 187.
$39.95, ISBN 1-930675-03-8.
Cohick makes a forceful argument for a sig-
nificantly revised view of the setting and context
for the Peri Pascha. She begins by challenging
the widely held presumption that we in fact know
author and provenance. She ultimately rejects
the two most widely held views that the text
should be seen either against the background of a
flourishing Jewish community in Sardis in the
second century or as an outgrowth of the
Quartodeciman controversy. Having “cleared
the ground” Cohick reconstructs the context by
focusing on the biblical quotations and tracking
their sources. This analysis leads Cohick to con-
clude that the proper “context” for the homily is
not social but theological. This conclusion thus
shifts the framework for approaching the text to
one that focuses on the history of the interpreta-
tion of biblical texts. This book is an important
contribution to the study of this influential early
Christian text.
C. Thomas McCollough
Centre College
CHRIST IN THE EARLY CHRISTIAN
HYMNS. By Daniel Liderbach. Mahwah, NJ:
Paulist, 1998. Pp. vii + 153. $14.95, ISBN
0-8091-3809-3.
Christian doctrines did not appear on the
scene of the early church ready made. Under the
guidance of the spirit, the worshiping commu-
nity expressed its beliefs not only in theological
debates but also in the composition of hymns
which closely mirrored its faith in both christol-
ogyfrom above and in a christologyfrom below.
But those hymns also reflected regional perspec-
tives, historical developments, and sectarian ten-
dencies, and were often the result of the social
and cultural environment of the early church.
Liderbach masterfully analyzes the dialectical
tension between the more authoritative teaching
of the church and the spontaneous response of
the community of believers, pointing out how the
“rule of faith” might be viewed in different his-
torical periods by different theologians. From
Nicaea to Chalcedon, and especially in the con-
text of the theological difficulties created by
Arianism, the “rule of faith,” the guiding princi-
ple for former hymns, found new vitality in its
foundation in tradition, church teaching, scrip-
tures, and patristic thought. The evolution of new
hymns allowed for the expression of the mystery
of humanity and divinity of Christ during a
spiritually tensive period.
Paul Ciholas
Danville, KY
LA BIENFAISANCE ET LES AUMdNES:
INTRODUCTION, TEXTE CRITIQUE,
TRADUCTION, NOTES ET INDEX. By
Cyprien de Cartha e. Introduction by Michel
!
Poirier. Paris: Les ditions du Ced, 1999. Pp.
203. €26,00, ISBN 2-204-06240-5.
French reading scholars will welcome this bi-
lingual (Latin and French) edition of Cyprian’s
De opere et eleemosynis (On Works and Alms).
The expert French translation by Poirier, to-
gether with a splendid introduction, copious and
helpful notes, and scholia on Cyprian’s handling
of biblical material provide a useful resource for
the understanding of alms in the early church.
Poirier summarizes Cyprian’s position lucidly:
Alms should not rest primarily on philanthropy,
nor even on a moral imperative, but on the re-
demptive divine dementia. Works and alms,
when modeled on Christ, belong to the very es-
sence of Christian faith and provide the founda-
tion for a theology of salvation and for the purifi-
cation of life through the atonement for past and
post-baptismal sins. Poirier also contends that
the Pauline tenet of justification by faith does not
contradict Cyprian’s view of salvation by works
and alms. Cyprian’s treatise, probably delivered
first as a homily, does not refer to political, so-
cial, or natural circumstances that caused the
specific needs for the works and alms he so
fervently advocates.
Paul Ciholas
Danville, KY
THE CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO AU-
GUSTINE. Edited by Eleonore Stump and Nor-
man Kretzmann. New York:Cambridge Univer-
sity Press, 2001. Pp. xiv + 324. Cloth, $59.95,
ISBN 0-521-65018-6; paper, $21.95, ISBN
0-521-65985-X.
Religious Studies Review / 75
This excellent collection of eighteen chapters
offers a broad spectrum of the best of North
American, and to a lesser extent European, Au-
gustinian scholarship. The collection is espe-
cially strong on the philosophical side of Augus-
tine’s thought. After an introductory chapter on
Augustine’s “times and lives,” by J. O’Donnell,
four chapters treat Augustine’s philosophy of re-
ligion, three each his metaphysics and theology,
his philosophy of mind, and his philosophy of
knowledge. The last four chapters deal with Au-
gustine’s philosophy of language, ethics, politi-
cal philosophy, and the Augustinian Fortleben.
All chapters are synthetic in nature, clear and
well written, and contain notes that refer to the
essential texts of Augustine. There is also a basic
bibliography. This book, which should be in ev-
ery scholarly library, can easily be used for
graduate courses on Augustine’s thought.
Guy G. Stroumsa
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
THE GRACIOUS GOD: GRATIA IN AU-
GUSTINE AND THE TWELFTH CEN-
TURY. By Aage Rydstrom-Poulsen. Copenha-
gen: Akademisk Forlag, 2002. Pp. 555. DKr.
460, ISBN 87-500-3675-0.
A meticulous study of Augustine’s theology
of grace and its impact on and creative develop-
ment during the twelfth century, all too insuffi-
ciently appreciated by historians preoccupied
with theologians of the thirteenth-century
Hochscholastik on their way to understanding
grace as supernature. The author champions a
twofold thesis: first, the twelfth-century defini-
tion of grace as remission of sins is a central
theme in Western theology from mid-fourth cen-
tury through Augustine, or into a twelfth-century
Augustinian renaissance that echoes his
anti-Pelagianism and rejection of synergism;
second, the Lombard’s doctrine of grace as the
Spirit indwelling us was not deviant, as some
contended, but authentically Augustinian. Au-
gustine was mentor second to none in the twelfth
century. The first break in the Augustinian tradi-
tion comes with Anselm, whose approach is less
biblical, more philosophical. Through 485 pages
of text and copious notes to primary sources
ranging over major monastic and early scholastic
theologians, including Abelard, Hugh of St. Vic-
tor, William of Thieny, Bernard of Clairvaux,
and Peter Lombard, and another fifty pages of
bibliography, the author marshals an impressive
array of evidence as warrant for his claims. He
sounds a fire-bell warning against using thir-
teenth-century developments to interpret and as-
sess earlier works, which must be studied in their
own context. Some may find the focus on grace
as remission of sin too narrow, the lens too Lu-
theran perhaps, to do justice to the varied forms
gracing divine operations assumed in Augustine.
Nevertheless, a masterful historical work filling
a lacuna in the theology of grace.
Stephen J. D u n
Loyola University New Orleans
76 / Religious Studies Review
IRISH JESUS, ROMAN JESUS: THE FOR-
MATION OF EARLY IRISH CHRISTIAN-
ITY.By Graydon Snyder. Harrisburg, PA: Trin-
ity Press International, 2002. Pp. 288. $24.00,
ISBN 1-56338-385-3.
Another in a cascade of books on things
Celtic, this one indulging the penchant to wonder
“what would have happened if.” Focusing on the
Irish Celts, Snyder postulates a “golden age” of
Celtic Christianity prior to its Romanization in
mid-seventh century. Employing a
sociohistorical approach, Snyder musters a mass
of data about the Celts, some historical, much,
given the elusiveness of their history, necessarily
speculative. Yet detailed delineation of the dif-
ferences between Celtic and Roman Christianity
is not drawn. Romanizers were interested in ec-
clesiastical organization reflecting Greco-Ro-
man cultural patterns and worked from an exag-
gerated Paulinism that, while not dualistic, saw
the world in need of redemption. By contrast, in
Irish Christianity “nature was good, humans
knew no sin” and Pauline apocalypticism had no
influence. The two styles are embodied in the
Augustine-Pelagius debate. In the “golden age”
we catch a glimpse of how Western Christianity
might have looked had Paulinized Romanization
not carried the day. Yet even could we clearly de-
lineate the two Christianities as basically differ-
ent, apart from reminding us that Christianity is
compatible with more than one inculturation,
much of this seems futile speculation. But more
important, a case can be made that European
Christianity was no monolith nor Celtic Chris-
tianity a mutant lying on the Atlantic fringe, its
commonalities with the Catholica sundered by
its genius loci.
Stephen J. Durn
Layola University New Orleans
THE DIVINIZATION OF THE CHRISTIAN
ACCORDING TO THE GREEK FATHERS.
By Jules Gross. Translated by Paul A. Onica. An-
aheim, CA: A & C Press, 2002. Pp.xxvii + 306.
$65.00, ISBN 0-7363-1600-0.
Because there is probably no more than
one-half dozen scholarly books on deification
(theosis) in the English language, this attrac-
tively formatted translation of Gross’ doctoral
thesis submitted to the Faculty of Catholic The-
ology of the University of Strasbourg and pub-
lished as LA divinisation du chrdtien d’aprPs les
p h e s grecs: Contribution historique ri la doc-
trine de la grace (1938) is long overdue. The
book‘s five parts cover the Hellenic (the mystery
religions, hermetism, and classical Greek and
neo-Platonic philosophies) and biblical (includ-
ing intertestamental literature) backgrounds; the
ante-Nicene (from the Apostolic Fathers and
Apologists through Irenaeus, Clement of Alex-
andria, Origen, Hippolytus and Methodius);
fourth-century (Athanasius, the Cappadocians,
especially Gregory of Nyssa, and the Antiochene
and Alexandrian schools); and the later (Cyril of
Alexandria, Pseudo-Dionysius, Maximus Con-
fessor and John Damascus) Church fathers. The
concept of theosis is shown to be operative
across the spectrum of patristic theology, even if
the actual terminology is not present. Gross
shows a mastery of the patristic sources, quoting
liberally from the fathers, and of the secondary
literature in the various European languages up
through the time of original publication. Yet
while this essay in the history of an idea high-
lights the fathers’ views of theosis focused at the
level of the individual, it neglects analyses of the
socio-political contexts of their thinking. Still,
Gross has informed two whole generations of re-
searchers on this topic and remains indispens-
able for those seeking to retrieve this doctrine
and to reconstruct it to include the social and cor-
porate dimensions of theosis.
Amos Yong
Bethel College
SHENOUTE AND THE WOMEN OF THE
WHITE MONASTERY: EGYPTIAN MO-
NASTICISM IN LATE ANTIQUITY. By
Rebecca Krawiec. New York: Oxford University
Press, 2002. Pp. xii + 248. $49.95, ISBN
0- 19-512943-1.
In about 385 Shenoute (ca. 348-464), the first
great author of Coptic literature (much of his
oeuvre still unpublished) became head of what is
now known as the White Monastery, near Sohag
in Upper Egypt, founded by his uncle Pcol. Some
4,000 monks (2,200 men and 1,800 women)
lived in the houses comprising the monastery
complex. In this book,which originated as a Yale
dissertation directed by Bentley Layton, much
new light is shed on life in the monastery under
Shenoute’s direction. In the first chapter
Krawiec discusses daily life in the White Monas-
tery. The second chapter, “Women’s Life in the
White Monastery under Shenoute,” is based on a
detailed study of thirteen letter fragments ad-
dressed by Shenoute to the women of the monas-
tery. These letters reflect a series of crises in the
monastery: charges of favoritism, cases of fe-
male homoeroticism, leadership struggles, beat-
ings of women, gossip, the suspicious death of
one of the monks, jealousy among the women,
and the questioning of Shenoute’s leadership.
Chapters three through five deal with aspects of
Shenoute’s ideology, involving power, gender,
and family. Chapters six through eight take up
gender and monasticism in late antiquity,
women’s roles in the monastic family, and bio-
logical kin in the White Monastery. This
well-written book is an important contribution to
the study of Egyptian monasticism and Egyptian
church history.
Birger A. Pearson
University of California, Santa Barbara
THOMAS AQUINAS: CONTEMPORARY,
PHILOSOPHICAL, PERSPECTIVES. Ed-
ited by Brian Davies. New York: Oxford Univer-
sity Press, 2002. Pp. xiv + 400. $29.95, ISBN
0-19-5I530 1-4.
Having published two books on Aquinas’
philosophy, Davies is eminently suited to gather
this selection of previously published essays
(from 1984-2000) on the Angelic Doctor. Yet
Volume 30 Number 1 / January 2004
while the volume is intended both as an introduc-
tion to Thomas for philosophy students and as a
resource for Aquinas scholars, it succeeds more
with regard to the latter than the former. There
are certainly excellent introductory essays: S.
Edwards on Aquinas’ realism; R. Velde on natu-
ral reason in Summa Contra Gentiles; J. Wippel
on the five ways; Davies on negative theological
language; G. Klima on the body-soul relation-
ship; Eleanor Stump on freedom, intellect and
will; Stump and N. Kretzmann on being and
goodness; P. Sigmund on law and politics; and P.
King on the passions. But there are also rather
technical essays which make the volume much
less accessible. Newcomers to Aquinas will
struggle with J. Weisheipl on Thomas’ commen-
tary on the De caelo of Aristotle, C. Hughes on
matter and actuality, H. Weidemann on the logic
of being, S. MacDonald on the essdessential ar-
gument in chapter four of De ente et essential, A.
Kenny on intentionality, and Herbert McCabe on
the virtue of prudence. Yet in almost all cases,
Aquinas’ ideas are both set in the context of the
medieval debates and shown to be relevant to
contemporary philosophical (and even theologi-
cal) discussions. The good bibliography which
concludes the book does not make up for the lack
of either name or subject indexes.
Amos Yong
Bethel College
THE CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO
DUNS SCOTUS. Edited by Thomas Williams.
New York: Cambridge University Press, 2003.
Pp. xiv + 408. $23.00, ISBN 0-521-63563-2.
In keeping with the high standards expected
from series, this volume delivers on perhaps the
most important medieval philosopher and theo-
logian after Aquinas, John Duns Scotus. Twelve
original essays on various aspects of Scotus’
thinking are presented: metaphysics (P.King);
space and time (N. Lewis); universals and indi-
viduation (T. Noone); modal theory (C.
Normore); philosophy of language and linguistic
philosophy (D. Perler); natural theology (J. F.
Ross and T. Bates); natural and supernatural
knowledge of God (W. Mann); philosophy of
mind (R. Cross); cognition (R. Pasnau); natural
law (H.Mohle); metaethics and action themy (T.
Williams); and moral dispositions and the vir-
tues (B. Kent). Williams includes a short intro-
ductory essay on Scotus’ life and works, and the
volume includes an excellent bibliography of
secondary literature on the Scot. A more in-depth
index on modern authors would have been help-
ful to follow out the various contemporary de-
bates on Scotus’ ideas. Otherwise, this volume
confirms both the originality of Scotus’ contri-
butions as a medieval thinker and the ongoing
importance of his reflections even in issues
current to the twenty-first century philosophical
and theological scene.
Amos Yong
Bethel College
JOHN OF THE CROSS AND TERESA OF
AVILA: MYSTICAL KNOWING AND
Volume 30 Number 1 / January 2004
SELFHOOD. By Edward Howells. New York:
Crossroad, 2002. Pp. x + 212. $39.95, ISBN
0-8245-1943-4.
This revision of Howells’ dissertation offers
a fresh reading of John of the Cross and Teresa of
Avila, posing the following question: What is
“mystical” experience and how does it differ
from “ordinary” experience? Demonstrating a
deep familiarity with the writings of Teresa and
John and a mastery of the secondary scholarship,
Howells presents a penetrating, if somewhat
technical analysis of the Carmelite writers’ mys-
tical theory, theological anthropology, episte-
mology, and Trinitarian theology. According to
Howells, Teresa and John re-oriented questions
about the nature of mystical experience through
their understanding of the Trinity. Within the dy-
namism of the Trinity’s internal relations, the hu-
man soul is transformed so that the self is consti-
tuted intersubjectively, in unmediated commu-
nion with its source and creator. Thus, the mysti-
cal moment is less an experience than it is a rela-
tion. This work makes a significant contribution
to our understanding of John and Teresa, as well
as to the study of mysticism and to the history of
Christian spirituality. While intended for spe-
cialists, this book can also be a suitable introduc-
tion to John of the Cross and Teresa of Avila for
those previously unacquainted with these two
significant figures in the history of Christian
spirituality.
Timothy Hessel-Robinson
Graduate Theological Union
BATTLING DEMONS: WITCHCRAFT,
HERESY, AND REFORM IN THE LATE
MIDDLE AGES. By Michael D. Bailey. Magic
in History. University Park: Penn State Univer-
sity Press, 2003. 4. xii + 200. Cloth, $65.00,
ISBN 0-271-02225-6; paper, $22.50, ISBN
0-271-02226-4.
This is a very useful examination of the work
of the Dominican theologian Johannes Nider (d.
1483). Nider is now best remembered for his
views on witchcraft, and his aggressive attacks
helped shape ideas that led to the great persecu-
tions of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.
Believing demons permeated the world, Nider,
like other clerics, asserted that witches not only
committed hannfd magic but also made pacts
with Satan, which they reaffirmed at nocturnal
Devil-worshipping sabbats. He also believed
women were especially susceptible to becoming
witches because they were more lustful and more
prone to demonic temptation than men. Bailey,
however, persuasively argues that Nider was
above all a religious reformer. Nider promoted
reform of religious orders and opposed heresy,
and his ideas on witchcraft grew out of his desire
for internal spiritual rejuvenation. He effectively
used the fear of witchcraft toward spiritual ends,
insisting witches could not harm the strong in
faith. This book is a must for late medievalists
and anyone interested in the history of witchcraft
and magic. My only reservation concerns the
book’s title. This is a highly specialized
monograph-although a good one-and not, as
the title may suggest, a broad synthesis.
Jeffrey R. Watt
University of Mississippi
WITCHCRAIT AND MAGIC IN EUROPE.
VOLUME 4: THE PERIOD OF THE
WITCH TRIALS. Edited by Bengt Ankarloo,
Stuart Clark, and William Monter. Philadelphia:
University of Pennsylvania Press, 2003. Pp. xiv
+ 193. Cloth, $55.00, ISBN 0-8122-3617-3;pa-
per, $22.50, ISBN 0-8122-1787-x.
Three experts combined to produce this fine
synthetic study of European witchcraft,
1450-1700. Examining witch trials in continen-
tal Europe, Monter rightly observes that inquisi-
torial procedures, the Holy Roman Empire’s
highly decentralized court system, and confes-
sional conflicts between Catholics and Protes-
tants all contributed to the intense hunts, most
heavily concentrated in Germany. Executions
were probably less numerous than previously
thought, totaling about 4O,OOO, mostly women.
Centralized courts, such as the Parlement of
Paris, curbed the excesses of many communities
that zealously persecuted suspected witches, An-
alyzing trials in northern Europe, Ankarloo finds
that witchcraft beliefs there remained tied more
to harmful magic than Devil-worship, resulting
in fewer large-scale trials. Moreover, the preva-
lence of the accusatorial system in England and
Scandinavia deterred many from pressing witch-
craft charges. In his thoughtful cultural analysis,
Clark notes that Protestant and Catholic reform-
ers unleashed unprecedented attacks on tradi-
tional forms of healing, equating them with
magic. Theorists’ penchant of associating witch-
craft with rival religious groups eventually led to
growing skepticism. This era also witnessed a
flowering of “intellectual magic,’’ whereby
scholars sought to uncover the secrets of nature.
Intended for a general audience, this is an
excellent overview of early modem witchcraft
and magic.
Jefsrey R. Watt
University of Mississippi
THE VOICES OF MOREBATH: REFOR-
MATION AND REBELLION IN AN ENG-
LISH VILLAGE. By Eamon Duffy. New Ha-
ven, CT: Yale University Press, 2003.4. xvi +
232; illustrations. $14.00, ISBN O-3WO9825- 1.
A reprint, now in paper, originally published
by Yale University Press, New Haven, CT, 2001.
For our review see RSR 28:382.
PREACHING DURING THE ENGLISH
REFORMATION. By Susan Wabuda. New
York Cambridge University Press, 2002. Pp. xix
+ 203. $55.00, ISBN 0-521-45395-X.
This important study of preaching in the six-
teenth century opens with a historiographical
section that postulates a slower and later Refor-
mation than G.R. Elton and A. G.Dickens pro-
moted. Using the framework, Wabuda explains
how preaching changed from its traditional com-
plementary place, as a call to penance, to its cen-
Religious Studies Review / 77
trality in Catholic and evangelical reform. This
change was effected through the influence of
Erasmus and other humanists, who promoted
scriptural reading for everyone. Following
Cromwell’s example in tapping sermons for po-
litical purposes to enforce Henry VIII’s suprem-
acy, evangelical preachers began to attack ex-
tra-scriptural Catholic doctrines. Unexpectedly,
the Protestant laity’s reading of the scriptures, as
Erasmus advocated, led them to monitor the abil-
ities of their preachers. In her discussion of the
mendicants’ influence, Wabuda adopts a revi-
sionist approach, arguing that Anne Boleyn’s fall
resulted from her challenge to the dissolution
rather than her evangelicalism. The final chapter
appears almost as an appendage: it examines
IHC or IHS, the traditional abbreviations of
Jesus Christ, which symbolized the moderate
Protestantism of the Elizabethan Church.
Retha M. Wamicke
Arizona State Universio
HEINRICH BULLINGER AND THE DOC-
TRINE OF PREDESTINATION. AUTHOR
OF “THE OTHER REFORMED TRADI-
TION”? By Cornelis P. Venema. Texts & Stud-
ies in Reformation and Post-Reformation
Thought. Grand Rapids: Baker, 2002. Pp. 137.
$17.99, ISBN 0-8010-2605-9.
Venema’s work offers a careful study of the
sixteenth-century Zurich theologian Heinrich
Bullinger’s understanding of predestination,
through an analysis of Bullinger’s published
works and correspondence. Venema effectively
refutes the idea that Bullinger and Calvin stood
in opposition to each other on this matter and in-
stead emphasizes both the wide spectrum of po-
sitions in the Reformed tradition regarding pre-
destination and the need to evaluate Bullinger on
the issue within his own context, rather than as a
precursor of subsequent theological debates.
Among Venema’s most helpful insights is his as-
sessment that Bullinger tended to consider pre-
destination from a pastoral rather than system-
atic viewpoint, thus focusing on God’sgift to
sinners through election. This short, accessible
yet scholarly account will be very helpful to
graduate students, church historians, and general
readers with an interest in Reformation theology.
Karin Maag
H. Henry Meeter Center for Calvin Studies
POPULAR POLITICS AND THE ENGLISH
REFORMATION. By Ethan H. Shagan. Cam-
bridge Studies in Early Modem British History.
New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002.
Pp. xii + 341. Cloth, $70.00, ISBN
0-521-80846-4; paper, $25.00, ISBN
0-521-52555-1.
This book is an impressive response to revi-
sionists who argue that the English were inher-
ently conservative and resistant to religious
change. Answering the question of why England
became Protestant, given that conservatism,
Shagan argues for a process of cultural accom-
modation. Noting that conversions and outright
resistance were rare, he studies the majority who
78 / Religious Studies Review Volume 30 Number 1 / January 2004

became involved in what he terms, popular poli-
tics, that is, the practice of discussing publicly
their rulers’ actions, since governmental offi-
cials did not simply promulgate change but de-
fended it, fully understanding that enforcement
required some consent. This acculturation pro-
cess is detailed in three chronological sections.
The first examines the break with Rome and the
royal supremacy, which some defined as a reli-
gious issue, not merely an act of state. The next
explores the diverse conservative reactions, re-
vealing that those in disagreement with the
changes often contributed to their success by
their actions, as, for example, seeking financial
gain from the dissolution. In short time, many
acted like reformers even when at heart they
were adverse to the changes. The final section re-
ports that by Edward VI’s reign the dynamics of
collaboration were so imbedded that the
government could even abolish the mass.
Retha M . Warnicke
Arizona State University
CHRIST’S CHURCHES PURELY RE-
FORMED: A SOCIAL HISTORY OF CAG
VINISM. By Philip Benedict. New Haven, C T
Yale University Press, 2002. Pp. xxvi + 670;
plates, maps, graphs. $40.00, ISBN
0-300-088 12-4.
Benedict has undertaken a significant chal-
lenge, namely providing a topically and geo-
graphically comprehensive survey of early mod-
em Reformed churches while at the same time
keeping it both readable and manageable in
length. In many respects, this book meets or even
exceeds these criteria and is commendable for its
willingness to challenge long-standing percep-
tions, such as Calvinism’s role in fostering de-
mocracy and the link between Calvinism and
capitalism. Compared to other works of this
type, Benedict’s volume displays a number of
helpful characteristics, including extending the
narrative beyond the Thirty Years War to 1700,
integrating material on the Reformed in Hungary
and Poland, and combining theological, social,
political and some economic history in present-
ing the story of the Reformed churches in the
early modem period. Not surprisingly, given its
ambitious remit, some aspects are left aside or
dealt with only briefly in this book, such as art,
music, and social divisions when it came to the
implementation of church discipline. The work
is strengthened, however, by organized anno-
tated bibliographies and extensive notes. This
book is a must for college and university librar-
ies, Reformation scholars and graduate students,
and all those with an interest in the ideas and
developments of early modern Reformed
Protestantism.
Karin Maag
H. Henty Meeter Centerfor Calvin Studies
History of
Christianity
(Modern Period) POLITICS, RELIGION, AND POPULAR-
ITY IN EARLY STUART BRITAIN: ES-
READING BAYLE. By Thomas M. Lennon. SAYS IN HONOUR OF CONRAD RUS-
Toronto, ON: University of Toronto Press, 1999,
SELL. Edited by Thomas Cogswell, Richard
Pp. 202. Cloth, $60.00, ISBN 0-8020-4488-3;
paper, $19.95, ISBN 0-8020-8266-1.
Although Pierre Bayle kept insisting that he
meant exactly what he said, what he really be-
lieved has always been a matter of contention.
Lennon adds his voice to the chorus which has
tried to solve the Bayle “enigma” and begins
with the observation that Bayle’s main concern
was with the problem of evil. Unfortunately,
Lennon does not develop this theme, but devotes
the rest of his book to examining Bayle as a pro-
ducer of “polyphonic” texts. Lennon also capi-
talizes upon the Jansenist distinction between
“right” and “fact,” which questioned whether
five propositions condemned by the pope were
literally in a certain book, and stretches it into an
epistemological issue, which he then tries to im-
pose upon Bayle. Persistently, Lennon identifies
“real presence” with “transubstantiation,” which
would have sent Luther into a rage .... But the
greatest weakness of the book is that it makes
Bayle more complicated than he already is, and
asserting that he writes a certain kind of text
doesn’t begin to solve his “enigma.” In my opin-
ion the key to Bayle is not so much the problem
of evil as the problem of good. Bayle sees a glim-
mer of conscience in most everyone. If there
were no God to have put it there, then there
would be no difference between good and evil,
and that is why he holds on so firmly to his faith.
Paul Sonnino
University of California, Santa Barbara
DIVINE DISCOURSE: THE THEOLOGI-
CAL METHODOLOGY OF JOHN OWEN.
By Sebastian Rehnman. Texts & Studies in Ref-
ormation and Post-Reformation Thought. Grand
Rapids: Baker, 2002. Pp. 215. $19.99, ISBN
0-8010-2501-x.
This work focuses on the seventeenth-cen-
tury English theologian John Owen’s approach
to the key foundational issues of theological dis-
course, including the nature of theology, the
knowledge of God, the role of reason, and the is-
sue of authority. Rehnman has clearly read and
researched extensively on the subject and uses
his sources effectively to set Owen’s approach in
its historical context. Although Rehnman’s argu-
ment that Owen’s theological methodology
should be brought to light because of contempo-
rary neglect is reasonable, it might have been
both helpful and persuasive to add a section ex-
plaining Owen’s influence on his own day and on
subsequent generations. Otherwise, the broader
significance of this project seems somewhat hard
to fathom. Rehnman’s analysis of Owen’s at
times convoluted attempts to describe the role of
reason in faith and theology is well worth read-
ing. The work will primarily be of interest to
theologians and graduate students in seminaries.
Karin Maag
H. Henry Meeter Centerfor Calvin Studies
Crust, and Peter Lake. New York: Cambridge
University Press, 2002. Pp. x + 304. $60.00,
lSBN 0-521-80700-X.
Ironically, Cogswell, Crust, and Lake edited
a fine collection of essays that revises the work of
this great historian whom they are honoring. The
research of these authors, who are his students,
his London colleagues, and his American
friends, demonstrates that they have benefited
greatly from engaging with his ideological ex-
planations and findings. The first section, “Poli-
tics,” contains six essays, among them an inter-
esting study of P. Croft, which suggests the
shared experiences of MPs helped to forge a kind
of national identity that lay behind the parlia-
mentary assertiveness of the 1620s.The second
section, “Religion,” has three contributions, in-
cluding A. Milton’s excellent case study of a
Laudian polemicist, P. Heylyn, which demon-
strates that theestablishment church of the 1630s
was a process not a static system. Among the
three essays in the final section, “Popularity,” is
Cogswell’s contribution, which provides a fasci-
nating reassessment of the life of the Duke of
Buckingham and indicates he ventured beyond
the royal court in attempts to develop a popular
following. This fitting tribute ends with a
bibliography of Russell’s works.
Retha M . Warnicke
Arizona State University
THE SUPREME HARMONY OF ALL: THE
TRINITARIAN THEOLOGY OF JONA-
THAN EDWARDS. By Amy Plantinga Pauw.
Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002. Pp. x + 192.
$22.00, ISBN 0-8028-4984-9.
Pauw’s estimable study is the first compre-
hensive work to use Edwards’s philosophical
notebooks, sermons, and posthumously pub-
lished writings to demonstrate the central role of
the Trinity in his theology. While acknowledg-
ing that his trinitarianism did not dominate his
public discourse, Pauw successfully argues that
it “ran like a river throughout his career as a pas-
tor and a polemist.” Her study situates Edwards’s
thought within his Reformed and Puritan tradi-
tions and carefully delineates his development of
two models of the Trinity-the psychological
and the social. She goes on to argue that while
they have distinctive roles in Edwards’s depic-
tion of human redemption, they remain “unset-
tled’ in their unresolved theological tensions.
While she does discuss the importance of his
metaphysics, she underplays its relevance for un-
derstanding, and resolving, these tensions. This
perspective leads her to claim that his theology,
“is more a connected set of miscellaneous reflec-
Volume 30 Number 1 / January 2004
tions than an internally consistent whole.” De-
spite these concerns, she is very successful in
presenting the value and relevance of Edwards’s
thought for contemporary trinitarian reconstruc-
tion. This learned and well-written study is there-
fore invaluable to scholars and historians of
Edwards’s life and thought as well as for
theologians engaged in the challenging work of
constructive historical retrieval.
Sally I. Matless
Harvard University
JONATHAN EDWARDS: A LIFE. By George
M. Marsden. New Haven, C T Yale University
Press, 2003. Pp. xxi + 615. $35.00, ISBN
0-300-09693-3.
This is the new standard in the writing of Ed-
wards’s biographies. Marsden brings together
the various facets-i.e., familial, theological, so-
cial, and political-and phases-i.e., youth, as-
sociate of Stoddard, promoter of awakenings,
pastor and missionary at Stockbridge, etc.-of
Edwards’s life and paints a comprehensive pic-
ture of Edwards. Marsden places the events and
controversies of Edwards’s life in the context of
broader religious, philosophical, political, and
social realities of eighteenth-century New Eng-
land. His expertise in the history of American
Protestantism undoubtedly facilitated this
achievement. His analysis of Edwards is sympa-
thetic, but critical. His presentation relies heavily
on primary texts, but he also interacts with rele-
vant secondary literature in a manner that does
not inhibit the flow of the narrative. This text
serves Edwards scholars by providing a pan-
oramic view of his life that embellishes the pro-
liferation of topic studies in Edwards’ thought
initiated by Perry Miller’s Edwards’s biography
(1949) and the publication of The Works of Jona-
than Edwards (Yale University Press, 1957-).
Yet its fine prose renders it attractive to the
non-specialist. Moreover, the manageable size
of the chapters mitigates the daunting length of
the text and thus makes a book that otherwise
would be inaccessible to all but the most
committed reader quite approachable.
Steven M. Studebaker
Emmanuel College
CHARLES HODGE REVISITED: A CRITI-
CAL APPRAISAL OF HIS LIFE AND
WORK. Edited by John W. Stewart and James
H. Moorhead. Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2002.
Pp.x + 375. $25.00, ISBN 0-8028-4750-1.
This collection of essays introduces a new
generation to one of the key, yet often over-
looked, figures of nineteenth-century American
theology. The quality of the contributions is high
and the analysis fairly represents Hodge’s
strengths and weaknesses. The first three essays
are most helpful for those needing an introduc-
tion to Hodge, setting him in his larger cultural
and social context. The remaining essays focus
on more detailed analyses of his understanding
of science, his approach to contemporary social
debates and other more specialized matters. In
addition to the essays, there is a helpful
bibliography of Hodge’s writings and literature
about Hodge. This alone is a treasure trove of in-
formation for scholars of the era or of Hodge in
particular. As with any collection of essays, not
all are of equal value and there is inevitable du-
plication of themes and materials (e.g., common
sense realism is discussed in each of the first
three essays). Nevertheless, the overall impact of
the essays is to remind the reader of this impor-
tant figure and to encourage a reappraisal of him
and the era in which he was so active a
participant.
Carl Sanders
Washington Bible College
THE WORD O F CHRIST AND THE
WORLD OF CULTURE: SACRED AND
SECULARTHROUGHTHETHEOLOGY
OF KARL BARTH. By Paul Lewis Metzger.
Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2003. Pp.vii + 252.
$38.00, ISBN 0-8028-4946-6.
Metzger offers this full-scale assessment of
Barth’s theology of culture since Robert J.
Palma’s Karl Barth’s Theology of Culture (Pick-
wick Pub., 1983). The book is divided into three
parts. In the first section, Metzger analyzes the
christological foundations of Barth’s theology of
culture. Following the workof others (most nota-
bly Hunsinger and McCormack), Metzger ar-
gues that the categories of anhypostasis and
enhypostasis in Barth’s Chalcedonian christol-
ogy enabled him to affirm both the divinity and
humanity of Christ, while avoiding the
divinization of Christ’s human nature. This
christological affirmation enabled Barth to af-
firm that although God was indeed present in His
revelation, that presence was not open to human
manipulation. The implications of this insight
bore two basic axioms: culture is neither to be
divinized, nor secularized. Rather, it is to be un-
derstood as having a relative autonomous free-
dom in which God is freely praised. Metzger
deftly shows that Barth’s approach to the prob-
lem is better equipped to handle the problems of
divinization than secularization, a fact not unre-
lated to Barth’s historical context. The second
and third sections are devoted to working out the
various continuities and discontinuities between
the cultural and political realms and the gospel.
Discussion is devoted to Barth’s understanding
of the relation of church and state, the prophetic
role of the church as well as his well known love
of Mozart. Metzger’s work is both timely and ac-
cessible and will be useful for both graduate and
upper-level undergraduate courses on Barth’s
theology and the theology of culture.
Christian T. Collins Winn
Drew University
THE LANGUAGE OF DISSENT: EDWARD
SCHILLEBEECKX ON THE CRISIS OF
AUTHORITY IN THE CATHOLIC
CHURCH. By Daniel Speed Thompson. Notre
Dame, IN: University of Notre Dame Press,
2003. Pp. xiv + 235. Cloth, $45.00, ISBN
0-268-03358-7; paper, $23.00, ISBN
0-268-03359-5.
Religious Studies Review / 79
For almost the last forty years, Schillebeeckx
has been voicing concern that the message of the
Second Vatican Council has been hi-jacked and
that this imperils the church. In this book
Thompson admirably outlines the
epistemological and ecclesiological grounding
for the place that Schillebeeckx has stood all
these years. He also makes clear the value of
Schillebeeckx’s work for the present crisis in the
Catholic church, especially his thoughts on the
proper place of the theologian in the life of the
church, and the appropriate role of dissent. This
is primarily a scholarly monograph that will ap-
peal most to a professional readership. Although
Schillebeeckx’s thought is well known in Eng-
lish, some of his writings, especially the more re-
cent ones, have not been translated from the
Dutch; and Thompson makes good use of them,
filling out the picture that most might already
know, and thus placing Schillebeeckx’s contro-
versial ideas in the context of the Dutch church
since Vatican 11. Thompson begins with a look at
the epistemology, but rapidly moves on to an ex-
amination of Schillebeeckx’s ecclesiology, es-
pecially his views on apostolicity. The last chap-
ter on theological dissent and the future of the
church brings the text closer to the promise of the
subtitle of the book without ever actually fulfill-
ing it. But if the book is not quite as timely as its
publishers have tried to make it seem, it is valu-
able nonetheless. It may introduce
Schillebeeckx’s ecclesiology to some and clarify
it for others. Above all, it will hearten many in
the Catholic tradition with its message not only
of the acceptability of dissent, but even of its
necessity in a vibrant church. Recommended for
undergraduate, graduate, and divinity school
libraries.
Paul Lakeland
Fai field University
JOACHIM OF FIORE AND THE MYTH OF
THE ETERNAL EVANGEL IN THE NINE-
TEENTH AND TWENTIETH CENTURIES.
Revised and enlarged edition. By Wanvick
Gould and Marjorie Reeves. New York: Claren-
don, 2001 Pp. 435. $85.00, ISBN
0- 19-924230-5.
Reeves, a Joachim scholar, and Gould, a spe-
cialist in nineteenth- and twentieth-century liter-
ature, have revised and expanded their Joachim
of Fiore and the Myth of the Eternal Evangel in
the Nineteenth Century (1987) in two ways.
First, they have engaged throughout the new text
the scholarly reviews of the former edition,
nuancing their assessments at points, but defend-
ing their initial claims on most counts. Second,
they have included new material on Joachim in
relationship to the “Perennial Philosophy” of
Huxley, Coomaraswamy and others in the early
twentieth century; and they have critically en-
gaged the claims of those who have linked
Joachim to late twentieth-century millennialist
movements like the Branch Davidians. Other-
wise, the volume details the actual reception, re-
trieval, reappropriation, and reinterpretation of
Joachim’s ideas, including the Joachim-inspired
80 / Religious Studies Review Volume 30 Number 1 / January 2004

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Volume 30 Number 1 / January WO4 Religious Studies Review / 81

“Eternal Evangel” (reproduced in the Appen-
dix), among intellectual elites in Europe and
America during the last 200 years. The primary
transmitters, P. Leroux, G. Sands, G. Eliot, E.
Renan, M. Arnold, W. B. Yeats, and D. H.Law-
rence, their interconnections, and their agendas
are discussed, even while other assumed
Joachimite associations are debunked. Written
for scholars, the volume includes original source
quotations frequently in their European, espe-
cially French, languages. While this work will
engage scholars of comparative literature, reli-
gious and interdisciplinary studies, and occult-
ism, hopefully it will also serve as a catalyst for
critical English-language translations of
Joachim’s work that remain desperately needed.
Amos Yong
Bethel College
IMPERIAL FAULT LINES: CHRISTIAN-
ITY AND COLONIAL POWER IN INDIA,
1818-1940. By Jeffrey Cox. Stanford CA: Stan-
ford University Press, 2002.4. xi + 357. $55.00,
ISBN 0-80474318-5.
logical advances that have made transportation
rapid and communication almost instantaneous.
The responses of the papacy to this unceasing
process of modernization have varied from re-
jection and resistance to uneasy accommodation
and guarded approval, so that at times the
leitmotiv has been more a case of the modern
world confronting the papacy than vice versa.
Although some of the treatment of the eighteenth
and the nineteenth centuries seems a bit staccato,
the story of the papacy in the twentieth century is
particularly well told. While there are a few his-
torical slips, the text is appropriately coordinated
with the appended documents and there is an
ample bibliography. On the whole this book
should be useful in college and seminary
courses.
John T. Ford
Catholic Universityof America
THE GENERAL COUNCILS: A HISTORY
OF THE TWENTY-ONE GENERAL
COUNCILS FROM NICAEA TO VATICAN
IL By Christopher M. Bellitto. Mahwah, NJ:
Paulist, 2002. Pp. xi + 195. $16.95, ISBN
begins with Ketteler and Ozanam in the nine-
teenth century and continues into the twentieth
century with men such as L. Sturzo, H. A.
Reinhold, V.Michel, J. A. Ryan, J. Maritain, and
E. Mounier. Comn’s discussions of Chesterton,
Belloc, and Reinhold are particularly interesting.
Unfortunately absent is a discussion of J. C.
Murray. While the book suffers from a surfeit of
contextual material, it is a valuable contribution
t o our understanding of Catholicism’s
engagement with political and economic
modernity.
WilliamE. McConville
Raleigh, NC
Judaism:
Hellenistic through
Late Antiqdty
TOSEFTA ATIOTA: PESAH RISHON:
~~~

With this book Cox has attempted to give a
complex analysis of protestant Christian mis-
sions in the Punjab (northwest India) during co-
lonial times without assuming either of two mas-
ter narratives. The first narrative assumes that
missionaries were necessarily instruments of the
imperial project, the second that they were in-
struments of the Kingdom of God.Cox is able to
show just how much more complicated the story
was, especially how even the explicit motives of
both parties in the missionary encounter were
complicated by issues of race, gender, national
identity, and theology. This richly detailed book
references large amounts of archival material
and will be of interest to scholars and advanced
students of Christian missions outside the West.
His argument is neither sweeping nor highly the-
oretical; but to read Cox alongside recent work of
Gauri Viswanathan, Tala1Asad, and Richard M.
Eaton is to reflect in new and important ways
how conversion relates to the negotiation of
power on both sides of the imperial and
missionary venture.
James W. k i n e
Macalester College
THE PAPACY CONFRONTS THE MOD-
ERN WORLD. By Frank J. Coppa. The Anvil
Series. Malabar, FL: Krieger, 2003. Pp. xii + 177.
$19.50, ISBN 1-5754-101-3.
The Anvil Series paperbacks are designed to
provide a concise treatment of “a major field of
history or a problem area” in a format suitable for
college courses. The present volume, consisting
of ten relatively short chapters and excerpts from
thirty-one documents, begins its coverage with
Pope Pius VI ( 1775-1799) and concludes with an
assessment of the pontificate of Pope John Paul
I1 (1978- ). During these two centuries-plus, the
papacy has changed considerably, although of-
tenreluctantly, as a result of such factors as revo-
lutions (political, social, economic, cultural),
wars (world-wide, regional, cold) and techno-
SYNOPTIC PA~ALLELSOF MISHNA
0-8091-4019-5. AND TOSEFTA ANALYZED WITH A
This volume is an account of twenty-one METHODOLOGICAL INTRODUCTION
councils held in the history of Christianity from (Hebrew).By Shamma Friedman. Ramat Gan:
Nicaea in 325 until Vatican I1 in 1%2-1965. It is Bar-Ilan University Press, 2002. N.p., ISBN
direct and basic in its approach. Its style is de- 965-226-225-0.
scriptive and reportorial. Neither new insight nor The conception of the Tosefta as a slightly
new information is provided that is not found in later and more expansive commentary on the
other useful resources. Perhaps the work’s great- early-third-century Mishnah has dominated lit-
est value is bringing together for undergraduates erary-historical scholarship on rabbinic litera-
a useful summary of these councils. Neverthe- ture for much of the twentieth century. Although
less at times, the interpretation is misleading, many scholars have acknowledged that at least
e.g., on (141) “Pope Leo I cancels Chalcedon’s some material in the Tosefta seems to have been
canon 28,” or (149) “Leo vetoed Chalcedon’s formulated prior to the formulation of parallel
canon 28.” Many Protestant and Orthodox read- mishnaic passages, the tendency has been to see
ers, as well as careful historians, will find such these as exceptions proving the general rule that
statements at best calling for further discussion. the Tosefta is the Mishnah’s first commentary. In
With some correctives, the book can be recom- the past decade or so, however, scholars using a
mended for introductory comes in church his- variety of analytic and hermeneutic assumptions
tory, which is no doubt its intended purpose. have begun to chip away at this consensus. A re-
Definitive accounts of these councils will be visionist era is underway in which the settled
found elsewhere. question of the relationship of the Mishnah and
WilliamG. Rusch Tosefta as documentary wholes is once more on
Foundationfor a Conference on the table. In this context Friedman’s study is of
Faith and Order in North America great importance. One of the most gifted and
comprehensively learned textual scholars and
CATHOLIC INTELLECTUALS AND THE literary historians of what might be called the
CHALLENGE OF DEMOCRACY. By Jay P. Post-Lieberman era, Friedman has now cata-
Comn. Notre Dame,IN: University of Notre loged and analyzed twenty-two examples of tex-
Dame Press, 2002. Pp. x + 571. $55.00. ISBN tual parallelism found in the tractates of the
0-268-0277 1-2. Mishnah and the Toseftadevoted to the Passover
Comn explores the complex and varied ways sacrifice and the ritual meal at which it was to be
in which Roman Catholic thinkers responded to consumed. Friedman focuses a powerful
the emergence of modernity in its various eco- text-critical lens on each of these and offers com-
nomic and political expressions: capitalism, so- pelling arguments that the Mishnaic material can
cialism, Marxism, liberal democracy, fascism, routinely be read as dependant in a variety of
and communism. Many Catholics reacted to cap- ways upon the Toseftan textual tradition. While
italism and socialism by opting for a retun to the Friedman does not insist that the Toseftan ver-
medieval world and often arguing for totalitarian sion of the Passover tractate in its extant form
political structures, e.g., H.Belloc. Others, how- represents an earlier version of the Mishnaic
ever, argued for the emergence of a socially re- tractate before us, his work will render highly
sponsible Catholicism at home within demo- problematic any efforts to use the Mishnah in
cratic and pluralistic societies. This trajectory
82 / Religious Studies Review
general as a privileged early historical source
without careful consideration of the parallel
Toseftan tradition. The value of Friedman’s
study is increased by a magisterial introductory
chapter on the history of the question of the
Mishnah-Toseftan relationship in academic
scholarship, a comprehensive bibliography of
scholarly discussions, and an index of sources. A
must for scholars, graduate students, and
academic libraries with Talmudic studies
ambitions.
Martin S. Jaffee
University of Washington
Judaism: Medieval
SAMARITAN SCRIBES AND MANU-
SCRIPTS. By Alan D. Crown. Texts and Studies
in Ancient Judaism, 80. Tubingen: J. C. B. Mohr
(Paul Siebeck), 2001. Pp. xiii + 555. $172.50,
ISBN 3-16-147490-2.
Four decades of work in Samaritanology in-
form Crown’s reference book on Samaritan
manuscripts and codicology. In fact, substantial
parts of each chapter have been published as arti-
cles over the past twenty-five years. Beginning
with an overview of Samaritan literature and its
manuscripts, the volume proceeds to topics rang-
ing from general codicology, morphology of pa-
per, and prices and values; through paleography
and epigraphy; to bindings, scribes, and manu-
script production; ending with a piece on “Co-
lumnar Writing and the Samaritan Masorah.” By
no means is this a book for non-specialists, and
even novice Samaritanologists are likely to find
much of it hard going. Scholars with a particular
interest in Samaritan manuscript collections, as
well as those with a more general interest in me-
dieval and early modem manuscript production
and transmission, will find the work informative
and an important starting point for critically
assessing the dating and provenance of these
materials.
Cynthia M. Baker
Santa Clara University
Judaism: Modern
HISTORY AND GUIDE TO JUDAIC DIC-
TIONARIES AND CONCORDANCES. By
Shimeon Brisman. Jewish Research Literature,
3-1. Hoboken, NJ: KTAV, 2000. Pp. xxiii + 337.
$79.50, ISBN 0-8812-5658-7.
This is an authoritative guide to Hebrew lexi-
cography and Hebrew dictionaries, both He-
brew-Hebrew and to other languages from the
tenth century until the end of the twentieth as
well as Yiddish and Ladino dictionaries. The
coverage of literature is comprehensive. The
first six chapters are devoted to Hebrew and de-
fined chronologically. The following three chap-
ters are devoted to Aramaic, miscellaneous dic-
Volume 30 Number 1 / January 204
tionaries, and Yiddish and Ladino dictionaries.
In these chapters each dictionary is described in
detail with an abundance of information on how
it was written, what it was based on and what the
strengths and weaknesses are. Full information
on reprints is included. The descriptions are foot-
noted and the assessments are authoritative.
Amazingly, this book is also fascinating reading.
The last, and longest, chapter is acomprehensive
bibliography of Hebraic dictionaries arranged by
type. This book is an essential reference for He-
brew language studies, for medieval and modern
Jewish culture, as well as for the study of the
history of the Hebrew book.
Shad Stampfer
Hebrew University
THE LANGUAGE AND CULTURE ATLAS
OF ASHKENAZIC JEWRY: THE EAST-
ERN YIDDISH-WESTERN YIDDISH
CONTINUUM, VOLUME 111. Edited by
Marvin Herzog. Tubingen: Max Niemeyer
Verlag, 2000 Pp. x + 378; maps. €243,00, ISBN
3-484-73005-6.
There is no doubt about the significance of
the geographical aspects of Jewish life in Eastern
Europe for almost every aspect of Jewish life in
Europe and religious life was not exception.
Hasidism was seen as a Polish phenomenon and
misnagdim (opponents of hasdisim) as a Lithua-
nian one. European Jews were divided into
clearly recognized subgroups on the basis of the
dialect of Yiddish that they spoke. However,
there were never clear lines of demarcation be-
tween the different regions and indeed, there was
often overlap. This splendid volume is part of the
first systematic attempt to present geographic
data on the defining characteristics that divided
Western Yiddish from Eastern Yiddish and to
point out the borders of subgroups. This was
done by mapping out linguistic phenomena.
What is of key importance for those interested in
popular religion is that cultural phenomena are
also mapped out. The 148 maps in the volume are
a goldmine for students and will be the raw mate-
rial for generations of researchers. The book is
beautifully produced and the text, in English,
while sometimes technical, is clear and self-ex-
planatory. The maps are clear and easily inter-
preted. While the volume is part of a series, this
volume can easily stand alone and it can be used
without the previous volumes. While expensive,
it is hard to think of a book published in the last
decade that advances the study of Jewish popular
culture and religion more than this one. Used cre-
atively, it should be probably equally of interest
to students of European popular religion and
culture in general. This book belongs in any
serious reference collection of Jewish studies.
Shad Stampfer
Hebrew University
DAS OSTJIDDISCHE IM SPRACH-
KONTAKT DEUTSCH IN SPANNUNG-
SFELD ZWISCHEN SEMITISCH UND
SLAVISCH. By Steffen Krogh. Beihefte zum
Language and Culture Atlas of Ashkenazic
Jewry, 3. Tuebingen: Max Niemeyer Verlag,
2001. Pp. 78. €24,00, ISBN 3-484-73103-6.
This short but significant study is a serious
contribution to the study of the history of the
Yiddish language. The author has two goals in
this book. One is to study the influence of Se-
mitic and Slavic languages on East Yiddish. The
other is to measure the relative weight of the Se-
mitic (Hebrew and Aramaic) influences as com-
pared with the Slavic influences. To do so, he
considers the locations and background of the
crystallization of Eastern Yiddish and analyzes
various linguistic means by which Yiddish de-
veloped. Much of the book is made of detailed
analyses of words and pronunciation. They are
meaningful mainly to students of Yiddish in par-
ticular and linguistics in general and without
them, no conclusions can be reached. However,
this study has many implications for the cultural
and religious history of East European Jewry.
Linguistic characteristics reflect the origins of
communities as well as their contacts with their
neighbors and Krogh has original and convinc-
ing theories. The appended bibliography is
wide-ranging. This is, of course, an important
book for collections specializing in Yiddish and
it also belongs in collections strong on East
European Jewry in general.
Shad Stampfer
Hebrew University
A HISTORY OF EAST EUROPEAN
JEWRY. By Heiko Haumann. New York: Cen-
tral European University Press, 2002. Pp.xvi +
281; maps, plates. Cloth, $45.95, ISBN
963-9241-37-7; paper, $24.95, ISBN
963-9241-26- 1.
Haumann is a well-known specialist in east-
ern European Jewish history who teaches at the
University of Basel. His popular one volume his-
tory of east European Jewry appeared in two edi-
tions in German (1990, 1998 and in number of
printings) and it has also been translated into a
number of languages. In the author’s words “my
studies have concentrated on the specific role of
the Jews in the region as intermediaries between
different strata of society and different economic
structures. I present the development and change
of this role across the centuries, albeit in mere
outline. To this end, I describe cultural and reli-
gious issues in parallel with social and economic
ones, without claiming to do more than summa-
rize the work done by others.” The four parts of
the book deal with the settlement of Jews in Po-
land and life there up to the mid-seventeenth cen-
tury; the “Cultural Pattern of Life” including re-
ligious movements, changes in patterns of Jew-
ish-non Jewish symbiosis; the third (and largest)
with the crisis of change including modemiza-
tion, family life, new political movements and
much more; while the last section deals with the
fate of east European Jewry after WWI “At-
tempted Annihilation and New Hope.” The
translation is quite readable. Oddly enough, the
notes still refer to sources in German although
English translations exist while the selected bib-
liography is entirely in English. Unfortunately,
Volume 30 Number 1 / January 2004 Religious Studies Review / 83

the book was not updated to include the rich liter- communities or synagogues. As such, it is an im- ous circles to him. Etkes is blessed with the abil-
ature of the last decade. However, it remains a portant source for studying popular religion. It is ity to describe very complex issues in very clear
very readable general introduction to east equally significant as a landmark in the use of the terms. This book can be used to great profit in the
European Jewish life and culture. Since the printed periodicals in calling for religious study of hasidism as well of it opponents and is
descriptions are in capsule form, the main utility change in Jewish communities. It goes without an important contribution to our understanding
of this book is as an overview. saying that this is a very necessary resource for of the religious history of East European Jewry.
Shad Stampfer the study of Dutch Jewry and its dialect of Yid- It comes with a useful glossary and is well
Hebrew University dish. The satirical text no doubt lost a great deal indexed.
in translation but it remains fascinating reading. Shaul Stampfer
SIMON-DUBNOW-INSTITUTS: YEAR- The introduction and the notes by the editors pro- Hebrew University
BOOK JAHRBUCH. VOLUME I. Edited by vide the necessary background f o r
Dean Diner. Miinchen: Deutsche Verlag-Anstalt, non-specialists in Dutch Jewish history. A PAINTING A PEOPLE: MAURYCY
2002. Pp. 543. €68,00, ISBN 3-421-05521-1. glossary, chronology, and bibliography are G o T n I E B AND JEWISH ART. By Ezra
This is the first volume of an annual yearbook appended. Mendelsohn. Tauber Institute for the Study of
published by the Simon Dubnow Institute for Shad Stampfer European Jewry Series. Hanover, NH: Brandeis
Jewish History and Culture at the University of Hebrew University University Press (University Press of New Eng-
Leipzig. This center, active already a number of land), 2002. Pp. xix + 269; maps, plates, figures.
years, is one the leading centers in Germany for AWAKENING LIVES: AUTOBIOGRA- $50.00,ISBN 1-58465-179-2.
study of the history and culture of East European PHIES OF JEWISH YOUTH IN POLAND Gottlieb was a very gifted Jewish painter
Jewry. The yearbook includes twenty-two stud- BEFORE THE HOLOCAUST. Edited by from Drohobycz (now Ukraine) who entered the
ies (fifteen in English, seven in German). The Jeffrey Shandler. New Haven, CT: Yale Univer- world of Polish art and made a major impression
first section (seven papers) is devoted to Polish sity Press, 2002. Pp. 437; illustrations, map. until his premature death in 1879 at the age of
Jewry in the interwar period; the second (four pa- $35.00, ISBN 0-300-09277-6. twenty-three. His career reflected the changes in
pers) deals with a variety of topics; the third In the 1930s the YIVO Institute (Jewish Sci- Jewish life in the Austro Hungarian empire in the
(eight papers) deals with Jewish organizational entific Institute) conducted a series of competi- nineteenth century, the complicated relations be-
life; and the last part of the book includes a re- tions for the best autobiographies written by ado- tween Jews and Poles, and Jewish attitudes to art.
search survey, a discussion of J. Gross’ book lescents. Hundreds of exceptionally revealing Gottlieb is perhaps best known today as one of
Neighbors, an article on Dubnow’s death in Riga texts were submitted; about 350 were found after the first East European Jews to paint on Jewish
(1941) and a survey of literature on aspects of the war, and fifteen of the most interesting and il- themes. However, he painted on a number of reli-
Rumanian Jewry. The two main topics (interwar luminating were translated and edited for publi- gious themes, including paintings of Jesus, and
Polish Jewry and organizational life) are central cation in this exceptional volume. There is noth- therefore his work and its reception touches on
in Jewish studies in recent years and this year- ing to compare to this collection as providing a many religious issues. Mendelsohn provides a
book provides the most up to date collection of picture of the world of Jewish youth in Poland. full historical perspective both from the point of
studies in the field. The contributors come from The collection is paAcularly rich in insights as to view of Jewish and Polish history as well as the
the US, Germany, England, Poland, and Israel. issues of religious faith and the crisis of faith history of art. He discusses Jews as artists and as
The editors succeeded in bringing together some among young boys and girls-along with all the subject of painting and provides detailed analy-
of the best-known veteran scholars in the field to-other difficulties of adolescence. The texts are ses of Gottlieb’s oeuvre. His analysis of the re-
gether with very talented young researchers. The carefully annotated and the result is a very read- ception of Gottlieb is illuminating and the book
book would be a valuable addition to collections able volume. The autobiographies are ideal closes with a discussion of “the universalist im-
dealing with Polish Jewish history (especially sources for analysis and discussion for classes pulse in Jewish art.’’ This book gives a fresh and
cultural history) and Jewish-non-Jewish dealing with modern developments in Judaism, original perspective on East European Jewish
relations in central Europe. holocaust studies and East European history. life and culture. It is equally important for studies
Shaul Stampfer They are moving, candid and should evoke of religion and art as well as Jewish-non Jewish
Hebrew University strong responses among young (and not so relations.
young) readers today. This is one of the most Shaul Stampfer
STORM IN THE COMMUNITY YIDDISH important publications in Jewish studies in Hebrew University
POLEMICAL PAMPHLETS OF AMSTER- recent years.
DAM JEWRY 1797-1798. Edited by Jozeph Shaul Stampfer JUDENTUM UND AUFKLARUNG:
Michman and Marion Aptroot. Cincinnati, OH: Hebrew University JfjDISCHES SELBSTVERSTANDNIS IN
Hebrew Union College Press, 2002. Pp. 527; DER B fjRGE RLIC H EN 6 E FFE NT-
plates. $49.95, ISBN 0-87820-220-X. THE GAON OF VILNA: THE MAN AND LICHKEIT. Edited by Arno Herzig, Hans Otto
In the years 1797-1798 there was a bitter HIS IMAGE. By Immanuel Etkes. Berkeley: Horch, and Robert Juette. Goettingen:
struggle for the leadership of the local Ashkenazi University of California Press, 2002. Pp. 299. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 2002. Pp. 244.
Jewish community between a group of tradition- $45.00, ISBN 0-520-22394-2. €28,00, ISBN 3-525-36262-5.
alists and what started out as a small group of This is a translation of a collection of studies This collection of nine original studies is a
modernists. In order to press their charges and that appeared in various places and were pub- significant contribution to the understanding of
demands, the latter group started publishing a se- lished as a collection in Hebrew five years ago. how Jews (and others) saw themselves in the
ries of booklets in Amsterdam Yiddish that em- The volume was well received in Israel and contexts of bourgeois society in Germany. The
ployed satire as a means for demanding change. should find many appreciative readers today. authors took part in a large-scale research project
Not long after, the traditionalists responded with Elijah ben Solomon or the Gaon of Vilna lived in of the Deutschen Forschungsgeminschaft and
a series of their own. These publications offer a eighteenth-century Lithuania and was famed as these are the impressive results of this project.
unique insight into popular religion among Am- having achieved total mastery of classical Jewish Almost all of the studies share sophisticated
sterdam Jews and the dynamic of modernization. literature. He had a noteworthy impact on the methodologies, bibliographical comprehensive-
This volume presents the Yiddish texts of the Jews of his period and was a key figure in the ness, and innovative choice of research topics
bulk of the two series together with a translation struggle against hasidism. Etkes’ studies deal and sources. Among the themes dealt with are
into English. This is one of the most vivid de- both with the personality of the Gaon and his ac- educational programs, modernization and atti-
scriptions of struggle for authority in Jewish tivities as well as his image and attitudes of vari- tudes to death, the debate over circumcision,
84 / Religious Studies Review
synagogue architects and modernization, and
more. The book has much to offer readers inter-
ested in haskala and the response of German
Jewry to modernity. The studies display a sensi-
tivity to all the sectors of the Jewish community
and not just to the modernizers. It does not at-
tempt to offer a survey of the topic as a whole, al-
though the introduction does attempt to give a
more general picture. The individual studies are
generally well-written and enlightening. It is not
indexed which unfortunately is common today in
collections of studies.
Shad Stampfer
Hebrew University
DIE JUDISCHE BEVOLKERUNG IM
MODERNISIERUNGSPROZESS
GALIZIENS(1867-1914).By Teresa Andlauer.
Menschen und Strukturen/Historisch-
sozialwissenschaftliche Studien series, 11. New
York: Peter Lang, 2001. Pp. 373; maps. $25.95,
ISBN 3-631-36749-X.
This fine book, which seems to have been un-
justifiably overlooked in much of the current
scholarly literature, is one of the more important
publications on East European Jewish history to
appear in the last few years. This is based on a
doctoral dissertation written by Andlauer under
the direction of the distinguished Basel historian
H. Haumann. By carefully mining the German
language and Polish language sources on the
Jews of Galicia, the author provides a panoramic
picture of the place of the Jews in the moderniza-
tion of Galicia-and it might be added, the pro-
cess of modernization of the Jews. The author
concentrates on demographic, political, educa-
tional and economic processes and provides a
well-based synthesis of a broad range of materi-
als. Galician Jewry (including the Krakow and
Lvov regions) was a pivotal community; and un-
til now there has been no detailed picture of the
process of modernization in this community nor
of their contribution to the development of Po-
land. While there is little direct discussion of reli-
gious developments in Galicia at this time (and
there were!), this book provides the essential
background for understanding religious modem-
ization. The book is clear and the detailed table
of contents makes up, in part, for the absence of
an index.
S h a d Stampfer
Hebrew University
APPROPRIATELY SUBVERSIVE: MOD-
ERN MOTHERS IN TRADITIONAL RELI-
GIONS. By Tova Hartman Halbertal. Cam-
bridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2002. Pp.
xi + 185. $29.95, ISBN 0-674-00886-3.
This highly original book deals with mother-
ing (mothers’ subjective experiences as socializ-
ers) of daughters among Israeli modem orthodox
Jewish mothers of European (Ashkenazi) origin
and American Roman Catholic mothers. She is
very self aware of the difficulties of comparative
studies and uses it to add depth to the book.
Given the Jewish background of the author, the
descriptions of Jewish women seem fuller and
more nuanced than those of Catholic mothers but
nonetheless the comparisons are often enlighten-
ing. Hartman Halbertal emphasizes the variety
of responses to limited roles for women in both
religious traditions and points out the
problematics of the various attempts to respond
to this condition. While the individuals she inter-
viewed do not necessarily reflect the totality of
issues and responses, they are individual enough
to offer a sense of the range of issues and re-
sponses. The theological sensitivity of Hartman
Halbertal allows her to give due attention to the
gaps and links between behavior and its theolog-
ical justification which are often contradictary.
By showing similarities and differences between
Jews and Catholics, this book breaks down su-
perficial stereotypes without losing awareness of
the distinct paths of both groups. It should be
very useful for the study of women and religious
life, contemporary religious thought, and cer-
tainly for Judaism and Catholicism today. It
should probably be required reading for
prospective husbands and fathers of many
traditions as well.
Shad Stampfer
Hebrew University
THE RABBE’S DAUGHTER MEMOIR OF
A HASIDIC CHILDHOOD. By Malkah
Shapiro. Philadelphia: Jewish Publication Soci-
ety, 2002. Pp. xlviii + 253. $30.00, ISBN
0-8276-0725-3.
Shapiro (nee Hapstein) was the daughter of
the Hassidic rabbi of Kozienice. Born in 1894,
she moved to Palestine in 1926. Shortly before
her death in 1971, she published a volume of sto-
ries including a cycle devoted to Kozienice in
which under a light disguise, she described life in
the hassidic court as she saw it as an eleven year
old girl. Of course, this was written (by an older
woman selectively recreating her childhood) in
the aftermath of the holocaust. Nonetheless, this
book provides a fascinating picture from a
woman’s point of view of life in the court of a
hassidic rabbi. The author was interested in
painting a picture of a world gone by, not in pro-
viding details for a history of Hasidism. Hence,
she emphasized day to day life and impressions
of people and events in the eyes of a young girl.
However, the total impact is one that counterbal-
ances the exotic images that often appear in liter-
ature on Hasidism. The translation by Nehemia
Polen is superb and in every case when I had a
question about the translation, I checked the
original and Polen was correct. He also appended
a detailed and comprehensive introduction that
deals with both the author and the text. There is a
full bibliography and index which add utility to
the book. This book is useful reading for students
of Hasidism and the history of Jewish family life
especially in Poland.
Shad Stampfer
Hebrew University
JOURNEY TO A NINETEENTH-CEN-
TURY SHTETL: THE MEMOIRS OF
YEKHEZKEL KOTIK. Edited by David
Volume 30 Number 1 / January 2004
Assaf. Raphael Patai Series in Jewish folklore
and anthropology. Detroit: Wayne State Univer-
sity Press, 2002. Pp. 540. $39.95, ISBN
0-8 143-2804-0.
The life-religious, social and other-of
Jews in traditional small towns (the “shtetl”) and
the sense that this world was lost has been the
topic of a variety of studies. This sense of de-
struction is not just a product of the post-Hole
caust era. This memoir, first published in Yid-
dish in 1912 and which deals with the mid-nine-
teenth century, already was written then as a re-
sponse to a sense that a traditional world had
been lost. This feeling led the author to recreate
on paper the world he had grown up in. He was
born in 1847 in a small Lithuanian town and was
deeply familiar with both hasidim and their op-
ponents. After marriage Kotik lived in various
small towns as a leaseholder before ultimately
becoming a well-known activist in Warsaw
Jewry. The memoir provides a detailed picture of
shtetl life in the nineteenth century. It is intro-
duced by the editor’s perceptive analysis of the
author and the book. The text is carefully me
tated so that the descriptions are understandable
to readers without any foreknowledge of East
European Jewish life and there is a fine index-a
rarity in autobiographies of this type. This de-
lightful book is very useful for any exploration of
traditional Jewish religious life in Eastern Eu-
rope as well as its institutions and the way it
changed. It is very readable and should m u s e
interest among many readers.
Shad Stampfer
Hebrew University
Islam
A MUSLIM PRIMER: BEGINNER’S
GUIDETO ISLAM. Second Edition. By Ira G.
Zepp, Jr. Fayetteville: University of Arkansas
Press, 2000. Pp. xxxvii + 213; illustrations.
$22.50, ISBN 1-55728-595-0.
This book, very slightly updated from the
1992 first edition, is not meant to “serve as a col-
lege text or act as a resource for the professional
scholar,” but rather “to help correct distortions,
stereotypes, and discrimination.” Zepp discusses
the history, beliefs and laws of Islam, before fo-
cusing on the subject that concerns him most: the
bases for dialogue between Islam and Christian-
ity. Zepp’s efforts are admirable throughout this
journey. While his use of only English sources
limits his investigations, he is concerned to gain
an insider’s perspective by concentrating on
works written by Muslims. His range of main
sources is somewhat limited and narrow in inter-
pretation, and he does run into some linguistic
problems. While at times his presentation could
benefit from further explanation, more precise
source material, and a sharper demarcation be-
tween Islam and. the West vis-h-vis Islam and
Christianity, the work in general is both compre-
hensible and comprehensive. Zepp’s “exercise
Volume 30 Number 1 / January 2004
in understanding” thus emerges as sincere,
fruidul, and a pleasure to read.
Ghuda Osmn
San Diego State Univerisity
ISLAM: RELIGION, HISTORY, AND C M -
LIZATION. By Seyyed Hossein Nasr. San
Francisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2003. Pp. xxv +
191. $12.95, ISBN 0-06-050714-4.
In the wake of September 11, 2001, as
anti-Muslim sentiment swept the world, Islam
suddenly appeared on the sociqmlitical scenes
as an alarmingly unpredictable phenomenon. In
this sensitive climate, Nasr’s succinct reintro-
duction to Islam presents a refreshing and in-
sightful overview that is neither apologetic nor
prejudiced by the politics of the events. Ambi-
tiously covering Islam’s doctrines, beliefs, eth-
ics, institutions, socio-political practices,
schools of thought, and role in the contemporary
world, Nasr’s eloquent and authoritative presen-
tation is of interest to students and scholars of Is-
lam and particularly to beginners and those seek-
ing a brief encounter with the history and princi-
ples of this world religion. Nasr’s review empha-
sizes two points: that Islam is still largely misun-
derstood in the West and that traditional Islam, as
the norm, has continued to sustain a genuine
socio-religious space in today’s modernity. The
living reality of traditional Islam, Nasr argues,
explains its vigorous survival through the pas-
sionate belief and commitment of its followers
despite the relentless onslaught of secularism
over the past two centuries. For Nasr Islam is not
merely an object of academic inquiry but first
and foremost an object of belief, and this is
perhaps where the value of his unique reading
lies at this critical juncture of human history.
Samer Akkuch
University of Adelaide, South Africa
AL-FARABI. FOUNDER OF ISLAMIC
NEOPLATONISM: HIS LIFE, WORKS
AND INFLUENCE. By Majid Fakhry. Great Is-
lamic Thinkers. Oxford: One World, 2002. Pp.
viii + 168; bibliography, index. $23.95. ISBN
1-85168-302-X.
Fakhry’s book is a valuable introduction to
one of the greatest Muslim philosophers,
al-Fmbi. The work consists of a brief history of
al-FiMbi, critical summaries and commentary of
his most important compositions, and a short dis-
cussion of his impact on Islamic thought. The
topical organization of the chapters highlights
the very different genres in which this thinker
worked. These include logic, theory of knowl-
edge, emanation vs. creation, ethics, political
thc~ght,and music. In most Fakhry presents
ep tomies of a few related works and comments
on their strengths and weaknesses while compar-
ing them with the workof ancient and contempo-
rar, r philosophers. Discoveries over the last fifty
yerrs have uncovered a dramatic number of
al-I ’arabi’s“lost” texts so the book offers a sorely
net ded reappraisal of his achievements.
Fak hry’s wide command of not only al-Farabi’s
w n ings but ancient philosophy and contempo-
rary Muslim, Christian, and Jewish thought is
impressive. The brevity of his format, neverthe-
less, can not-and does not intend to-commu-
nicate the finer nuances of al-FMbi’s thought. It
forms an introduction or a companion handbook
to undergraduate and graduate students or the
uninitiated scholar.
Stuart D. Sears
ACWSSRCAJEH International and
Area Studies Fellow
AND GOD KNOWS THE SOLDIERS: THE
AUTHORITATIVE AND AUTHORITAR-
IAN IN ISLAMIC DISCOURSE. By Khaled
M. Abou El Fadl. Lanham, MD: University PESS
of America, 2001. Pp.vii + 204. Cloth, $76.00,
ISBN 0-7618-2083-3; paper, $5 1.00, ISBN
0-76 18-2084-1.
The title of this provocative, brave, and com-
pelling book is a reference to Qur’an, chapter 74,
verse 3 1, which Abou El Fadl sees as a “magnifi-
cent denial of the authoritarian.” For him, the
verse suggests that only God truly knows the di-
vine Will and the final judgement on matters re-
lated to that Will must be left to God. God’s “sol-
diers” can only ever strive for an implementation
of the law which will, of necessity, incorporate
difference of opinion, change according to cir-
cumstances, and be guided by the highest Islamic
principles of justice reflecting God’s majesty
andbeauty. Those who feel otherwise are author-
itarians hiding behind an Islamic cloak. The
book is an analysis, fully steeped in the tradition
of Islamic jurisprudence (fiqh) of the legal dis-
course of contemporary Muslims. According to
Abou El Fadl many modem Muslims appeal to
classical texts for authoritative opinions and then
transform those opinions into authoritarian dicta
without reference to the guiding moral principles
of Islam. In making the pronouncements these
Muslims are aiming to assert piety and
“Islamicity”; at the same time, they deem the
complex legal discussions of the past redundant
and arid dogma. Abou El Fadl’s point is illus-
trated through a detailed analysis of a legal judg-
ment (famu) regarding the legality of a Muslim
standing for the recitation of the national anthem.
The complexities raised by the classical jurists
are explored fully and the modem edict (which
decreed the answer to be “No”) is exposed as
shallow authoritarianism in action. This book
covers the many critical issues and theoretical
stances which modem Muslims discuss. It aims
to raise the level of Muslim English discourse
about law, the rights of women in Islam and her-
meneutics. A third, expanded edition of a book-
let first published in 1997, the work is a brief yet
stunningly brilliant view of classical Islamic law
in action, combined with an incisive critique of
how Islamic law must develop in current times in
order to remain relevant and non-authoritarian.
The book is highly recommended for all
interested in Islamic law and contemporary
Muslim progressive thought; it is unfortunate
that the paperback version is so expensive.
Andrew Rippin
Universiry of Victoria, Canada
Religious Studies Review / 85
THE RHETORIC OF SOBRIETY: WINE IN
EARLY ISLAM. By Kathryn Kueny. Albany:
State University of New York Press, 2001. Pp.
xix + 179. Cloth, $57.50, ISBN 0-7914-5053-8;
paper, $18.95, ISBN 0-7914-5054-6.
Kueny’s study of pre-modem Muslim atti-
tudes toward wine (and alcohol in general) is a
useful contribution to a poorly understood area.
Drawing on a range of sacred, historical, and lit-
erary sources, the author demonstrates that
wine’s status was both ambiguous and at times
contentious. The seemingly contradictory state-
ments about alcohol in the Qur’an were replaced
by a more uniform condemnation in the Hadith,
while it retained both a literal and metaphorical
significance for poets. However, Kueny is inter-
ested less in wine’s legal or historical role in Is-
lam than in tracing, through the debates about
wine, the various possibilities offered by differ-
ent literary genres for interpreting disputed con-
cepts and asserting Islam’s distinct identity. Us-
ing a wide range of sources from the sixth to thir-
teenth centuries, she attempts to paint a compre-
hensive picture of the Islamic tradition’s views
on this particular ambiguous issue. Kueny delib-
erately does not examine the periodization of the
tradition’s development, and the book as a whole
suffers from a lack of historical perspective. Her
reliance on authors as diverse as Jalal al-Din
Rumi, al-Tabari, Ibn Ishaq and Tarafah b.
al-‘Abd, to name but a few, provides less an
overview of the tradition than snap-shots of vari-
ous individual opinions on wine. Nonetheless,
Kueny’s book offers some worthwhile new
perspectives and is recommended to all those
interested in the emergence of the Islamic
tradition.
A. C. S. Peacock
British Institute of Archaeology at Ankara
POVERTY AND CHARITY IN MIDDLE
EASTERN CONTEXTS. Edited by Michael
Bonner, Mine Ener, and Amy Singer. State UN-
versity of New York Press Series in the Social
and Economic History of the Middle East. Al-
bany: State University of New York Press, 2003.
Pp. ix + 345; illustrations. $23.95, ISBN
0-7914-5738-9.
In May 2000 a conference addressing poverty
and charity in the Islamic Middle East was held
at the University of Michigan. The fifteen studies
gathered in this book are a most welcome out-
come of that conference and offer many insights
into the theories and practice of sadaqa (charity),
“a signal characteristic of Islamic societies.” The
volume has an internal coherence far beyond
what one might expect from a book where the
contributions span the seventh- to the twenti-
eth-century chronologically and range across the
Arabic and Turkish speaking areas of the great
Islamic Mediterranean world, as the authors
move beyond the discussion of normative texts
into the arena of applications of charitable pre-
cepts. These case studies address issues such as
defining poverty and the poor, the roles of givers
and recipients, the rights of the poor and motiva-
tions of donors, the importance of institutions
86 / Religious Studies Review
(the analyses of w a d s feature prominently in the
volume), gender dimensions of charity, and the
political and social repercussions of actions
taken to support communal welfare. This
e x c e lle n t volume p r o v id es a valuable
introduction in what promises to be afertile field
of scholarship.
Warren C. Schultz
DePaul University
STONE SPEAKER: MEDIEVAL TOMBS,
LANDSCAPE, AND BOSNIAN IDENTITY
IN THE POETRY OF MAK DIZDAR. By
Amila Buturovic. Translated by Francis R.
Jones. New York: Palgrave, 2002. Pp. xii + 229.
$69.95, ISBN 0-3 12-23946-7,
Buturovic has written a wonderful analysis of
the Bosnian poet Mehmedalija Mak Dizdar
(1917-1971). Her book includesphotographs by
Andras Reidlmayer, as well as a bilingual (Eng-
lish and Bosnian) selection and translation by
Francis Jones of Dizdar’s most famous work,
“Stone Sleeper” (“Kameni spava?). Dizdar’s
1966 work was a meditation on the stecak, or
mediaeval limestone burial monoliths that dot
the countryside of Bosnia-Herzegovina. The ge-
nius of Buturovic’s work is her voicing of
Bosnian identity, both real and imagined, histori-
cal and contemporary, through her analysis of
Dizdar’s poetry. The book is crucial to those
seeking to learn about Islam in Bosnia. As a
study of Bosnian cultural identity, it is also a
valuable corrective to the polemical or apolo-
getic literature that is far too readily available
about Bosnia. Buturovic’s work could also be
used effectively in courses on religion and litera-
ture, contemporary religious thought, death and
dying, or Islam in the modem world. One hopes
that the book will be available in a less expensive
paperback version to make it more suitable for
course adoptions.
Amir Hussain
California State University, Northridge
WRITING THE FEMININE: WOMEN IN
ARAB SOURCES. Edited by Manuela Marin
and Randi Deguilhem. New York: I. B. Tauris,
2002. Pp. xxvi + 278. ISBN 1-86064-697-2.
This collection of eleven articles, which
arose out of the research program of the Euro-
pean Science Foundation titled lndivid~aland
Society in the Mediterranean Muslim World
from 1996-2001, brings together work by Euro-
pean and Middle Eastem scholars [hat so far has
not been widely accessible in English. In four
parts a wide variety of different documentary
sources are investigated regarding women’s visi-
bility and agency. Sources under consideration
include epics, poetry, proverbs, autobiographies,
a variety ofjuridical sources, chronicles and bio-
graphical dictionaries, as well as oral tradition
and Arab visual art. In addition to a considerable
range of source materials, the collection also en-
compasses a broad chronological spread from
pre-Islamic times to the twentieth century with a
geographical focus on the Western Mediterra-
nean Muslim world. The collection features a
Volume 30 Number 1 / January 2004
well-written introduction, which brings together
the various contributions under a common
thread, challenging the traditional “myth of the
passive Arab Muslim woman who is subjected,
without recourse, to the dual tyranny and misog-
yny of both her male relatives and her religion.”
Indeed, the volume provides the reader with am-
ple evidence from a vast array of documentary
sources that women’s lives, and attitudes toward
women, were highly variegated and depended on
a variety of social. cultural, political,
geographical, and historical factors.
AEfons H. Teipen
Furman University
THE MANTLE OF THE PROPHET: RELI-
GION AND POLITICS IN IRAN. By Roy
Mottahedeh. Oxford: Oneworld, 2002 [ 19851.
Pp. 416. $25.95, ISBN 1-85168-234-1.
First published in 1985, Mottahedeh’s book
remains the best one volume introduction to
modem Iran and the events leading up to the
1979 revolution. The only change in this re-
printed edition is a two-page preface by the au-
thor. Anyone who has not yet read this book is
urged to do so. In addition to being a superb in-
troduction to religion and politics in Iran, the
book is that rare scholarly volume that is also
beautifully written and a genuine pleasure to
read. One thinks of the magisterial work of Peter
Brown as a suitable analogue to Mottahedeh’s
blend of scholarship and prose. Sections of the
book are told through the voice of Ali Hashemi, a
pseudonym for an actual mullah from the theo-
logical capital city of Qom. These sections pro-
vide valuable insight into the backgrounds and
lives of Iranian clerics. Other sections offer ac-
counts and analysis of the development of mod-
ern Iran. The book would be suitable as a text-
book for any number of courses on religion in
Iran or Islam in the modem world.
Amir Hussain
California State University, Northridge
FAITHLINES: MUSLIM CONCEPTIONS
OF ISLAM AND SOCIETY. By Riaz Hassan.
New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. Pp.
xviii + 276. $35.00, ISBN 0-19-579633-0.
The introduction to Hassan’s book states that,
given the size and sociological importance of the
Muslim worId, it is vital to present a clear analy-
sis of the religious, social, and political trends
that characterize it. In pursuit of that goal, the au-
thor has interviewed Muslims in Egypt, Paki-
stan, Indonesia, and Khazakstan about their be-
liefs and practices, then used their answers to
make sweeping conclusions about Islam in those
countries. For instance, finding that 97 percent of
Pakistani respondents said they have no doubts
about God’s existence, Hassan has used that and
other information to give Pakistan an “orthodoxy
index” of 76 percent. The problem with this
study, however, is not so much the validity of its
conclusions, but the reliability of its methodol-
ogy. By his own admission the author states that
he encountered a tremendous amount of suspi-
cion from Muslims who assumed the study was
being conducted by a Western intelligence orga-
nization in order to discredit Islam. One must
wonder how Mr. Hassan thought a Muslim on the
streets of Pakistan would respond to a Western
stranger’s questions about the strength of his be-
lief in God. Nonetheless, there is some useful in-
formation in the book, particularly with regard to
the lack of trust Muslims in these four countries
have in their governments, as opposed to the trust
they emphatically place in their respective
religious authorities (ulama).
Reza Aslan
University of California, Santa Barbara
UNDERSTANDING THE BENGAL MUS-
LIMS: INTERPRETATIVE ESSAYS. Edited
by Rafiuddin Ahmed. New York: Oxford Uni-
versity Press, 2001. Pp. 271. $35.00, ISBN
0- 19-565520-6.
The ten a rtic le s published in this
multidisciplinary volume examine various as-
pects of the history of “Bengal” Muslims since
the sixteenth century. Lacking a specific over-
arching theme, the articles of this highly interest-
ing volume can be read, as the editor points out,
as explorations into the changing meaning of
Muslim identity and the historic emergence of a
Muslim community in Bengal. The book starts
off with two articles by R. Eaton and R. Nicholas
investigating the strong local traits of Islam and
Vaishnavism in rural Bengal, followed by P.
Bertocci’s study about the role of Islam in the
shaping of the rural social order. The political
and cultural life in the nineteenth and early twen-
tieth centuries are the subject of the following ar-
ticles where pan-islamic movements (M. Shah),
the transcommunal reading public of Mir
Mosharraf Hosain (C. Seely) and the “feminist
theory” of writer Rokeya Sakhawat Hossein are
discussed. Concepts of secularism are examined
by S. Khan and J. O’Connell who explore respec-
tively the writings of Kazi Abdul Wadud and the
history of secularism in Bangladesh since 1971.
The concluding articles offer an analysis of the
state’s use of an Islamic discourse (S. Feldman)
and a study of the role of the Jama’t-i-Islami in
Bangladeshi politics since the 1940s(E. Rahim).
Frank W. Peter
Free University, Berlin
SHARI’A LAW AND SOCIETY: TRADI-
TION AND CHANGE IN SOUTH ASIA. By
Alamgir Muhammad Serajuddin. New York:
Oxford University Press, 2001. Pp. xvi +409; ap-
pendixes. $37.50, ISBN 0-19-579666-7.
In this book Serajuddin places the legal de-
bates that occupy many in the South Asian Mus-
lim communities within the wider discussions
that are taking place in the Islamic world be-
tween the modernists and the traditionalists. Al-
though generally balanced in his approach, he
demonstrates early his preference for the mod-
ernist positions as he moves through the areas of
family law, inheritance law, polygamy, divorce
and the maintenance of wives. Serajuddin’s lib-
eral use of case history in Pakistan, Bangladesh
and lndia (“he admits his coverage of lndia is a
Volume 30 Number 1 / January 2004
bit thin”), as well as detailed historical opinions
from the five schools of shari’a make this book
more appropriate for a law student, graduate stu-
dent, or specialist. Reflecting primarily on Paki-
stan’s Commission on Marriage and Family
Laws (1955) and the resulting Muslim Family
Laws Ordinance (1961) “provided in translation
in an appendix,” Serajuddin amply demonstrates
the continuum that exists between Arabfislamic
society and history, revitalization of shari’a and
cultural modernization in South Asia. Although
occasionally overindulgent with quotations,
Serajuddin succeeds in drawing our attention not
just to the important realities of women’s rights
and family law in the subcontinent, but also the
ways that the modernists and the traditionalists
have used these issues to stake out their own
intellectual, legal, religious, and political
territories.
Eric J. Rothgery
University of Iowa
SALAAM AMERICA: SOUTH ASIAN
MUSLIMS IN NEW YORK. By Aminah
Mohammad-Arif. Translated by Sarah Patey.
Anthem South Asian Studies. London: Anthem,
2002. Pp. viii + 355. Cloth, $59.00, ISBN
1-84331-009-0; paper, $22.50, ISBN
1-84331-010-4.
This volume is a translation of the author’s
French doctoral dissertation. Written by a South
Asian Muslim, Salaam America provides a
fact-filled and interpretive study of the trials and
tribulations of New York Muslims originating in
India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. Working
within Paul Brass’ instrumentalist paradigm,
Mohammad-Arif looks at the social, political,
and economic factors that shape South Asian
Muslim practice, belief, and identity in New
Yo&. The author concludes that pre-migration
experiences in the home country determine the
level of integration and success achieved by
South Asian Muslims in the US.She argues, for
example, that the social and economic success of
South Asians in the US is determined by the level
of education received and the social and eco-
nomic status enjoyed prior to migration. The
conclusions are not surprising, but the study pro-
vides many nuanced analyses of how South
Asian Muslims negotiate their identities with a
variety of Others, be they Muslims from other re-
gions of the world or non-Muslim Euro-Amen-
cans. The work is not overly theoretical, making
it suitable for use in the undergraduate
classmom.
Frank J. Korom
Boston University
Afkica
CHURCH, STATE AND SOCIETY IN
KENYA FROM MEDIATION TO OPPOSI-
“ION 1963-1993. By Galia Sabar. Portland,
OR: ISBS, 2002. Pp. xvi + 334; illustrations.
$59.50, ISBN 0-7 146-5077-3.
Sabar’s book analyzes the role of the Angli-
can Church in independent Kenya. Specifically,
she demonstrates how involvement in social ser-
vices such as education, health, and economics
integrated the Church into society. Activity in
the local communities slowly drew Church lead-
ers into politics. Beginning in the colonial period
and continuing through the Kenyatta regime
(1963-1978), thechurch served as a soft-spoken
mediator between the political elites and the rest
of society providing services the government
was unable or unwilling to provide. Even during
these years, the Church’s loose structure allowed
radical clergy to speak out against the govern-
ment with relative impunity. Under President
Moi the elite abuse of political power increased
and the Anglican hierarchy gradually unified in
its opposition to the un-democratic government.
The author describes government sanctioned
election fraud, land theft, property destruction,
intimidation, and murder. Church social organi-
zations were often the only venues for open polit-
ical discussions. Overall, Sabar lays out a chro-
nological account of Church activities, based on
seven years of research in Kenya coupled with
unfettered access to the voluminous Church ar-
chives. Sabar also organizes topical discussions
in a coherent manner that makes for interesting
reading. For example, the author highlights the
role of ethnic divisions, both as a factor in divid-
ing spoils among the elite and in preventing the
development of an organized opposition. While
this is primarily a book about the political
involvement of the Anglican Church, it will also
be a useful reference on independent Kenya in
general.
Michael P. Johnson
Tulane University
The Americas:
Central and South
America
COLONIAL SAINTS: DISCOVERING THE
HOLY IN THE AMERICAS, 1500-1800.Ed-
ited by Allan Greer and Jodi Bilinkoff. New
York: Routledge, 2003. Pp.xxii + 317. Cloth,
$90.00, ISBN 0-415-93495-8; paper, $24.95,
ISBN 0415-93496-6.
Most people think about the inhabitants of the
colonial Americas in terms of pilgrims and pi-
rates, conquistadores and colonial landowners,
slaves and indentured servants, et al. Few people
spontaneously consider the colonial Americas as
locales for sanctity. Yet such is the view pro-
vided by this volume’s fourteen essays, which
were originally presentations at a conference at
the University of Toronto in 2000. The colonial
venues vary from Massachusetts with its Quaker
martyrs to New France with saints like Isaac
Jogues, Marie de I’Incarnation, and Catherine
Tekakwitha; surprisingly Tekakwitha’s life was
translated into Spanish and popularized in Mex-
RelQious Studies Review / 87
ico. Mexico is also represented by essays on de-
votion to St. Anne, the spiritual friendship of
Francisco Losa and Gregorio Lopez, and the
“disputed sainthood of Bishop Juan de Palafox;
in addition, there is a useful review summarizing
recent historical investigations about Our Lady
of Guadalupe. This volume also contains essays
about the Haitian spirit world, devotion to St.
Anthony in Brazil, the rivalry between shamans
and Jesuits in Paraguay, and Peruvian devotion
to both Rosa de Lima and Our Lady of
Guadelupe-the Spanish Virgin of Extre-
madura, not the Mexican Virgin of Tepeyac. On
the whole, the most valuable essays are those
which investigate primary sources, including ar-
tistic representations; unfortunately, a few
essays are problematic in advancing sociological
hypotheses that do not really seem to fit the data.
John T. Ford
Catholic University of America
RASTAFARI: FROM OUTCASTSTO CUL
TURE BEARERS. By Ennis Barrington
Edmonds. New York: Oxford University Press,
2003. 4. 208. $29.95, ISBN 0-19-513376-5.
This extremely useful book explores how
Rastafari has endured and grown without having
developed the institutional markers of
“routinization” that Max Weber proposes are
necessary for religions to survive. A sociologist
of religion, Edmonds revises Weber, focusing on
charisma and routinization, and argues that the
networks of small groups that have emerged in
the movement as well as its ideological and sym-
bolic worldview (especially as expressed in lan-
guage and ritual) have contributed to Rastafari’s
survival and development. He examines the path
by which Rastafarians have moved from an
oppositional and denigrated group within Jamai-
can society to one that has become politically
and culturally influential. Edmonds also dis-
cusses Rastafari’s influence on Jamaican popu-
lar culture, giving particular attention to reggae.
Edmonds’ work provides a thorough and read-
able introduction to the history, practices, and
world view of Rastafari; and while the book
clearly is focused on the case study, his theoreti-
cal work addresses broad questions about how
new religious movements develop and engage
the cultures that surround them.
Judith Weisenfeld
Vassar College
ALONE BEFORE GOD: THE RELIGIOUS
ORIGINS OF MODERNITY IN MEXICO.
By Pamela Voekel. Durham NC: Duke Univer-
sity Press, 2002. Pp. viii + 336. Cloth, $64.95,
ISBN 0-8223-2927-1; paper, $21.95, ISBN
0-8223-2943-3.
Voekel argues that economic and social elites
in Mexico shifted from an external, corporate
Catholicism to an interior, direct and individual
relationship with God that promoted a newly
emerging, nominally egalitarian political ideol-
ogy. Responding to traditional historiography,
which dismissed Mexican Catholicism as a pro-
foundly conservative force, Alone Before God
88 / Religious Studies Review
argues that the Bourbon attack on corporate priv-
ilege, and the resulting liberal theory, was gener-
ated by religion. Voekel’s method is to analyze
burial ceremonies and plots, arguing that
ostentatious and elaborate ceremonies fell from
favor because they were linked with corporate
privilege. Her book is well argued, and Voekel’s
method demonstrates the promise of using mate-
rial cultural analysis to probe ideological shifts.
Alone Before God is an excellent resource for the
scholar or graduate student, but has limited
undergraduate use.
Paul Kahan
Drew University
CHURCH-STATE RELATIONS & RELI-
GIOUS LIBERTY IN MEXICO: HISTORI-
CAL AND CONTEMPORARY PERSPEC-
TIVES. Edited by Derek H. Davis. Waco, TX: J.
M. Dawson Institute of Church-State Studies,
Baylor University, 2002. Pp. 250. $15.95, ISBN
0-929182-63-4.
Eleven essays on church-state relations in
Mexico largely during the administration of
President Carlos Salinas de Gotari (1988-1994).
Three essays concern the reestablishment of dip-
lomatic relations with the Vatican and the consti-
tutional reforms that legalized many previously
prohibited church activities as the administration
sought closer ties with the Catholic Church to
shore up its own waning political legitimacy.
Two essays concern the political activity of the
growing number of evangelical Protestants in the
context of closer ties forged between the state
and Catholic Church. Other essays concern Ec-
clesiastical Base Communities, Liberation The-
ology and development, religiously based Hu-
man Rights Organizations, and the Sanctuary
Movement along the US-Mexico border. The in-
troduction presents a cursory historical overview
of church-state relations in Mexico and one es-
say discusses the period 1867-1884. Except for
the introduction by the editor, all essays previ-
ously were published in the Journal of Church
and State (edited by Davis and published by the
J. M. Dawson Institute of Church-State Studies,
for which he serves as Director) and largely will
interest scholars of modern Mexico and
church-state relations.
Rebecca Horn
University of Utah
THE RIGOBERTA MENCHU CONTRO-
VERSY. Edited by Arturo Arias. Minneapolis:
University of Minnesota Press, 2001. Pp.xiii +
418. $19.95, ISBN 0-8166-3626-5.
Essential for anyone who teaches Rigoberta
Menchu’s autobiography or the work by David
Stoll that (with help from conservative pundits)
called its value into question. Arias gathers
thirty-three documents about the controversy,
including journalistic interventions, scholarly
reflections, and a response from Stoll. On bal-
ance they tend to vindicate Menchu, but com-
plexities emerge in rich detail. Many of Stoll’s
complaints are established as trivial, such as his
frets about composite characters or his claim that
Volume 30 Number 1 /January %Kk%
Menchu’s brother was merely killed rather than
burned before her eyes. Others carry more
weight, such as evidence that Menchu was better
educated and less informed about Mayan tradi-
tion than she implies, and that struggles for land
were not so simply about rich vs. poor or Ladino
vs. Mayan as she suggests. At the heart of the de-
bate is Stoll’s doubt that Menchu’s stress on
class struggle was productive and representative,
fueling his efforts to discredit her book as “the
story of all poor Guatemalans” and reframe it as
counterproductive or conversely whether
Menchir’s choices were broadly representative
and defensible within the testimonio tradition.
There are also questions about translating be-
tween the book’s original context and the pres-
ent, especially in light of Menchu’s 1992 Nobel
Prize and the growing salience of indigenous
cultural politics in Guatemala. Not least impor-
tantly, Arias sheds fascinating light on the
book’s production. Highly recommended for
scholars concerned with the Latin American
religious left, the politics of representation, or
“political correctness” in the US academy.
Mark Hulsether
University of Tennessee
The Americas: USA
THE TRANSFORMATION OF AMERI-
CAN RELIGION: THE STORY OF A LATE
TWENTIETH-CENTURY AWAKENING.
By Amanda Porterfield. New York: Oxford Uni-
versity Press, 2001. Pp. 231. $27.50, ISBN
0-19-513 137-1.
Porterfield argues that the vitality of
post- 1960s American religion preserves the spir-
itual idealism and pragmatic concern of older
forms of spirituality, such as the Cistercian Order
of the Strict Observance and New England Puri-
tans. Thematically diverse, the author dedicates
chapters to (among other things) Protestantism,
Catholicism, Buddhism, “Nature Religion.”
This work lacks a strong conceptual framework
to organize the variety of post-modern religions
into meaningful categories. A further weakness
is the book’s impressionistic method. For in-
stance, one may agree with Porterfield that the
Vietnam War fostered attempts to re-sacralize
western culture but still judge her use of the film
The Godfather and basketball coach Phil Jack-
son’s Buddhism as dubious examples of a reli-
gious “awakening.” Even if one agrees with the
author’s underlying contention that modem
forms of religiosity are inherently heterogeneous
and therefore incapable of clear delinea-
tion-that doctrines, beliefs, and practices run
into each other and create pluralities of reli-
gion-lack of conceptual clarity and method-
ological rigor weaken the work and cast doubt on
the overall claim that late-twentieth-century
America has undergone a religious
transformation. Nevertheless, this work deserves
attention for its highly diverse subject matter.
Angel de Jesus Corres
University of Notre Dame
FAITH IN THE MARKET RELIGION AND
THE RISE OF UBRAN COMMERCIAL
CULTURE. Edited by John M. Ciggie and Di-
ane Watson. Piscataway, NJ: Rutgers University
Press, 2002. Pp. x + 259; Cloth, $60.00, ISBN
0-8 135-3098-9; paper, $22.00, ISBN
0-8 135-3099-7.
Attempting to overturn the popular lines of-
ten drawn between rural religiosity and urban
secularism, this text locates religion as a prime
motivator in urban commercialization from the
1880s to the present. Essays cover a variety of
topics from pop culture, architecture, gender,
fashion, and food, each demonstrating how com-
mercialization and capitalism have not quelled
religiosity, as secularization theory has long sug-
gested, but have provided fertile ground for its
growth. Those looking for deep theoretical en-
gagement with the artificiality of the pri-
vate/public, rurayurban, sacredsecular dichoto-
mies (which form the core of these essays) will
not find explicit discussions of this sort. Instead,
this work is useful in its ability to provide cogent
case studies that will foster classroom discus-
sions of this magnitude. While Faith in the Mar-
ker’s entertaining essays could easily fill a popu-
lar niche, it is ideal for cross-disciplinary college
classroom use in discussions of religion,
secularization theory, urbanization, and a host of
other areas.
&die E. Smith
University of California, Santa Barbara
HORIZONS OF THE SACRED: MEXICAN
TRADITIONS IN US. CATHOLICISM. Ed-
ited by Timothy Matovina and G a r y
Riebe-Estrella. Cushwa Center Studies of Ca-
tholicism in Twentieth-Century America. Ithaca:
Cornell University Press, 2002. Pp. ix + 189.
Cloth, $45.00, ISBN 0-8014-401 1-4; paper,
$19.95, ISBN 0-8014-8822-2.
Mexican immigrants have brought to the
United States not only their language, but also
their religious traditions. This volume examines
four transplanted religious practices: Matovina
describes devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe at
San Fernando Cathedral in San Antonio, Texas;
K. M. Davalos details the development of the Via
Crucis (re-enactment of Jesus’ way of the cross)
in the Pilsen-neighborhood of Chicago; L. Me-
dina and G. Cadena describe the public rituals
surrounding the Dias de 10s Muertos (Days of the
Dead) in Los Angeles; and, given the paucity of
academic literature on the topic, L. Leon pro-
vides a particularly valuable description and per-
ceptive analysis of the practices of a curandera
(“healer”) in East Los Angeles. The data pm-
vided by these four interesting and well written
essays are then considered in two theological re-
flections: R. Goizueta examines these religious
practices from the perspective of sacramental
imagination and 0.Espin examines “popularca-
Volume 30 Number 1 / January 2004: Religious Studies Review / 89

tholicism” in terms of doctrinal development. agribusinesses and wealthy farm-owners, who multi-culturaYmulti-religious society will find
This volume is both a welcome contribution to frequently imported “scab” labor to replace this work of immense value.
the growing literature on the religious practices strikers and sometimes used thugs a s Eleazar S.Fernandez
of Hispanic immigrants and a useful resource for strike-breakers; second, not only were the civil United Theological Seminary of the
reflecting on the theological implications of rights of the strikers often violated by police and Twin Cities
religiosidad popular (religion of the people). local authorities, UFW efforts were sometimes
John T. Ford under-mined by “sweet-heart” contracts negoti- “;MI RAZA PRIMERO!” (MY PEOPLE
Catholic University of America ated by the Teamsters’ Union; third, when strik- FIRST!): NATIONALISM, IDENTITY,AND
ing workers turned to their churches for assis- INSURGENCY IN THE CHICANO MOVE-
CAPTAIN AMERICA AND THE CRUSADE tance, the reaction was often luke-warm, even MENT IN LOS ANGELES, 1966-1978. By
AGAINST EVIL: THE DILEMMA OF cold. In spite of such odds, Chdvez continually Ernest0 Chdvez. Berkeley: University of Cali-
ZEALOUS NATIONALISM. By Robert protested against subminimal wages, substan- fornia Press, 2002. Pp.xvii + 166. Cloth, $44.95,
Jewett and John Shelton Lawrence. Grand Rap- dard housing, financial servitude, deprivation of ISBN 0-520-23017-5; paper, $18.95, ISBN
ids: Eerdmans, 2003. Pp. xvi + 392. $34.00, civil rights, pesticide poisoning, etc. Although 0-520-23018-3.
ISBN 0-8028-6083-4. the story of these struggles has often been told, This small book, which takes it title from a
A NT scholar and a philosopher write to this biography emphasizes the “moral vision” of popular slogan of the Chicano movement, begins
post-9/11 Americans, when again Americans Ch6vez as seen in both his hechos y dichos (do- with an initial description of the ethnic Mexican
wish to redress wrongs through redemptive vio- ings and sayings). For Chivez, the union was a community of Los Angeles in the 1950s and
lence. Captain America, a heroic comic book combination of familia and comunidad and, un- early 1960s. Chdvez then describes the rise and
character, illustrates America’s zealous nation- like most labor-leaders, Chdvez’s life-style re- demise of four Chicano organizations during the
alism, a mythology constructed upon biblical sembled the poverty of St. Francis of Assisi and 1960s and 1970s: the Brown Berets, a paramili-
stories and appearing today as civil religion. his union-strategy employed the non-violent tac- tary group resembling their black counterpart;
America’s wars illustrate the tragic conse- tics of Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. None- the Chicano Moratorium Committee, which o p
quences of this misguided zeal: wars fought with theless, Dalton’s portrait is not hagiographical: posed the war in Viet Nam; La Raza Unida, a po-
and for God,just as were the wars of the ancient Chdvez had his flaws and made mistakes; for ex- litical party that unsuccessfully fielded a few
Hebrews against the evil Canaanites. According ample, his moral vision was sometimes too de- Mexican American candidates for political of-
to this myth, America’s enemies are irredeem- manding for his followers and his administration fice in Los Angeles; Centro de Acci6n Social
ably evil and must be defeated absolutely and of the UFW was sometimes ematic and ineffi- Autonomo, a mutual aid society that was taken
completely. Any temporary setbacks are due to cient. In sum this is a captivating biography of a over by Marxist-oriented leaders. While the au-
“sin in the camp” (e.g., cultic failure, internal dis- unique labor-leader whose life was motivated by thor attributes the eventual dissolution of these
sent) that must be expunged before success is as- a moral vision grounded on a deep spirituality. four organizations to the “multi-faceted views of
sured. In contrast to this myth, the authors rec- John T. Ford ethnic Mexicans,” one gets the impression that
ommend a prophetic realism, illustrated by the Catholic University of America internal disagreement and disorganization were
writings of Isaiah, Hosea, and Amos, a realism major factors in the failures. In any case, the re-
that works for impartial justice and awards no CHRISTIANITY WITH AN ASIAN FACE: search for this book utilized an impressive range
privileged status to any nation. The authors argue ASIAN AMERICAN THEOLOGY IN THE of sources: publications both standard and
that Americans tend to ignore these great OT MAKING. By Peter C. Phan. New York: Orbis, ephemeral, participant interviews and archival
preachers of prophetic realism. Instead, from the 2003. Pp. vii + 253. $30.00, ISBN materials, newspaper accounts and government
time of the early Puritan colonizers who looked 1-57075-466-7. documents obtained through the freedom of in-
for a “city built on a hill,” Americans have more Phan, a Vietnamese American Roman Catho- formation act. While the focus is primarily on
often than not appropriated to themselves a dif- lic theologian, articulates an Asian American four short-lived Chicano groups, in the back-
ferent biblical motif: zealous nationalism in the theology that views interculturation through the ground is a disheartening display of racial dis-
name of God.This zeal leads to endorsing vio- methodological lens of liberation theologies. In- crimination, political disenfranchisement, social
lence as necessary and redemptive. At worst, it forming this work is the challenging experience inequities, economic oppression, govemmental
cloaks in biblical language policies that tend to of Asian migrations to the US, the rich and varied surveillance, legal injustice and police brutality.
further American economic and political inter- culture of Asia, the life and witness of the church Although the narrative is written in a very objec-
ests. This is a book for theologians, political in Asia, some major Roman Catholic theological tive and straightforward manner, the cumulative
scientists, or others seeking to understand positions and, of course, his own struggles and effect of reading about the widespread
America’s politics and wars through a hopes as a person who lives in the betwixt and mistreatment of Chicanos and the systematic
theological lens. between. By dialoging with the various sources violation of their civil rights is deeply disturbing.
James P. Hurd that inform his work and subjecting them to the John T. Ford
Bethel College winnowing air (spirit) of critical discernment, Catholic University of America
Phan arrives at a creative and timely account of
THE MORAL VISION OF C ~ S A R some enduring theological themes, such as the RELIGIOUS PLURALISM IN AMERICA
C a V E Z . By Frederick John Dalton. Mary- kingdom of God and a Christology with an Asian THE CONTENTIOUS HISTORY OF A
knoll, N Y Orbis, 2003. Pp. viii + 200. $20.00, face. Then he weaves creatively the reinterpreted FOUNDING IDEAL. By William R.
ISBN 1-57075458-6. theological threads into a beautiful intercultural Hutchison. New Haven, C T Yale University
Cksar Chdvez (1927-1993), whose family liberation-oriented theological tapestry-Asian Press, 2003. Pp. vi + 276; plates, illustrations.
lost its modest home and business during the American theology and, more particularly, Viet- $29.95, ISBN 0-300-09813-8.
Great Depression and turned to migrant namese American theology. Phan has offered the Here is a history of pluralism that fails to
farm-work for survival, eventually became the church and the world an example of inculturation mention the Nation of Islam, Malcolm X or Mar-
charismatic and courageous founder of the theology in general and Asian American theol- tin Luther King. Yet the book also offers an eru-
United Farm Workers (UFW). Labor-organiz- ogy in particular. Not only Christian theologians, dite and incisive history of American religion
ing, usually a problematic endeavor, proved to but also all those who are interested in Asian from Crevecoeur t o Clinton. Professor
be exceptionally difficult in the case of migrant studies and those who care deeply in building a Hutchison of Harvard strikes a blow for justice
workers: first, la lucha (the struggle) pitted by reminding those who seek unity in the past
workers who were struggling to survive against that Americans once tolerated lynching “ne-
90 / Religious Studies Review
groes” and burning convents; his story integrates
some Catholics, Jews, and Hindus; but he evokes
an overwhelmingly Protestant, white, male,
wealthy, Northeastern, and academic world.
Among the aspects of pluralism reduced to shad-
ows, listed but not described, are Native Ameri-
can revival movements, New Age spirituality,
and Pentecostalism. People erased from history
include all female religious leaders since Eliza-
beth Cady Stanton and all gay religious writers or
clergy. Regrettably, the excellent account of I.
Zangwill’s The Melting Pot is not balanced by T.
Kushner’s Angels in America. Perhaps because
the book grew from course notes, the text is rich
in songs and photos; and the prose is readable.
Hutchison celebrates “post-ethnic America” de-
spite the “world-hegemonic aspirations” of
American religious discourse, but he has not re-
vised his work to consider American relations
with Islam since 2001. Grouped with more inclu-
sive texts, Religious Pluralism in America
should find a place in survey courses.
Peter Gardella
Manhattanville College
A NEW RELIGIOUS AMERICA: HOW A
“CHRISTIAN COUNTRY” HAS BECOME
THE WORLD’S MOST RELIGIOUSLY DI-
VERSE NATION. By Diana Eck. San Fran-
cisco: HarperSanFrancisco, 2002. Pp.xx + 404.
$16.95, ISBN 0-06-062159-1.
This book’s title could be slightly mislead-
ing, since it centers on three long chapters about
Hindus, Buddhists, and Muslims in North Amer-
ica-groups which taken together have fewer
followers than Southern Baptists or Roman
Catholics by themselves, and groups that would
have to share the stage with Latinos, Afri-
can-Americans, and Native Americans in a fully
rounded treatment of diversity and conflict in US
religion. However, this is not to deny the impor-
tance of Eck’s subject. She works in the tradition
of scholars who transformed a dominant dis-
course about “Protestant America” into common
wisdom about a “Protestant-Catholic-Jewish”
America. She extends this paradigm to include
(at least) Hindus, Muslims, and Buddhists, in all
their internal diversity that she masterfully sum-
marizes. Eck promotes harmonious dialogue
among these traditions through two chapters on
obstacles to dialogue and examples of successful
dialogue. She acknowledges that pluralistic har-
mony does not always exist on the ground, but
she presents such harmony as a normative goal of
both theology and US identity. The prose is
beautifully polished, switching between a jour-
nalistic voice as Eck describes visits to numerous
temples and mosques, and a scholarly voice as
she introduces the teachings, practices, and orga-
nizational variations of each tradition. Unfortu-
nately, a repetitive quality in the journalistic sec-
tions may limit the value of this text in some con-
texts. If the book were shorter by a third, it would
be a superlative text for courses in US reli-
gion-specially if it included sharper critical
reflection on the limitations of the interpretive
traditions it extends. However, even as it stands,
it is an outstanding contribution.
Mark Hulsether
University of Tennessee
NEW RELIGIOUS MOVEMENTS AND
RELIGIOUS LIBERTY IN AMERICA. Ed-
ited by Derek H. Davis and Barry Hankins.
Waco, TX: J. M. Dawson Institute of
Church-State Studies (Baylor University Press),
2002. Pp. vii + 208. Cloth, $29.95, ISBN
0-929182-65-0; paper, $16.95, ISBN
0-929182-64-2.
This collection of essays addresses the sub-
ject of religious liberty and new religious move-
ments (NRMs). Misunderstandings are often
created by popular media and the public at large
who call these NRM “cults.” The term “new reli-
gious movements” attempts to replace the older,
pejorative, terminology removing society’s con-
cerns towards these groups. Historically, there
has beenacorrelation between social approval of
a new group and the degree of religious liberty it
enjoys. In turn, the authors argue that NRMs
should enjoy the same liberties as more main-
stream religions. Through the application of the
First Amendment to the newest, and seemingly
unusual religions, religious liberty can best be
preserved for society. Time usually brings about
an accommodation from the group as NRMs be-
come old religious movements. T. Miller’s his-
tory and s. Palmer on women in NRMs are con-
tributions that should be noted. C. Wessinger’s
and S. A. Wright’s chapters on the Branch
Davidians show that when millenarian move-
ments clash with society the results can be
deadly. When much of the current research in the
area of NRMs reads like an apologetic this work
is a welcome, balanced addition to the field.
Kurt Widmer
University of Lethbridge
ODD GODS: NEW RELIGIONS AND THE
CULT CONTROVERSY. Edited by James R.
Lewis. Amherst, NY Prometheus, 2001. Pp.
395. $33.00, ISBN 1-5773392-842-9.
Given the ease of accessing information on
the World Wide Web, it is unclear what the h-
ture of handbooks like Odd Gods will be. As a
reference for “New Religious Movements,” the
book provides historical sketches of a variety of
groups ranging from Christian Science, to Falun
Gong, to Satanism. Lewis does not explain his
definition of “new religions” and includes dis-
cussion of both the “Fundamentalist Movement”
and “Pentecostalism” while omitting mention of
the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints-at one time considered a controversial
“cult.” New Religions are grouped both around
world religious traditions (e.g., “Jewish Tradi-
tion,” “Buddhist Tradition”) and familiar cate-
gories (“Neopaganism,” “UFO Religions”).
While there is a general bibliography, a list of
scholarly references accompanying each entry
would have been helpful. The summaries are the
most successful when they answer the question,
“What ever happened to ... Clare Prophet,
Volume 30 Number 1 / January 2004
Werner Erhard, the Society for Krishna Con-
sciousness, etc.?’ Least successful is the “Over-
view,” which merely discusses two NRh4s and
argues that understanding these groups as dan-
gerous “cults” is wrong. Odd Gods has limited
classroom use but may be a helpful reference
guide.
Colleen McDannell
University of Utah
SEPARATION OF CHURCH AND STATE.
By Philip Hamburger. Cambridge, MA: Harvard
University Press, 2002. Pp.xiii + 514;bibliogra-
phy, index. $49.95, ISBN 0-674-00734-4.
A profound historical study that challenges
the contemporary assumption that “strict separa-
tion of church and state” is the only interpreta-
tion of the First Amendment. Historical analysis
reveals that a “strict separation” interpretation
has little basis in history of the founding era.
Rather, separation became a constitutional free-
dom primarily as the result of fear and prejudice.
Jefferson supported separation out of fear of the
Federalist New England clergy and later, Protes-
tants (a diverse grouping) were likewise to adopt
a separationist stance in order to restrict the role
of Roman Catholics in public life. In the early
twentieth century this approach was adopted by
theological liberals, and in the mid-to later cen-
tury by anti-religious secularists who wished
thereby to limit all religious influence in public
life. Thus liberty was assumed to require “strict
separation,” an interpretation that has led to in-
tolerance of, and discrimination against, reli-
gious and theological voices in the public realm.
An essential work for all in the fields of
American history, theology, and constitutional
law.
lain S. Maclean
James Madison University
CHURCH-STATE RELATIONS. By Francis
Graham Lee. Westport, CT: Greenwood, 2002.
Pp. xxxi + 456. $54.95, ISBN 0-313-31096-3.
Lee’s textbook in Greenwood Press’s “Major
Issues in American History” series examines
fourteen church-state issues. Taking a case-stud-
ies approach, it charts the relationship between
law and religion from the early republic to the
contemporary period. Each chapter includes a
lengthy historical introduction and a series of ed-
ited primary documents (excerpts from Supreme
Court documents, supportive and critical materi-
als from legal writers, newspapers, and scholarly
journals). Lee’s topics are the usual suspects:
early definitions of the separationist doctrines,
challenges by Latter-day Saints over plural mar-
riages, flag saluting, state (non) support for paro-
chial schools, prayer and Bible reading, and reli-
gious symbols in public spaces. The textbook
does not deviate from its focus on law; we never
learn how the religious communities themselves
responded to their success or failures in the
courts. Brief annotated bibliographies at the end
of the chapters and a “chronology of events” are
helpful although the general college student may
find the history, politics, and law hard to pene-
Volume 30 Number 1 / January 2004 Religious Studies Review / 91

trate. Lee’s uncritical adoption of the language of and musical developments of these composers, history, this volume offers a selection of brief re-
the courts-such as referring to the Church of Je- including pioneer Undine Smith Moore and cur- search pieces on Moravian history, music and
sus Christ of Latter-day Saints as a “sect”-can rent innovator Regina Harris Baicchi, are under- worship, Indian missions, travel and communi-
be annoying. Recommended to faculty as a scored by the author’s efforts adequately to inter- cations, economic practice, and theology. Con-
reference tool and for upper division courses on pret the differences of each individual’s personal tributors apart from the editors, include A. M.
religion and law. sense of identity as African American Women Caldwell, C. D. Crews, 0. Dreydoppel, Jr., K. C.
Colleen McDannell composers, in order to “correct the stereotyped Engel, K. M. Faull, A.Freeman, D. Gembicki,N.
University of Utah concept of the black experience.” Walker-Hill R.Knouse,D. Meyer, J. Nelson, P. Peucker, B. P.
demonstrates the multi-layered processes of Smaby, M. A. Turdo, and C. Wessel. An essen-
THE RISE OF THE LAITY IN EVANGELI- musical creativity within these cultural tial overview of both Moravian history and reli-
CAL PROTESTANTISM. Edited by Deryck conditions, and the benefits and importance of gion and of the status of contemporary Moravian
W. Lovegrove. New York: Routledge, 2002. Pp. musical diversification within the Em-centric historical research in and beyond the Americas.
273. Cloth, $120.00, ISBN 0-415-27192-4; pa- classical music world. Iain S. Maclean
per, $39.95, ISBN 0-415-27193-2. Glen Whitehead James Madison University
Lovegrove and fourteen of his fellow schol- Universityof Colorado, Colorado Springs
ars examine the doctrine and practice of the THE FOUNDING FATHERS AND THE
“priesthood of all believers” in evangelical Prot- THE POOR AND THE PEOPLE CALLED PLACE OF RELIGION IN AMERICA. By
estantism since the Reformation. By bringing to METHODISTS, 1729-1999. Edited by Richard Frank Lambert. Princeton, NJ: Princeton Uni-
our attention the influence of the laity in the the- P. Heitzenrater. Nashville: Abingdon, 2002. Pp. versity Press, 2003. Pp. xii + 328, bibliography,
ology and life of the church, they hope not only to 243. $28.00, ISBN 0-68745155-X. index. $29.95, ISBN 0-691-08829-2.
fill a void in the historiography but also to en- Rooted in a concern for the poor, the essayists Lambert tackles the origins of the continuing
courage the continuing reevaluation of the laity’s in this provocative collection explore “Method- debate of the place of religion in the political
role in the present. The collection of essays is di- ism’s mission to the poor from its beginnings to sphere. This he does by making a distinction in
vided into five parts; the first of which explores the present.” The essays include Heitzenrater’s thought and practice between the “founding fa-
the theology and practice of the priesthood of all look at the meaning of poverty in late eigh- thers,” describing as the “planting fathers,” the
believers in pre-Enlightenment Protestantism, teenth-century England and how Wesley grap- founders of holy commonwealths peopled by
specifically in Luther, the Puritans, and the Ger- pled with the problems it posed for him and his “cities upon a hill” and the “founding fathers,”
man pietists. The second part is dedicated to lay followers, most of whom were “ p r ” them- those who determined the constitutional struc-
religious activity during the Enlightenment, es- selves. R. Maddox and J. Reiger examine the in- ture of the later republic. While the former
pecially the activity of women. The third part terdependence of works of piety and works of stressed orthodoxy and purity, the latter recog-
looks at tensions between the clergy and the laity mercy in Wesleyan theology, while S. T. nized religious freedom. He reviews Puritan
resulting from the Enlightenment-era revivals. Kimbrough, Jr. finds that C. Wesley’s poetry Massachusetts, Episcopal Virginia, and Quaker
In the fourth part, the essayists explore the influ- emphasizes a common sharing of resources in Pennsylvania before describing how they frag-
ence of laity in missions. The final part explores the community of faith. G. Lloyd and T. mented in the mid-eighteenth century before the
lay Protestantism in the Brethren, Baptist, and Macquiban investigate the changing priorities of pressures of diverse immigration, evangelical re-
charismatic churches. The essays do indeed fill Methodism in its ministries to the poor in the vivals, and a population explosion. The Ameri-
an important void in the historiography, but this eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, while W. can Revolution enabled lawmakers to consider,
collection seems unlikely to be read by the Abraham probes the thought and work of H. and to legislate, alternatives to the inherited Eu-
average layperson. I recommend it to students Ward. Finally, J. M. Bonino asks how Wesley ropean models; and the separation of church
and scholars of religious history. can inform Christian service to the Third World from the government was the result. Lambert ex-
Glenn Harden p r today. The essays are meant not only to sat- amines the result of this sepamtion through an
West Palm Beach, FL isfy academic interests, but also to prompt peo- analysis of the 1800 presidential elections,
ple of faith into deeper understanding of and ser- which demonstrates that the principles enunci-
FROM SPIRITUALS TO SYMPHONIES: vice to people in poverty. While ideal for certain ated in 1789 were durable. Thus, in the words of
AFRICAN AMERICAN WOMEN COM- seminary courses, this book also would be of James Madison, the author concurs that
POSERS AND THEIR MUSIC. By Helen value to those who desire to develop their own dis-establishment, instead of limiting religion,
Walker-Hill. Westport, C T Greenwood, 2002. concern for the poor. led “to an increase of religious instruction.”
Pp xii + 401. $94.95, ISBNO-313-29947-1. Glenn M.Harden Iain S. Maclean
In a text solely dedicated to the history of Af- Escuela Caribe Jarabacoa, James Madison University
rican American women composers, Walker-Hill Dominican Republic
reveals an important side of American musical WILLIAM BRADFORD’S BOOKS: OF
history which has been previously THE DISTINCTIVENESS OF MORAVIAN PLIMMOTH PLANTATION AND THE
underrepresented. The opening chapter is an his- CULTURE: ESSAYS AND DOCUMENTS PRINTED WORD. By Douglas Anderson. Bal-
torical overview of African American history, an IN MORAVIAN HISTORY IN HONOR OF timore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1999.
original focal point on African American women VERNON H. NELSON ON HIS SEVENTI- Pp. ix + 280; illustrations. $45.00, ISBN
and their music. Indeed, one learns that African ETH BIRTHDAY.Edited by Craig D. Atwood 0-8018-7074-7.
American activity in classical music goes as far and Peter Vogt. Nazareth, PA.Moravian Histori- In this study of arguably the most well-known
back as the eighteenth century, with surprising cal Society, 2003. Pp.ii + 297; contributors list. document from seventeenth-century New Eng-
interdisciplinary communication and work $29.95, ISBN 0-9719060-1-7. land’s Plymouth Colony, William Bradford‘s Of
among artisans, musicians, writers, and other An ably edited Festschrift to mark the seven- Plimmoth Plantation. literary historian Ander-
cultural figures of a blossoming black middle tieth birthday of, and to honor, Vernon Nelson, son weaves acomplex analysis of the text, its au-
class. With broader historical context estab- archivist of the Moravian Church in America. A thor, and their religious and social worlds in Eng-
lished, successive chapters focus on eight repre- tireless collector and curator, he has guided land, the Netherlands, and New England. Ander-
sentative individual composers of the twentieth many scholars in their research, sixteen of whom son uses Governor Bradford‘s historical narra-
century. Each chapter includes a life time-line have collaborated on this collection of essays. tive of the colony’s first few decades of estab-
and subsections entitled Biography, Social Is- For both readers familiar and unfamiliar with the lishment as a kind of multifaceted lens through
sues, and Music. The remarkable independence Moravians and their contributions to culture and which to investigate the relationships among
92 / Religious Studies Review
written text and spoken word, self and commu-
nity, ideology and practice, and history and ge-
ography. Anderson argues that Bradford inten-
tionally engaged his readers with the experiences
of the text’s protagonists and antagonists to “em-
phasize the interplay between religious principle
and the pressing human contingencies of seven-
teenth-century New England.” Missing from
Anderson’s work, not unlike Bradford’s own
narrative, is any final summing up of Plymouth,
Bradford, or his history. Rather, Of Plimmoth
Plantation remains a subtle and evocative text,
replete with multiple meanings and
interpretations. Recommended for scholars of
early American history and literature.
Martha L Finch
Southwest Missouri State University
THE CHALLENGES OF ROGER WIL-
LIAMS: RELIGIOUSLIBERTY, VIOLENT
PERSECUTION, AND THE BIBLE. By
James P. Byrd, Jr. Macon, GA: Mercer Univer-
sity Press, 2002. Pp. xii + 286. Cloth, $40.00,
ISBN 0-86554-771-8.
Byrd’s work contributes to the ongoing aca-
demic conversation about the role of the Bible in
America. It seeks to assess how Williams has
been portrayed in the historiography of Ameri-
can religion, and whether attention to his biblical
exegesis offers to revise Williams’s contempo-
rary image and relevance as a cultural icon. Byrd
focuses specifically on how Williams met the
challenge of the Puritans’ use of the Bible as a
justification for their model of civil society. Wil-
liams contested their interpretive strategy, as-
serting that the very texts they used to justify the
use of civil authority against dissent did in fact
argue for the restraint of magistrates in religious
matters. Byrd argues that Williams’s approach
has implications for contemporary debates
within Baptist circles about religion in American
political life, particularly with regard to the so-
cially conservative agenda of the SBC. This
book will serve as a useful resource for churches,
and for college and seminary courses.
Robert E. Brown
Princeton University
OPENING SCRIPTURE: BIBLE READING
AND INTERPRETIVE AUTHORITY IN
PURITAN NEW ENGLAND. By Lisa M.
Gordis. Chicago: University of Chicago Press,
2003. Pp. xi + 309. $39.00, ISBN
0-226-30412-4.
This book is a welcome addition to the study
of American Puritan religion and literature.
Gordis’ thesis is simple yet sublime, arguing that
texts do matter-that the interpretive assump-
tions and practices that readers bring to authori-
tative literature have tangible cultural and social
consequences. Gordis explores the interaction
between highly articulated Puritan theories of in-
terpretation and preaching, such as those of Wil-
liam Perkins, and the development of competing
visions of true, or “biblical,” religion. This was
especially problematic with regard to the Puritan
ideal of unimpeded (lay) readers, who were in-
Volume 30 Number 1 / January 2004
doctrinated to distrust human mediation in reli-
gious matters, exhorted to read the Bible for
themselves, and taught that the meanings they
read out of Scripture were divinely assisted and
therefore culturally innocent. The results of such
assumptions played an important role in the con-
tested nature of colonial Puritanism, such as the
controversies with Roger Williams and the
Antinomians.
Robert E. Brown
Princeton University
THE WORLD OF HANNAH HEATON:
THE DIARY OF AN EIGHTEENTH-CEN-
TURY NEW ENGLAND FARM WOMAN.
Edited by Barbara E. Lacey. DeKalb: Northern
Illinois University Press, 2003. Pp.xxxii + 343;
illustrations, map. $48.00, ISBNO-87580-312-1.
Building upon a 1988 essay of the same title
(The William and Mary Quarterly, 3d ser., 45
[ 19881.280-304), Lacey brings to life an extraor-
dinary evangelical diarist in this well-edited vol-
ume. Born on Long Island in 1721, Heaton expe-
rienced a dramatic conversion during Great
Awakening revivals two decades later. By the
1750s, she had separated from the North Haven
Congregational church and was recording her
spiritual travails in a massive private journal. For
nearly four decades she described her medita-
tions, prayers, and reading habits; she reflected
on her dreams and reported dramatic encounters
with Satan. Heaton also drew religious signifi-
cance from local occurrences and major histori-
cal events, including the American Revolution.
Lacey’s minimal editorial interventions preserve
the unschooled quality of Heaton’s journal,
while a brief introduction provides historical
context. This is an indispensable resource for in-
structors seeking primary sources that allow
students to explore the religious experiences of
early American women.
Douglas L. Winiarski
University of Richmond
THE WORKS OF JONATHAN EDWARDS
VOLUME 21: WRITINGS ON THE TRIN-
ITY, GRACE, AND FAITH. Edited by Sang
Hyun Lee. New Haven, C T Yale University
Press, 2003. Pp. xii + 566. $95.00, ISBN
0-300-09505-8.
Twenty-five years ago Lee, professor of the-
ology at Princeton Seminary, recast Edwards’s
studies by showing that the American theologian
abandoned traditional Western metaphysics of
substance and form for a new conception of the
world as a network of dynamic dispositions (The
Philosophical Theology of Jonathan Edwards,
Princeton University Press). Now Lee has gath-
ered together Edwards’s treatises and notebooks
on grace, faith, and the Trinity (some of which
appear for the first time) and argues for further
Edwardsean departures. Lee asserts that Ed-
wards, unlike his forbears in philosophical theol-
ogy, grounded God’s goodness not in unity and
simplicity but in plurality and relations. While
the Westem church had treated the Holy Spirit as
an impersonalized abstraction, Edwards pre-
sented the Spirit as a person Who “as it were
reigns over the Godhead and governs his heart,
and wholly influences both the Father and the
Son in all they do.” Furthermore, Lee argues that
for Edwards, unlike much traditional Western
theology, God is internally related to the world,
for Christian good works make God “happier”
and “enlarge” His glory in time and space.
Recommended for undergraduate and seminary
libraries.
Gerald R. McDermott
Roanoke College
THE WORKS OF JONATHAN EDWARDS
VOLUME 22: SERMONS AND DIS-
COURSES 1739-1742. Edited by Nathan 0.
Hatch, Harry S. Stout, with Kyle P. Farley. New
Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2003. Pp.xiv
+ 582. $95.00, ISBN 0-300-09572-4.
These sermons are from Edwards’s most pro-
lific sermonic period (averaging fifty-five ser-
mons a year), when he became a revivalist “spe-
cializing in the New Birth” and began to outline
his sermons “in order to achieve the appearance
of [George] Whitefield’s extemporaneity.” This
volume contains “Sinners in the Hands of an An-
gry God,” which Stout calls “arguably Amer-
ica’s greatest sermon,’’ as well as its two-page
outline, which was “the real sermon: the highly
portable and powerful cue card that allowed mul-
tiple deliveries and unprecedented terror.” Stout
also notes that these sermons disprove an
“American exceptionalism” in Edwards: except
for a very brief period, “Edwards always under-
stood the millennium and the church in universal
terms.’’ This volume’s introduction is one of the
best short guides to Edwards’s view of history.
With dramatic and vivid prose that is reminiscent
of the best of Perry Miller, Stout sketches Ed-
wards’s substitution of history for theology as
queen of the sciences, recasting systematic
theology in the form of a history of redemption.
Recommended for all libraries.
Gerald R. McDermott
Roanoke College
THE SALVATION OF SOULS: NINE PRE-
VIOUSLY UNPUBLISHED SERMONS ON
THE CALL OF MINISTRY AND THE GOS-
PEL BY JONATHAN EDWARDS. Edited by
Richard A. Bailey and Gregory A. Wills.
Wheaton, IL:Crossway, 2002. Pp. 190. $19.99,
ISBN 1-58134-451-1.
In the “Edwards industry” that has sprung up
in the last fifty years, Jonathan Edwards is
known as theologian, philosopher, ethicist, aes-
thete, mystic, and amateur scientist. But for most
of America he is, for better or for worse, the
best-known hellfire and damnation preacher.
These previously unpublished sermons do not
touch the fires of hell, but they do demonstrate
Edwards’s view of what a preacher is and how
the preacher should preach. G. Marsden writes,
in an insightful preface, that the preacher’s first
task is “to awaken, to shake people out of their
blind slumbers in the addictive comforts of their
sins.” But these sermons show that the preacher
Volume 30 Number 1 / January 2004
must aim at the mind, which is the most impor-
tant seat of the affections. Hence Edwards used a
kind of biblical logic, starting with biblical im-
ages and premises, and using both relentless rea-
soning and mind-dazzling imagery to make an
“impression” upon the mind and move the will.
Gerald R. McDermott
Roanoke College
NATHANIEL TAYLOR, NEW HAVEN
THEOLOGY, AND THE LEGACY OF JON-
ATHAN EDWARDS. By Douglas A. Sweeney.
New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. Pp. xi
+ 255; plates. $45.00, ISBN 0-19-515428-2.
Sweeney has provided students of American
history with a far-reaching and much needed re-
vision of Nathaniel Taylor’s place in antebellum
religious culture. Sweeney argues that, counter
to the prevailing interpretation of Taylor as a
symbolic representative of the declension of
New England Calvinism, he was in fact a sincere
if innovative articulator of the theological legacy
of Jonathan Edwards. Challenging the assump-
tion that traditions can be mapped in rather
straight lines from coherent origins to faithful
emulation, Sweeney argues that the Edwardsian
legacy from start to finish was a dynamic and
malleable entity, which meant that it offered the
prospect of development in several possible di-
rections. Taylor’s doctrines of original sin, the
moral government of God, and regeneration
were conscientious attempts to extrapolate Ed-
wards’s insights to the changing theological and
religious milieu of the early national period.
Theologically sophisticated and historically
nuanced, this study offers to rescue Taylor from
caricature and the historiographical periphery.
Robert E. Brown
Princeton University
AMERICA’S GOD: FROM JONATHAN ED-
WARDS TO ABRAHAM LINCOLN. By
Mark A. Noll. New York: Oxford University
Press, 2002. Pp. xii + 622; index. $35.00, ISBN
0-19-5 15111-9.
This is old-school church history at its best, a
narrative history of American theology (and civ-
ilization) from the colonial era to the Civil War.
According to Noll, a leading interpreter of Amer-
ican church history, European theology domi-
nated in the colonies and the early republic. In
the 1790s, home-grown religious thought
sprouted in the form of evangelicalism. Along-
side this indigenous theology arose a distinctly
American civilization-“Christian republican-
ism” No11 calls it-characterized by a creative
combination of evangelical Protestantism, re-
publican political ideology, and commonsense
moral philosophy. This civilization was, more-
over, distinctly American, less Calvinist than its
counterpart in Scotland, more focused on the Bi-
ble than the Dutch, and less churchy than the
British. Like all good things, this theology (and
the civilization it wrought) came to an end, in
Noll’s telling with the Civil War. Domesticated
over time, Christian republicanism came to heed
mammon more than God, Gotham more than
Galilee. As a result, it was not up to the formida-
ble challenges posed by the Civil War. Although
No11 attends a bit to blacks and women, his book
focuses almost exclusively on the thoughts of
dead, white, male Protestants, blissfully ignoring
the preoccupation of other Americanists with the
“lived religion” of racial and religious minori-
ties. Scholars will doubtless rage, but this emi-
nently readable and carefully researched book
deserves to stand as the history of antebellum
American theology for decades to come.
Stephen Prothero
Boston University
A REPUBLIC OF RIGHTEOUSNESS: THE
PUBLIC CHRISTIANITY OF THE
POST-REVOLUTIONARY NEW ENG-
LAND CLERGY. By Jonathan D. Sassi. New
York: Oxford University Press, 2001. Pp. viii +
298; bibliography, index. $52.00, ISBN
0-19-512989-X.
Analyzes the debate in which the New Eng-
land clergy engaged in the first fifty years of the
American Republic as to the fitting relationship
between the church and public life. This period
witnessed the dis-establishment of churches, the
rise of sectarian conflict, political partisan poli-
tics, as well as the disruptive effects of the Sec-
ond Great Awakening and has come to be typi-
fied as one wherein communal structures col-
lapsed and were replaced by atomized individu-
alism. Sassi questions such a reading, arguing in-
stead that the Congregational clergy of New
England displayed a continuing concern for the
corporate morality of the American republic.
Further, the clergy advocated positions from
their pulpits that deeply influenced later nine-
teenth-century reform movements and
church-related voluntary societies. Thus insofar
as a democracy depends upon public debate, the
New England clergy made a powerful contribu-
tion to public values. The argument is made
through analysis of discrete periods, beginning
from 1783-1795, and the concept of “two
kingdoms in concert” and shifts in that concept to
1833.
lain S.Maclean
James Madison University
BLACK PURITAN, BLACK REPUBLICAN
THE LIFE AND THOUGHT OF LEMUEL
HAYNES, 1753-1833. By John Saillant. Reli-
gion in America. New York: Oxford University
Press, 2003. Pp. xii + 232. $74.00, ISBN
0- 19-515717-6.
Saillant’s intellectual biography of black
preacher Lemuel Haynes will find an eager audi-
ence among students of New England abolition-
ism, the New Divinity movement, and African
American culture. Born in 1753, Haynes labored
as an indentured servant before joining the Mas-
sachusetts militia during the Revolution and
serving as a Congregational minister in Ver-
mont. Eschewing traditional biographical con-
ventions, Saillant instead examines his pub-
lished pamphlets and rare manuscript writings in
relation to issues ranging from early American
Religious Studies Review / 93
conceptions of Islam to Universalist theological
controversies. Haynes emerges as a radical
thinker whose abolitionism extended well be-
yond the paternalism advanced by notable con-
temporaries such as Thomas Jefferson and Tim-
othy Dwight. Blending Federalist politics and
Calvinist exegesis, Haynes challenged white
Americans to live up to the unfinished ideals of
the Revolution. Saillant’s cumbersome prose
makes for difficult reading, yet his argument
persuasively establishes this obscure Vermont
preacher as one of the early republic’s most
dynamic intellectuals.
Douglas .L Winiarski
University of Richmond
ENGENDERING CHURCH: WOMEN,
POWER, AND THE AME CHURCH. By
Jualynne E. Dodson. Lanham, MD: Rowman &
Littlefield, 2002. Pp. vii + 147. Cloth, $60.00,
ISBN 0-8476-9380-5; paper, $23.95, ISBN
0-8476-938 1-3.
This study of the work of women in the Afri-
can Methodist Episcopal church is significant
because it is the first full-length treatment of the
topic by an author who has established herself as
the leading scholar in this field. The book deals
with the period from the founding of the denomi-
nation in 1816 through the early years of the
twentieth century and seeks to demonstrate how
women wielded power in the denomination
through numerical representation in congrega-
tions, effectiveorganizing, and the marshaling of
material and non-material resources. The book
provides a solid general introduction to the topic
and contains brief profiles of individuals as well
as of local and national organizations as part of
Dodson’s examination of power dynamics in the
AME Church. Historians likely will be frustrated
by the scant documentation and the limited range
of primary sources that support Dodson’s some-
times speculative conclusions. Nevertheless,
this volume should serve to encourage others to
continue the research that Dodson has begun and
to provide a more textured picture of women in
the AME Church.
Judith Weisenfeld
Vassar College
SOME WILD VISIONS: AUTOBIOGRA-
PHIES BY FEMALE ITINERANT EVAN-
GELISTS IN 19TH-CENTURY AMERICA.
By Elizabeth Elkin Crammer. New York: Oxford
University Press, 2003. Pp. x + 211. $39.95,
ISBN 0- 19-513961-5.
In the world of nineteenth-century itinerant
evangelism, there were many prominent figures
such as Lorenzo Dow or Dwight Moody. How-
ever, the exceptional cases of itinerant celebri-
ties do not give the depth or range to understand
the itinerant world on a more social level. In this
work, Grammer opens up the common female
side of that world with a study of seven lesser
known female itinerant evangelists: Nancy
Towle, Jarena Lee, Zilpha Elaw, Julia Foote,
Lydia Sexton, Laura Haviland, and Amanda
Smith. Although the number of subjects under
94/ Religious Studies Review
study in the volume is small, Crammer makes it a
social study by juxtaposing the experiences of
these women with their contemporary societal
expectations. Beyond a social study, the work
also deals, to an extent, with race relations, be-
cause four of the seven women included in the
study are African American. Crammer focuses
on the women’s common experiences as women,
such as their struggles with the constraints of the
domestic sphere and the nineteenth-century op-
position to female preachers. Due to the fact that
the majority of the work’s primary sources are
the women preachers’ autobiographies,
Crammer spends a good deal of time examining
the rhetoric and style of autobiography.
Ari Robert
Denver, CO
FREE LOVE IN UTOPIA, JOHN
HUMPHREY NOYES AND THE ORIGIN
OF THE ONEIDA COMMUNITY. Compiled
by George Wallingford Noyes. Urbana: Univer-
sity of Illinois Press, 2001. Pp. Ivi + 361; illustra-
tions. $39.95, ISBN 0-252-02670-5.
Noyes’ book is an illuminating exploration
that reveals the inner thoughts and feelings of the
people involved in the “free love” Oneida com-
munity in New York during the middle of the
nineteenth century. As the nephew of founder,
John Humphrey Noyes, he provides insight into
the community from an intimate perspective.
The book’s focus is the issue of “complex mar-
riage” practiced by the community and the rami-
fications this social structure had for Oneida,
both personally and publicly. While the corre-
spondence and diaries are interesting, very few
actually speak frankly of the practice itself, usu-
ally alluding to the situation through careful lan-
guage. The introduction by Lawrence Foster, the
editor, is largely helpful because he gives more
explanation and candid descriptions of what
“complex marriage” was. These documents re-
lay that while many of the members followed this
practice, many were uncomfortable and dis-
turbed by “complex marriage,” which led to in-
ternal strife and departure from the community,
as well as many legal troubles instigated by inter-
ference of people not affiliated with the Oneida
Community. Although fraught with multiple dif-
ficulties, Noyes’ book wonderfully illustrates
how this unusual and complicated community
was able to withstand the pressures and survive
for almost fifty years.
Heather M . Robinson
University of Colorado, Colorado Springs
DISCIPLES OF LIBERTY THE AFRICAN
METHODIST EPISCOPAL CHURCH IN
THE AGE OF IMPERIALISM, 1884-1916.
By Lawrence S. Little. Knoxville: University of
Tennessee Press, 2000. Pp. ix + 246. $32.00,
ISBN 1-57233-085-6.
Disciples of Liberty provides an engaging ac-
count of the involvement of the African Method-
ist Episcopal Church in international relations,
exploring the varied and often paradoxical views
of church leaders and members on American and
European imperialism. In the first three chapters
Little presents a thoughtful and efficient discus-
sion of AME ideology, organizational structure,
and theology, with particular attention to the ten-
sion between the church’s strong affirmation of
American citizenship for African Americans and
the development of a theology of redemption
that looked to Africa as a site for the working out
of an important part of Cod’s plan. Little argues
that, for the most part, church leaders accepted
and relied on imperialism as an aid to their mis-
sionary work in Africa and the Caribbean, but
also denounced the racism and oppression of
American imperialism in Cuba, Puerto Rico, the
Philippines, Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
“As disciples of liberty,” Little concludes,
“AME leaders could not reconcile the inherent
contradictions of American imperialism.” The
final chapter addresses the AME church’s stance
on Ottoman and Russian imperialism; and. al-
though considerably less developed than the ma-
terial on American and European imperialism,
this portion of the book furthers Little’s goal of
presenting the AME Church as engaged with
questions of liberty in a wide range of contexts
during the late nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries.
Judith Weisenfeld
Vassar College
MUSCULAR CHRISTIANITY: MAN-
HOOD AND SPORTS IN PROTESTANT
AMERICA, 1880-1920. By Clifford Putney.
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press,
2001. Pp. x + 300; illustrations. Cloth, $39.95,
ISBN 0-674-00634-8; paper, $17.95, ISBN
0-674-01 125-2.
Muscular Christianity considers the “muscu-
lar” movement in late-nineteenth and early twen-
tieth-century American Protestantism in light of
the new men’s studies. Putney explains that min-
isters, concerned about the degenerative effects
of urban-industrial civilization on men and of a
“feminized’ church on their Christian commit-
ment, embraced physical fitness and the de-
ployed rhetoric of manliness to masculinize the
church and keep it relevant in the modern world.
The book’s nine chapters include examinations
of the “boy problem,” overseas missionary work,
the Spanish-American War and World War I,
and-in perhaps its most important new contri-
bution-the participation of women in the mus-
cular impulse. In the final analysis, Putney con-
cludes, muscular Christianity promoted modern-
ization and the therapeutic emphasis on personal
well-being despite its anxiety over “seculariza-
tion” and waned, at least among liberal denomi-
nations, as a result of post-World War I alien-
ation, a decline in the mainline churches, grow-
ing fear of homosexuality, and the passing of the
movement’s leaders. The analysis might have
been sharpened by a more critical approach to re-
ligious “feminization,” “secularization,” and a
late-nineteenth-century “crisis of masculin-
ity”-all taken for granted here but questioned in
recent scholarship. Deeper grounding in body
and sexuality studies would give the book
Volume 30 Number 1 / January 2004
greater currency, and more attention to Afri-
can-American and working-class men’s experi-
ences would provide a more nuanced under-
standing. But Putney’s well-researched study is
an excellent and useful addition to the literature
on white middle-class masculinity and
Protestant spirituality in the US.
Bret E. Carroll
California State Universiry, Stanislaus
COMMUNINGS OF THE SPIRIT THE
JOURNALS OF MORDECAI M. KAPLAN,
VOLUME 1, 1913-1934. Edited by Me1 Scult.
American Jewish Civilization series, 9. Detroit:
Wayne State University Press, 2001. Pp. 558.
$34.95, ISBN 0-8 143-2575-0.
This collection offers readers a personal look
at the ideas, attitudes, opinions, and passions that
drove Mordecai M. Kaplan in the early years of
his long and important career. Now considered to
be one of the most influential thinkers of twenti-
eth-century American Jewry, Kaplan’s early ca-
reer was filled with frustrations, as this volume
attests. Here he denounces the limitations of
Conservative and Orthodox institutions as he
leaves them to establish the new Society for the
Advancement of Judaism and, ultimately,
Reconstructionist Judaism. Here he pens work-
ing definitions of concepts that will shape his
larger thought. His familial joys and anguish
help him to think through new organizational
forms, notably the synagogue center, to
strengthen Jewish communities. His attachment
to his daughter, Judith, helps us understand her
place as the first Bat Mitzvah as well as
Reconstructionism’s egalitarian commitments.
Scult’s masterful editing has created a
fascinating volume that will be central to all
future work on Kaplan.
Dianne Ashton
Rowan University
THE MAKING OF AMERICAN LIBERAL
THEOLOGY IDEALISM, REALISM &
MODERNITY, 1900-1950. Volume 11. By
Gary Dorrien. Louisville: Westminster John
Knox, 2003. Pp. xi + 666. $28.00, ISBN
0-66422355-9.
Donien’s work is an encyclopedic examina-
tion of how liberal theology gradually overtook
exclusively faith-based Christian ideas. By con-
servative Christianity, Domen refers to the no-
tion that God is an external force that can only be
understood through Church leaders rigorously
trained at institutions devoted to theological
study. However, as Donien’s look at twenti-
eth-century liberal theology argues, nine-
teenth-century leaps of technology turned many
Americans to an empirical method of under-
standing of the world. As a result, the new ap-
proach to comprehending the idea of God was to
employ the scientific method. The strength of
Domen’s thesis lies in the way he traces the flow
of liberal Christian ideas from professional theo-
logians to the masses. This transference occurred
when theological study was no longer confined
to seminaries but became a popular academic
Volume 30 Number 1 / January 2004
study in secular universities where philosophers
such as William James and Vida Scudder melded
traditional Christian notions with scientific ra-
tionalism. Arising from this empiric procedure
came the radical perception that one’s concept of
God should not be rooted in authoritarian dogma
but rather in self-reflection basedon one’s innate
sense of morality. The impact of this theological
approach upon American Christianity was the
formation of new denominations and the rise of
“New Age” credos that stress that a true
relationship with God derives from personal
explorations.
Eric Aldrich
Colorado Springs, CO
PORTRAITS OF A GENERATION: EARLY
PENTECOSTALLEADERS. Edited by James
R. Goff, Jr., and Grant Wacker. Fayetteville: Uni-
versity of Arkansas Press, 2002. Pp. xviii + 430.
$34.95, ISBN 1-55728-731-7.
This volume will find its way on the book-
shelf next to Wacker’s own Heaven Below and
other works in the growing body of scholarship
on Pentecostalism, the most important religious
movement of twentieth-century American reli-
gious history. The editors have gathered bio-
graphical essays from most of the top scholars in
the field, including the editors themselves (on J.
A. Dowie and T. H. Gourley), E. Blumhofer (on
W. Durham), S. Stanley (on A. White), C.
Robeck, Jr. (on F. Crawford), D. Daniels (on C.
H. Mason), and V. Synan (on G. F. Taylor). Also
included are up-and-coming younger scholars,
including R. Robins (on A. J. Tomlinson), and G.
Espinosa (on F. Olazabal). The essays cover
“forerunners” (including holiness pioneers of the
late nineteenth century), “visionaries”(those in-
strumental in adopting and spreading the Pente-
costal message), and “builders” (those who built
up Pentecostal denominations in the twentieth
century). The high quality of the essays, all of
which are informative and some of which ad-
vance interesting new theses about their sub-
jects, makes this a must-buy for scholars in the
field and of interest to American religious
historians generally.
Paul Harvey
University of Colorado
PROVIDENCE. By Will D. Campbell. Litera-
ture and the Religious Spirit Series, 3. Waco, TX:
Baylor University Press, 2002. Pp. xxiv + 293.
$14.95, ISBN 0-918954-84-3.
Campbell’s work offers a unique view of US
history, race relations and the place of religion in
Southern culture. He does so by exploring the
170-yearhistory of one section of land in Holmes
County, Mississippi. By focusing on this plot of
ground known as Providence and the people that
lived, worked, and died on the land, Campbell
provides a personal and poignant look at aspects
of the troubled history of America, including the
relocation of Native Americans, the settlement
of the expanding US temtory, slavery, share-
cropping, and the twentieth century’s fledgling
attempts at racial and economic equality. Camp-
bell tells the story using a mix of literary genres:
novel-like narration, journalistic interviews, so-
cial commentary, and personal memoir as he
tells of his own involvement with Providence
and his efforts to discover the history beneath
this square mile section of land. The book is writ-
ten for the general reader interested in US His-
tory, Southern culture, and the impact religious
life can have upon ethics and social develop-
ment. This new edition of the book (first pub-
lished in 1992 by Longstreet Press) includes an
introduction by Fredrick Barton and a 2001 in-
terview with Campbell.
James H. Brownlee
Malone College
BLACK GODS OF THE METROPOLIS:
NEGRO RELIGIOUS CULTS OF THE UR-
BAN NORTH. By Arthur Huff Fauset. Fore-
word by Barbara Dianne Savage. Introduction by
John Szwed. Philadelphia: University of Penn-
sylvania Press, 2001. Pp. 144. $14.95, ISBN
0-8 122-1001-8.
Scholars and students of African-American
religions, religion in America, and urban reli-
gions will be pleased to have Fauset’s 1944
ethnographic study available once again. With
chapters on Bishop Ida B. Robinson’s Mt. Sinai
Holy Church, Daddy Grace’s United House of
Prayer for All People, Prophet F. S. Cherry’s
Church of God (black Hebrews), Noble Drew
Ali and the Moorish Science Temple, and Father
Divine, Fauset’s study provides valuable testi-
mony from members, descriptions of worship,
and insight into organizational structures. The
study also contains a number of chapters that ad-
dress broader questions about African-American
religions, the rise of new religious movements in
the urban North, and the appeal of such move-
ments for African Americans. The new and ex-
tremely useful foreword by historian Savage sets
Fauset and his work in the context of debates
about African retentions in African-American
religious beliefs and practices as well as of dis-
cussions among black intellectuals about
religious institutions and religious leaders of the
day.
Judith Weisenfeld
Vassar College
ELLA BAKER AND THE BLACK FREE-
DOM MOVEMENT: A RADICAL DEMO-
CRATIC VISION. By Barbara Ransby. Chapel
Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2003.
Pp. xvii + 470. $34.95, ISBN 0-8078-2778-9.
“I became active in things largely because my
mother was active in religion,” Ella Baker said of
her activist career through the black church,
NAACP, SCLC, and SNCC. Born and raised in a
closely knit community among the kinds of
black Baptist women’s associations best de-
scribed by E. Brooks-Higginbotham’s Radical
Discontent: The Women’s Movement in the
Black Baptist Church, Baker attended black
Baptist Shaw University in Raleigh, North
Carolina (the site where the Student Non-Violent
Coordinating Committee, SNCC, was formed in
Religious Studies Fieview / 95
1960) in the 1920s. worked for the YWCA and
the Consumer’s League in New York, traveled
through the country extensively through the
1940s and 1950s on behalf of the NAACP
(where she developed a sharp critique of hierar-
chical organizations) and other groups, served
briefly as Executive Secretary of Martin Luther
King’s Southern Christian Leadership Confer-
ence, and in the 1960s culminated her career by
inspiring a generation of student-activists as an
elder stateswoman in SNCC. Ransby’s is not the
only biography of Baker, but it is the best one, es-
pecially in its deep research into Baker’s youn-
ger years in North Carolina and New York. This
work should stand as the definitive biography of
one of America’s most important civil rights
leaders in the twentieth century.
Paul Harvey
University of Colorado
MOSES IN AMERICA: THE CULTURAL
USES OF BIBLICAL NARRATIVE. By
Melanie J. Wright. American Academy of Reli-
gion Cultural Criticism Series. New York: Ox-
ford University Press, 2003. Pp. 184. $35.00,
ISBN 0-19-515226-3.
Wright’s brief exploration of American inter-
pretations of Moses focuses on three twenti-
eth-century works-Lincoln Steffens’ 1926
novel, Moses in Red; Zora Neale Hurston’s 1939
novel, Moses, Man ofthe Mountain; and Cecil B.
DeMille’s 1956 The Ten Commandments.To her
credit Wright is less interested in charting the fi-
delity of these cultural productions to the origi-
nal texts than in understanding how people read
the Bible in particular contexts. In taking up
American representations of Moses, Wright ex-
plores the context in which each figure produced
their work and the range of concerns about the
Bible as a living text each represented. The chap-
ter on Moses in Red provides original analysis of
Steffens’ engagement with academic ap-
proaches to biblical interpretation and discusses
how the critical response to the work reveals the
period’s constructions of “legitimate” interpre-
tations. The chapter on Hurston, while providing
some useful literary analysis of the novel, does
so with a limited understanding of Afri-
can-American religious cultures of the 1930s
and draws broad conclusions about the reception
of Hurston’s work from an extremely small sam-
ple. It does, however, raise important questions
about why recent feminist and womanist theol-
ogy have neglected Hurston’s biblical interpre-
tations. The chapter on DeMille does a thorough
job of placing his film in context and of explicat-
ing the director’s cultural goals. Much of the
analysis relies on the claim that little serious
scholarship exists on 1950s biblical epics and it
is unfortunate that the author neglects some
recent important work on DeMille and others.
Judith Weisenfeld
Vassar College
DREADFUL CONVERSIONS: THE MAK-
ING OF A CATHOLIC SOCIALIST. By John
C. Cort. New York: Fordham University Press,
96 / Religious Studies Review
2003. Pp. x v + 355. $30.00, ISBN 0-8232-
2256-X.
Dreadful Conversions is the personal narra-
tive of Catholic social activist John C. Cort (b.
1913). Cort embraced Roman Catholicism while
a student at Harvard in 1936 and adopted Social-
ism as a political philosophy in 1974. These two
conversions continued to influence Cort’s in-
volvement in social reform for more than sixty
years. Disdaining capitalist society as incompat-
ible with the teachings of Christ, Cort promoted
the interests of workingmen and women through
the Association of Catholic Trade Unionists,
championed the poor both at home and abroad,
labored on behalf of civil rights, and participated
internationally for economic justice. Convinced
that labor had a vital role to play in society, he
co-founded the Catholic Labor School in New
York City in 1938 that employed Christianity as
an ideological force against both Communism
and capitalism. Cort based his ideology upon the
belief that “justice was the best economist,” and
that socialism was the best means of achieving an
equitable society. In later years he served as pres-
ident of the National Catholic Social Action
Conference and as co-editor of the quarterly Re-
ligious Socialism. Dreadful Conversions is an in-
valuable resource for students of twentieth-cen-
tury American Catholicism. In addition, Cort’s
activism is testimony that the faithful did not
speak with one voice on social issues.
A .J. Scopino, Jr.
Central Connecticut State University
CHRISTIAN CLERGY IN AMERICAN
POLITICS. Edited by Sue E. S. Crawford and
Laura R. Olson. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Uni-
versity Press, 2001. Pp. xi + 287. $22.50, ISBN
0-8018-6704-5.
Addressing an understudied social phenome-
non, these essays examine the political influence
of American clergy on their congregations.
Based on social-scientific research, they confirm
observations that clergy play a leading role in
shaping attitudes toward moral, political and so-
cial issues. However, their broad scope and var-
ied results reveal the complex interaction be-
tween religion and politics and overturn several
assumptions that have been made about
clergy-including the traditional view that lib-
eral clergy are more inclined toward activism.
Crawford’s (Creighton University) and Olson’s
(Clemson University) exemplary editorial work
includes an excellent introduction that reviews
the literature and provides a rationale for the es-
says and their subsequent arrangement. Addi-
tionally, they insert transitional elements-such
as the introduction to chapter ten-that signifi-
cantly enhance the focus of the entire book. Es-
pecially commendable are the first two essays by
Jelen and Guth that provide a theoretical frame-
work for understanding clergy as political lead-
ers and outline neglected areas of research. The
field studies-chapters four through thir-
teen-broadly represent American clergy from
several Christian traditions: women, African
Americans, Southern Baptist, Reformed, Ana-
baptist, and urban pastors; Catholic bishops; and
the late John Cardinal O’Conner. In chapter four-
teen the editors draw conclusions from each of
the essays and provide a composite picture of
what these studies reveal about politics and
clergy. The high quality of the field research and
the extensive editorial work set benchmarks for
further publications in this field. Strongly
recommended for academic libraries.
Barry W. Hamilton
Northeastern Seminary
CHRISTIAN CRITICS: RELIGION AND
THE IMPASSE IN MODERN AMERICAN
SOCIAL THOUGHT. By Eugene McCarraher.
Ithaca, N Y Cornell University Press, 2000. Pp.
xi + 241. $26.95, ISBN 0-8014-3473-4.
The strength of McCarraher is his focus on
theology as a distinctly Christian mode of cul-
tural criticism and analysis, making use of, but
not necessarily reliant on, secular social thought.
His examination of twentieth-century theologi-
cal cultural critics includes predictable choices
like Rauschenbusch, the Niebuhrs, and Tillich;
but his story is considerably strengthened by at-
tention to J. Maritain and D. Day. Despite the
failures of some of his subjects to use theological
criticism to its fullest potential (R. Niebuhr re-
duces religion to a useful buttress for fundamen-
tally secular progressive ideals, McCarraher ar-
gues), McCarraher remains convinced of theol-
ogy’s potential, and in the epilogue offers his
own critique of religion’s captivity to leftist and
progressive secular thought. The narrowly left-
istlprogressive focus of McCarraher is a weak-
ness of the book (why the attention to
distributist-inspired progressives, but not to con-
servatives like the Southern Agrarians?) and the
author’s dense (although often elegant) style
could make it tough-going for undergraduates.
Despite this, McCarraher’s study is important
both for its attention to a neglected subject and
for the insight he provides on twentieth-century
American religious history.
Russ Reeves
Trinity Christian College
CONVERGING ON CULTURE: THEOLO-
GIANS IN DIALOGUE WITH CULTURAL
ANALYSIS AND CRITICISM. Edited by
Delwin Brown, Sheila Greeve Davaney, and
Kathryn Tanner. The American Academy of Re-
ligion Reflection and Theory in the Study of Re-
ligion Series. New York: Oxford University
Press, 2001. Pp. xv + 202. Cloth, $47.50, ISBN
0-19-514466-X; paper, $19.95, ISBN
0-19-5 14467-8.
Converging on Culture grows out of a 1997
conference at the University of Chicago Divinity
School, co-sponsored by the Iliff School of The-
ology, which addressed the current trend among
many academic theologians to partner theology
with cultural analysis and criticism. In the lead
essay Davaney points to what the eleven authors
have in common, as well as to what separates
them. She suggests that all would agree that the-
ology should not be an intellectual exercise iso-
Volume 30 Number 1 / January 2004
lated from its social and cultural context. At the
same time she points out that while some theolo-
gians are exploring t h i s means of
reconceptualizing the discipline in order to re-
form and defend it, others seek theologies that
act as forms of cultural analysis and criticism.
The essays in part one examine the theoretical re-
lationship between theology and cultural studies.
The second group of essays addresses controver-
sial topics, such as race, class, and identity poli-
tics. While not providing definitive answers, the
authors address many important questions and
offer responses that lead the reader seriously to
consider this approach as portending a major
change in how we understand the nature of
theology.
Bryan F. LL Beau
University of Missouri, Kansas City
EVERYDAYAPOCALYPSE: THE SACRED
REVEALED IN RADIOHEAD, THE SJMP-
SONS, AND OTHER POP CULTURE
ICONS. By David Dark. Grand Rapids: Brazos,
2002. Pp. 160. $13.99, ISBN 1-58743-055-X.
This concise and gracefully written book
brings Christian theology into an appreciative di-
alogue with Flannery O’Connor’s fiction, The
Simpsons television show, the music of
Radiohead and Beck, and films including The
Matrix, The Truman Show, and several by Joel
and Ethan Coen. Dark uses the term “apocalyp-
tic” in a broad sense informed by Biblical Stud-
ies, especially studies of the synoptic gospels. He
distinguishes this usage from other-worldliness
or obsession with end-times scenarios, defining
it by a capacity to make readers perceive every-
day life-both its disturbing and joyful as-
pects-in a new light informed by a more en-
compassing vision, one that is future-oriented in
classic forms of apocalyptic. Thus The Simp-
sons’ gentle satire of everyday life fits his rubric
alongside darker works like the Coens’ Fargo or
the music of Radiohead, insofar as The Simpsons
helps viewers see their foibles in a new light.
However, the harder-edged sensibilities of
O’Connor’s fiction and films like The Matrix
come closer to the heart of Dark’s interests,
which center on existentialkpiritual insights and
the sort of cultural critique typically called “pro-
phetic” in liberal Christian circles. Dark weaves
summaries of plot and music together with acon-
sistently insightful, often profound, and only oc-
casionally forced commentary that makes con-
nections to scholars such as John Milbank and
N.T. Wright. He forcefully critiques the
flat-footed and shallow “non-apocalyptic” sensi-
bilities of self-styled Christian artists insofar as
they shy away from more disturbing and
open-ended artistic visions-an attitude he com-
pares to the producers in The Truman Show.
Recommended for libraries with theological
collections and courses on religion and media in
the contemporary US.
Mark Hulsether
University of Tennessee
Volume 30 Number 1 / January 2004
ECHOES OF THE CALL: IDENTITY AND
IDEOLOGY AMONG AMERICAN MIS-
SIONARIES IN ECUADOR. By Jeffrey
Swanson. New York Oxford University Press,
1995. Pp. 204. $60.00, ISBN 0-19-506823-8.
The author draws on his own experience as a
child of missionaries to explore the formation of
a missionary identity among evangelical Chris-
tian missionaries abroad. Based on the personal
narratives of over 100 members of the mission-
ary community of HCJB-World Radio in Ecua-
dor, he argues that a missionary identity centers
on a sense of “set apartness” or “strangerhood”
as a moral career. The formation of a missionary
identity rests on the rhetorical composition of a
personal narrativein which experiences that set a
missionary apart-separation and loss early in
life, conversion and divine calling, cultural oth-
erness in the missionary setting abroad-are
symbolically linked to a moral career. A fasci-
nating study, Echoes of the Call, is an important
contribution to the sociology of religion.
Rebecca Horn
University of Utah
South Asia
QUERYING THE MEDIEVAL: TEXTS
AND THE HISTORY OF PRACTICES IN
SOUTH ASIA. By Ronald Inden, Jonathan
Walters, and Daud Ali. New York Oxford Uni-
versity hess, 2000. Pp. 248. $49.95, ISBN
0-19-512430-8.
This book is a brilliant contribution to South
Asian religious history. Its three essays involve
intertextud examinations of moments in medi-
eval history: the Vislyudharmottarapuniqa in
eighthcentury Kashmir. the Sri Lankan V q s a
genre of Buddhist texts, and inscriptional eulo-
gies of the twelfthcentury Cola dynasty. The es-
says use a new vocabulary to overcome the
Indological flaws of orientalism. authorism. and
contextualism. Following Cohgwood, they ar-
gue that each text belongs to a “scale of texts.” In
their view, the “complex author” of each text re-
acts to other texts and agents, and those
dialogical partners in turn react to it. Inden ar-
gues that the Vishydhannottarapuniqa articu-
lates a reworking of the older Piiicaritra
Vaiskava orderswith newer Bhigavataones, in
which a king who is conquerorof the entire earth
must perform liturgies for the welfare of his en-
tirekingdom. Walters shows that V q s a s are not
“primary source” chronicles, but rather “succes-
sions of the Buddha’s presence,” and products of
dialoguebetweendisciplinary orders and the im-
perial court. Ali reconsiders the copper plate in-
scriptionsof the ‘The Order of Rijendra Cola”
(1012-1044) and fmds a special relationship be-
tween inscriptions and Puri+as. The Colas artic-
ulated their sovereignty by supplementing
Puri+ic notions of time, as well as constructing
their domain as a supplement to the
cosmographic representations in the Pu+as.
Religious Studies Review / 97
Occasionally, the authors assume a near-total RELIGION AND POLITICS IN INDIA
break between other forms of Indological schol- DURING THE THIRTEENTH CENTURY.
arship and their new dialogical approach. Per- By Khaliq Ahmad Nizami. New York: Oxford
haps reformers must assume this stance, but the University Press, 2002. Pp. ~xxviii+ 440, plates,
authors all use at least some of the same methods illustrations.$35.00, ISBN 019-565500-1.
that their predecessors and contemporaries have Originally published in 1961, this new edi-
also employed. As Inden argues, “no order is tion of Nizami’s book still serves as one of the
complete or allembracing, despite any claims its primary sources for those interested in the Turk-
creatorsmight make.” Some consideration of the ish rule of India, as well as the early development
new method’s own limitations would make the of Islamic culture in the subcontinent. Although
book even more persuasive. That said, this is a more suitable for advanced undergraduates,
truly innovative work from three of the best his- graduate students, or specialists, Nizami suc-
torians of South Asia writing today. Bravo. ceeds in placing the Delhi Sultanate within the
Laurie L. Patton world beyond politics-an approach not often
Emory University taken by most other histories of this era. In addi-
tion to political realities, he explores the social,
STATE FORMATION IN RAJASTHAN: religious, and cultural milieu that allowed for not
MEWAR DURING THE SEVENTH-F”- just political expansion of the Turks into the
TEENTH CENTURIES. By Nandini Sinha subcontinent, but allowed for significant adap-
Kapur. New Delhi: Manohar, 2002. Pp. 308. Rs. tations of Islamic culture within a Hindu-major-
650, ISBN 81-7304-429-5. ity society. The strength of Nizami’s book is his
Kapur offers here a densely detailed study of rich use of previously untapped thirteenth-cen-
tury primary-language manuscripts that paint a
the formation of the Guhila state in Mewar dur-
picture not just of the thoughts and activities of
ing medieval times, a process that the author ar- the ruling elite, but provide some insight into the
gues occurred more through along, slow process lives of average citizens. Nizami, however, is in-
of incorporation of various social groups into the consistent in his translations, even leaving some
growing state than through centralization of pohons untransliterated. The book also contains
power and authority. The close aaention to the thorough accounts of the rise of Sufism in the In-
interactionsof the state and religious institutions dian subcontinent. the effects of which Nizami
should remind scholarsof Indian religion of the successfully argues were felt in the thirteenth
great extent to which the development of reli- century, and still remain today as one of the ear-
gious sects. and the related development of pil- marks of Indian Islam. This reprint once again
issues a call for fuaher comprehensive work in
grimage shrines (tirthas) and building of the early Islamic era in Indian history.
temples, are all historical processes that cannot Eric J. Rothgery
be adequately understood outside of a context of University of Iowa
kings and royal politics. Through a careful study
of texts and inscriptions, Kumar shows how the MAKERS OF MODERN INDIAN RELI-
Guhiia state legitimated itself by its support of GION IN THE LATE NINETEENTH CEN-
briihmaycr institutions, the regional PaTSupata TURY. By Torkel Brekke. New York Oxford
Saiva religious complex of Ekalinga (and other University Press, 2002. Pp. 179. $65.00, ISBN
PiSupata monasteries), and the semi-tribalgod- 0- 19-925236-X.
“At the end of the nineteenth century Hindus,
dess Vindhyavisini. Conversely, neither Buddhists, and Jains were in the process of rede-
Ekalinga nor Vindhyavisini would remain im- fining what it means to belong to their communi-
portant today without this long history of state ties. They did this by the parameters laid down
patronage. But Kumar’s discussion fails to ad- by the English language, by European ideas of
dress fully why supportof briihmanas.Psupata religion, European ideas of history, and E u m
Saivas, and the cult of Vindhyavisini served to pean ideas of societies and nations.” Brekke be-
legitimate Guhila rule, yet the extensive royal gins by addressing the issue of how history is
patmnage of the Jains did not serve the same conceived, who writes it, and who owns it. He
function. Her evidence shows the Jains to have suggests that the European version of history is
limited, yet he does not find the traditional Indian
been ubiquitous in Mewar during this period, approach any more valid. As he focuses on each
and for long periods to have been the economi- of the above religious traditions separately, he
cally (and, therefore, to a significant extent also singles out religious leaders he understands as
politically) dominant group in the kingdom; why pivotal in the nineteenth-century redesign and
does shethereforeomit them fromher discussion promulgation of theirtraditions. In the Hinduism
of legitimation? Nonetheless, this will remain an of Swami Vivekananda, the Buddhism of
important work for scholars interested in medi- Anargarika Dharmapala, and the Jainism of sev-
eval India, western India (especially Rajasthan), eral nineteenth- and early twentieth-century
and the relationship between kingship on the one leaders, Brekke discovers the decisive influence
of western thought in general and of Protestant
hand and religious values and institutions. social and religious thinking in particular. Fur-
John E. COI?
ther, all had clear proselytizing elements in their
Denison University
approaches and are described not only as reform-
98/ Religious Studies Review
ers and innovators, but also as strong-willed mis-
sionaries of their traditions. Brekke’s text is
well-researched and insightful, and while the
reader may not agree with all the author’s inter-
pretations, there is much food for thought for
anyone interested in the role of the British and
Christianity in the reformulation and elaboration
of Indian religious thinking in the last few
centuries.
Rarndas Lamb
University of Hawai’i
POLITICS AFTER TELEVISION: RELI-
GIOUS NATIONALISM AND THE RE-
SHAPING OF THE INDIAN PUBLIC. By
Arvind Rajagopal. New York: Cambridge Uni-
versity Press, 2001. Pp. viii + 393. Cloth, $70.00,
ISBN 0-521-64053-9; paper, $25.00, ISBN
0-52 1-64839-4.
This book offers a complex media-oriented
analysis of late twentieth-century Indian politics,
focusing on the rise of the Bharatiya Janata Party
(BJP) and on i t s strategic use of the
“Ramjanmabhoomi” agitation, the Hindu claim
on a Muslim religious site in Ayodhya. It sets
these events particularly in the context of
post-1980 economic liberalization, the waning
mandate of the Congress Party, and the rise of a
“Hinduized consumer culture. For the latter, it
identifies as a key development the spread of
television viewing and the airing of serialized
versions of the Ramayana and Mahabharata ep-
ics between 1987 and 1990. The first three chap-
ters discuss the advent of television and the phe-
nomenal popularity of these serials, offering se-
lective analyses of their content and of viewers’
responses. Yet despite the title, television is only
one component in the study, which effectively
demonstrates how wide a range of factors con-
tributed to the growing “saffronization” of In-
dian politics. An especially original and insight-
ful chapter focuses on the stylistic differences
between the Hindi and English press, and their
utilization by the BJP and its allies during the
Ayodhya agitation. Another equally impressive
chapter examines the complex motives underly-
ing many US-resident Indians’ support for the
Hindu right. With its focus on the role of media
and marketing, the book effectively
complements other recent studies that
emphasize the political or socio-religious
dimensions of the rise of Hindu nationalism.
Philip Lutgendotf
University of Iowa
THE STUDY OF HINDUISM. Edited by
Arvind Sharma. Columbia: University of South
Carolina Press, 2003. Pp. xii + 315. $49.95,
ISBN 1-57003-449-4.
This volume contains nine bibliographic es-
says organized quite differently than what we are
accustomed to in a volume of such a title. The es-
says are “What is Hinduism” (Sharma), “The
Study of Hinduism:” (E. Sharpe), “Method in the
Study of Hinduism” (Sharma), “Vedic Hindu-
ism”(S. Jamison and M. Witzel), “India’sEpics”
(A. Hiltebeitel), “The Purinas” (G. Bailey),
“The Bhagavadgiti and Classical Hinduism”
(M. Eder), “Medieval Devotional Traditions” (P.
Lutgendorf), and “Modem Hinduism” (R.
Baird). This volume will prove most useful to
graduate students and those advising them be-
cause it provides a ready set of references ar-
ranged thematically. There are problems,
however, in spite of this and the clearly evident
research skills of the authors. First, the formats
followed by the authors are not uniform. Three
articles are divided into subsections with sepa-
rate bibliographies (Jamison and Witzel, Bailey,
Lutgendorf). This is the superior format, and the
editor should have enforced it on the other au-
thors. One has a composite bibliography at the
end of the article (Hiltebeitel). The others (in-
cluding the editor) place their bibliographies in
footnotes alone. This is often chaotic. Another
problem is that the book was clearly under pro-
duction for quite a long time; thus the notice and
incumbent discussions of many recent books and
important articles are spotty. Finally, with the ex-
ception of t h e articles by Sharpe and
Jamisoflitzel, there is hardly any notice of
works outside of English. Nevertheless, this vol-
ume should find its way onto the shelves of seri-
ous scholars and graduate students.
Frederick M. Smith
University of Iowa
THE BLACKWELL COMPANION TO
HINDUISM. Edited by Gavin Flood. Oxford:
Blackwell, 2003. Pp. xiii + 599. $124.95, ISBN
0-631-21535-2.
This is easily the most comprehensive,
in-depth, and accessible collection of articles on
nearly every branch of Hinduism ever published.
One can pick anything apart with enough effort,
and even here one can detect major lacunae in the
areas of modem folklore and regional traditions.
But what is here, which is just about everything
else from the Vedas and Upanisads (M. Witzel)
to contemporary political Hinduism (C.
Ram-F’rasad) and theoretical treatment of orien-
talism and colonialism (G. Viswanathan and D.
Smith), is of the highest quality. Among the
other scholars represented are L. Rocher on
Dharmaiistras, J. Brockington on the Sanskrit
epics, N. Cutler on Tamil Hindu literature, P.
Olivelle on the renouncer tradition, juxtaposed
by T. Madan on the householder tradition, and R.
Freeman on Hindu literature in Malayalam and
the feyyam tradition of Kerala. A special and un-
expected treat is a section on scientific thought,
including articles by F. Staal on the science of
language; T. Hayashi on mathematics; M. Yano
on the Hindu calendar, astrology, and astron-
omy; and D. Wujastyk on Indian medical sci-
ence. Other sections are on philosophy and
theology (J. Ganeri, F. Clooney, and A. Padoux)
Volume 30 Number 1 / January 2004
and Hinduism in modernity (D. Quigley, D.
Killingley, Ram-Prasad, S. Ramaswamy, and V.
Narayanan)-and much more. Don’t miss it.
This stellar collection belongs on the shelf of ev-
ery serious Indic scholar and graduate student, as
well as in every library. Buy now!
Frederick M. Smith
University of Iowa
DESTINY AND-HUMAN INITIATIVE IN
THE MAHABHARATA. By Julian F. Woods.
Albany: State University of New York Press,
2 0 0 1 . 4 . ix + 237. Cloth, $65.00, ISBN 0-7914-
4981-5; paper, $21.95, ISBN 0-7914-4982-3.
With precision and lucidity Woods follows,
through the vast and beautiful Mahibhirata, a
single, poignant question: what role is there for
individual human initiative (purusakiira) when
events seem to be determined by either the gods
or destiny (daiva)? Woods explores the paths of
active, engaged (pravytti) dharma and of with-
drawn, contemplative (nivytti) dharma, and ar-
gues that “essential freedom” is beyond the
material (prakyfi).at the level of the universal
self (Ztman).Consequently, destiny has two con-
notations: “destiny” which appears to be in ten-
sion with (and allows for the illusion of) human
effort, and omnipotent “Destiny” which reflects
the will of a deity or the Ztman. We should act,
then, in line with (what we know of) “Destiny,”
and, as the Bhagavad Giti advises, act as if our
actions were merely sacrificial offerings (to
Krishna). The virtue of this slim volume lies in
its style and hermeneutic approach: Woods syn-
thesizes various approaches, both traditional and
contemporary; he begins with Madhva and con-
tinues with Biardeau and Ricoeur, Riminuja
and Sarikara, all the while paying attention to the
human dimensions of the characters’ dilemmas.
For scholars of Hinduism and Comparative Reli-
gion, this book is an elegant reminder of how el-
oquently the ancient epic can speak to our
modem academic concerns.
Aditya Adarkar
Montclair State University
FATE, PREDESTINATION AND HUMAN
ACTION IN THE 6 6 ~ ~ ~ l i ~A ~ X
STUDY IN THE HISTORY OF IDEAS. By
Peter Hill. New Delhi: Munshiram Manoharlal,
2 0 0 1 . 4 . + 398. Rs. 600, ISBN 81-215-0855-X.
This book explores the important themes of
karma, fate, predestination and free will in the
MahZbhiirafa.The author demonstrates a thor-
ough knowledge of the MahZbhZrata, and he
quotes or paraphrases all the passages of the
MahZbhZrata relevant to his theme. His transla-
tions are good and close to the original text. The
main flaw of this books lies in its lackof analysis.
Unfortunately, Hill does not go much beyond the
text of the MahZbhZrara itself. The brief conclu-
Volume 30 Number 1 / January 8004
sion does begin to address some of the central
philosophical issues raised by the passages
quoted in the rest of the book. More analysis of
this kind throughout the book would have made
this otherwise solid work into a truly valuable
contribution to the history of Indian thought.
Signe Cohen
University of Missouri, Columbia
RELIGIOUS PROCESS: THE PURXNAS
AND THE MAKING OF A REGIONAL
TRADITION. By Kunal Chakrabarti. New
York: Oxford University Press, 2001. Pp. viii +
368. $39.95, ISBN 0-19-564989-3.
In this well-argued and meticulously detailed
study, an eminent Indian historian explores the
role that the mythical Pur+as played in the for-
mation of a distinct Bengali form of Hinduism.
The author focuses on those Pur+s that were
authored in eastern India during the medieval pe-
riod, when Brahmans were making their most
significant ideological attempts to ascend to a
place of scriptural and ritual authority in the re-
gion. After providing a sophisticated theoretical
overview of the relevant literature in the intro-
duction, Chakrabarti introduces us to what he
calls the “Bengal Pur5nas.” the primary sources
he uses to make his case for Brahmanization. He
argues that the process at work is “appropria-
tion,” which he sees as inevitable during any cul-
tural encounter. Chapter four pays specific
attention to the Brahmanical influence on Bud-
dhism, while chapter five looks extensively at
the emergence of goddess worship. In chapter
six Chakrabarti convincingly argues that vratas
(vow rituals and narratives) were the primary ve-
hicles for transmitting Brahmanical ideology.
Chakrabarti avoids the pitfalls of Sanskritization
by suggesting that the process is much more
dialogical than M. N. Srinivas admitted. This in-
terdisciplinary volume is a must for any student
of medieval Indian history.
Frank J. Korom
Boston University
FLUENT BODIES: AYURVEDIC REME-
DIES FOR POSTCOLONIAL IMBAL-
ANCE. By Jean M. Langford. Durham, NC:
Duke University Press, 2002. Pp. 311. Cloth,
$59.95, ISBN 0-8223-2931-X; paper, $19.95,
ISBN 0-8223-2948-4.
This anthropological study of the recent his-
tory of Ayurveda is important for students of In-
dian religion because Ayurveda shares with
more recognizable Hindu theory and praxis a
great deal of conceptual, practical, social, and
political territory, operating as they do out of
barely distinguishable cosmological and scien-
tific paradigms. Langford employs post-
structuralist theory-sometimes successfully,
sometimes unnecessarily-to her project of
studying the modernization of Ayurveda in the
twentieth century. It is illuminating in her discus-
sions of modem ayurvedic education, in which
biomedical practice is uncomfortably imposed
on a background of classical ayurvedic theory.
But her theoretical apparatus is of little help in
providing an understanding of anything other
than itself in discussions of the ayurvedic body.
Langford builds upon previous anthropological
studies of Ayurveda by C. Leslie and others in or-
der to construct a “poetics” of contemporary
ayurvedic practice, which reinforces the notion
that this study recreates Ayurveda as an
epiphenomen of Indian cultural (and religious)
practice. As a general statement this cannot be
denied, but the usefulness of this perception is of
limited value to the study of Ayurveda itself.
Nevertheless, her accessible examination of the
neo-orientalism with which modem Ayurveda
and the deployment of its terminology is
constructed will be of importance to scholars
(and students) of a variety of disciplines.
Frederick M. Smith
University of Iowa
ADVAITA EPISTEMOLOGY AND META-
PHYSICS: AN OUTLINE OF INDIAN
NON-REALISM. By Chakravarthi
Ram-Prasad. New York: Routledge, 2002. Pp.
xii + 274. $75.00, ISBN 0-7007-1604-1.
This book considers the viewpoint of non-re-
alism from the perspective of three major
Advaita Vedanta thinkers: $@am, VGcaspati
MiSra, and especially Sri H e According to
Ram-Prasad, non-realists hold that while one can
assume the world exists independently of experi-
ence, one cannot prove the reality of such a
world; the concept of objects external to cogni-
tion is dependent on cognition. After offering
some background on Advaita, he specifically
discusses $+ara (versus Vasubandhu) on
externality (focusing on their debate about the
status of dreaming), Vicaspati (versus Nyiya)
on (in)dete&ancy (anirvacaniyatva and theo-
ries of error), and 9riH-a (versus Nyiya) on in-
dependent existence of the world (external to
cognition). He closes with $ri Hary’s critique of
Nyiya and M-himsi on perception and imme-
diacy. Along the way, the author also makes a
number of illuminating comparisons with im-
portant Western thinkers such as Kant, Des-
cartes, Berkeley, Wittgenstein, and Hume (the
latter on causality and regularity). Ram-Prasad
knows both the Western and Indian traditions
well. The book is full of clear and careful de-
scription and analysis, falling decidedly on the
“philosophy” side of philosophy of religion. Ap-
propriate for upper-level seminars in Indian
thought and research libraries.
Andrew 0.Fort
Texas Christian University
ENCOUNTERING a L i : IN THE MAR-
GINS, AT THE CENTER, IN THE WEST.
Edited by Rachel Fell McDermott and Jeffrey J.
Kripal. Berkeley: University of California Press,
Religious Studies Review / 99
2003. Pp. xviii + 321. $21.95, ISBN
0-520-23240-2.
This book could have appropriately been
called Many Kcifis;we meet her in South Asian
forms from tribal, brahmanical, tantric, and pop-
ular traditions, and in her new western guises as
well. As the editors write, she is “simultanmusly
understood as a blood-thirsty warrior, a deity of
ritual possession, a Tantric sexual partner, and an
all-loving, compassionate Mother.” C. Humes
points out that Kili has had passionate devotees
and defenders as well as those who have
demonized and dismissed her. In all her forms,
attractive and repulsive, protecting and threaten-
ing, Kili possesses great power (Sakti).Her teni-
tory ranges from Calcutta (Sanjukta Gupta, H.
Urban), Orissa (MenordSchweder), and Banaras
(R. Gupta) to Kerala (S. Caldwell), and beyond
India to Sri Lanka (P.Lawrence), Trinidad (K.
McNeal), and America (McDermott). Some will
find her transformation in the West (on the
Intemet and beyond) as symbolic of female em-
powerment and a patron of sexual pleasure par-
ticularly interesting. Several of the essays are
primarily text-oriented (D. Kinsley, P. Dold),
but many are rich in “thick description.” Ap-
proaches vary; there are post-colonial, psycho-
analytic and feminist perspectives and some
autobiographical reflection. This book contains
much first-rate scholarship, and leaves one with
a great appreciation for the diversity of Kilis.
Appropriate for courses on goddess traditions,
Hindu deities, and for all libraries.
Andrew 0.Fort
Texas Christian University
RITUAL WORSHIP OF THE GREAT GOD2
DESS: THE LITURGY OF THE DURGA
PEJX WITH INTERPRETATIONS. By Hil-
lary Peter Rodrigues. Albany: State University
of New York Press, 2003. Pp. xvi + 417. Cloth,
$71 SO. ISBN 0-7914-5399-5; paper, $23.95,
ISBN 0-7914-5400-2.
The highlight of this volume is a detailed de-
scription of the Bengali style of domestic Durgi
pfiji which, says the author, is the most elaborate
of them all. Thus, it fills a major gap in our
knowledge of the performative aspect of Indic
goddess traditions. This is a revised Ph.D. disser-
tation from McMaster University, based on al-
most two years of documentary research in
Bengal and Varanasi. Description is the author’s
preeminent skill, demonstrated on page after
page. Less prominent are his skills as a
Sanskritist and a theoretician. On the whole,
Rodrigues follows the methodological patterns
of his mentor, the late David Kinsley. This he
does perhaps a bit too slavishly, as he forsakes
many of the possibilities of insights from
postcolonialist and ritual theory. That said,
Rodrigues has demonstrated an impressive facil-
100 / Religious Studies Review
ity for both documentary work and reading north
Indian culture through the lens of the Durgi
pfija. Another strength is readability and accessi-
bility. Rodrigues has targeted an audience of an-
thropologists and historians of South Asian
religion who may not require deep (and esoteric)
linguistic insight. In the end, this volume will be
of great assistance to anyone undertaking a de-
scriptive study of contemporary South Asian nt-
ual. It is recommended for scholars of North
Indian culture and ritual, for students of South
Asian ritual, and for upper level courses on Hin-
duism.
Frederick M. Smith
University of Iowa
OLD DECCAN DAYS OR HIND00 FAIRY
LEGENDS. By Mary Frere. Edited by Kirin
Narayan. ABC-CLIO Classic Folk and Fairy
Tales. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2002. Pp.
xxxii + 259; illustrations. $45.00, ISBN
1-57607-680-6.
First published in England to widespread ac-
claim in 1868, Old Deccan Days is a marvelous
compendium of tales as well as a rich document
of colonial folkloristics and the life of oral tradi-
tions in nineteenth-century India. This hand-
some edition includes the original’s charming
line drawings and invaluable “Narrator’s Narra-
tive”-storyteller Anna Liberata de Souza’s fas-
cinating account of her life. All this is informa-
tively enhanced by Narayan’s graceful and af-
fectionate introduction in which she “situates”
Old Deccan Days historically, providing
thoughtful commentary on the circumstances of
its production. Narayan does not gloss over the
racist colonial conditions under which Frere’s
book-a collaboration between a British admin-
istrator’s daughter and her hired ayah or nurse-
maid-emerged. However, Narayan credits
Frere for her ability to see Anna, who belonged to
a family of Christian converts from Kamataka,
“as a complex human being.” Narayan rightly
points to the “bold stand” Frere took in arguing
that the folktales in her collection countered
“British preconceptions.” For example, Frere
states that the brave, loyal, and outspoken hero-
ines of Anna’s tales do not fit colonial stereo-
types of Indian women as “mere slaves or in-
triguers.” Old Deccan Days offers readers capti-
vating pleasures. As Narayan observes, “meta-
morphosis abounds”: a queen gives birth to pup-
pies; eagles foster a baby who in later adventures
takes refuge as a sunflower and a mango. The
gods intervene only occasionally as when, at
Parvati’s whim, Mahadev brings a thousand
wooden parrots to life. Highly recommended to
one and all.
Ann Grodzins Gold
Syracuse University
YOGA: THE INDIAN TRADITION. Edited
by Ian Whicher and David Carpenter. New York:
Routledge, 2003. Pp. xii + 206. $90.00,ISBN
0-7007- 1228-7.
An interesting and diverse set of essays on an
ancient and widely influential tradition of Indian
thought and practice. The book is largely textu-
ally focused, whether on the Pitaiijala Yogasha
(YS) school or later manifestations. Chapters in-
clude J. Brockington’s summary of wide-rang-
ing references to yoga in the Mahibharata,
Carpenter on practice (abhyzsa) and dispassion
(vairzgya) in Pataiijali yoga (a model of good,
careful text analysis), Whicher’s creative argu-
ment that Patafijali advocates “practical” and
“experiential” integration of spirit and matter
through worldly engagement, and L. Pflueger’s
(to my view highly effective) critique of this po-
sition by showing Patafijali’s rigorous “radical
dualism.” C. Chapple discusses references to the
luminosity of purusa in the YS and in part at-
tempts to rehabilitate Whicher’s view. V.
Sundaresan gives a sweeping overview of
S ~ k a r a ’ remarks
s on yoga (emphasizing those
supportive of yogic practice); 0.Qvarnstrom in-
troduces the yogic path according to the
hetimbara Jains; D. White shows how yoga ap-
pears in early Hindu Tantra, particularly super-
normal powers (siddhis) and the emergence of
the cakra system; and finally G. Hayes describes
how various metaphors (such as those referring
to fluids, journey, and family) are used in yogic
practices according to the Vaisnava Sahjiyis.
Appropriate for graduate courses on Yoga and
for all libraries.
Andrew 0. Fort
Texas Christian University
East Asia
SHAMANISM IN ASIA. Edited by Clark
Chilson and Peter Knecht. New York:
Routledge, 2003. Pp. 199. $90.00, ISBN
0-415-29679-X.
This volume features six articles drawn from
the journal Asian Folklore Studies, published
from Nanzan University in Nagoya, Japan. The
articles are introduced by an essay “Aspects of
shamanism,” by Knecht. This essay reviews the
current state of studies and issues in shamanism
studies, including problems of definition, the gap
between emic and etic viewpoints, the impor-
tance of possession in Asian shamanism, the sha-
man’s relationship with spirits and mythic be-
ings, and a few (rather skimpy) notes on the de-
cline and persistence of shamanism. The articles
are F. G. Heyne, “The Social Significance of the
Shaman among the Chinese Reindeer-Evenki”
(1999); A. Karim, “Shamanism in Bangladesh”
(1988); J. Mottin, “A Hmong Shaman’s Skance”
(1984); J. A. Grim, “Chaesu Kut: A Korean Sha-
manistic Performancr” ( 1 984); T. Naoko,
“Miyak0 Theology: Shamans” Interpretation of
Traditional beliefs (1987); and Naoko (again),
“Liminal Experiences of Miyako Shamans:
Volume 30 Number 1 /January 2004
Reading a Shaman’s Diary’’ (1990). All the arti-
cles are instructive. Most impressive is the light
shed on family relations (e.g., Naoko on “sibling
theology”) and the social relations between sha-
mans and laity. The ethnographies vary in qual-
ity (Karim tends to wander), but the most impor-
tant aspect of this volume is the attention given to
issues of language. Studies of shamanism have
come a long way since Eliade, but still require
incisive theorizing by scholars of religion.
Frederick M. Smith
University of Iowa
Buddhism
THE ORIGINS O F O M MANIPADME
HEM: A STUFY OF THE
KARANDAVYEHA SUTRA. By Alexander
Studholme. Albany: State University of New
York Press, 2002. Pp. 222. $20.00, ISBN
0-7914-5390-1.
Studholme discusses the origins of the
well-known Buddhist mantra Om manipadme
hiim. He demonstrates convincingly the connec-
tions between the Karandavyiiha Siitra, the
Buddhist text in which the mantra is first re-
corded, and the Saiva tradition. Studholme ar-
gues that the six-syllable mantra Om munipadme
hEm represents a Buddhist adaptation of the pop-
ular five-syllable Hindu mantra namah iivZya.
At this point, however, he fails to provide
enough evidence of direct influence; it is after all
possible that the two mantras are individual ex-
amples of the pan-Indian tradition of sacred
sounds. Studholme’s interpretation of the mean-
ing of Om manipadme hiim itself is original and
ingenious: He proposes that “manipadme”
should be understood as a locative compound
with the meaning “in the lotus made of jewels,”
which he interprets as a reference to Sukhivati,
the paradise associated with AvalokiteSvara.
Studholme suggests that the locative form is
used because of the emphasis the text places on
being reborn in Sukhivati. Ingenious as this in-
terpretation is, it would have been more convinc-
ing if the author had demonstrated more clearly
why this particular reading is preferable to the
m o r e c o m m o n l y accepted r e a d i n g of
“manipadme” as a vocative of a feminine name
“Ma+padmi.” The book also contains a very
useful annotated summary of the Karandavyiiha
Siitra. Studholme’s study of the origins of Om
maFipadme him is a brilliant and well argued lit-
tle book. It will be of great value to all scholars of
Buddhism.
Signe Cohen
University of Missouri
FOUR ILLUSIONS: CANDRAK~RTI’SAD-
VICE TO TRAWLERS ON THE BODHI-
SATTVA PATH. Translated by Karen C. Lang.
Volume 30 Number 1 / January 2004
New York: Oxford University Press, 2003. Pp.
xv + 240. $21.95, ISBNO-19-515113-5.
Candrak-hi (ca. 550-650 C.E.) is best known
for his philosophical treatises, but his Commen-
tary on the Four Hundred Verses on the Bodhi-
sattva’s Practice of Yoga
(BodhisamayogZcZracatu!z.fataka)reveals an-
other side of this eminent Buddhist thinker. A
commentary on Aryadeva’s Four Hundred
(Catuhs’ataka),this text examines many of the
philosophical themes found in Candrakirti’s
better known works, but mainly contains advice
on morality and lifestyle choices, interspersed
with illustrative stories and anecdotes. Lang
translates the first four chapters, which deal with
four mistaken ideas: conceiving impermanent
things as permanent, considering painful things
to be pleasurable, viewing impure things as pure;
and attachment to the notion of self. Lang has
done an admirable job of translating an often dif-
ficult text into readable English, and her intro-
duction covers an impressive range of sources
from Indian literature that help to contextuali
Candrakirti’s stories. She lays out the social mi-
lieu in which these stories were articulated, but
could perhaps have devoted more effort to ex-
plaining for a contemporary audience how some
of the more obscure stories would have impacted
their intended audience. A number are highly
implausible and read like ancient Indian urban
myths, and it is difficult to imagine how they
might have served as cautionary tales or as reli-
gious inspiration. Despite this minor limitation,
this book is a significant contribution to the field
of Buddhist studies, particularly for those inter-
ested in Madhyamaka philosophy.
John Powers
Australian National University
Religious Studies Review / 101
THE TIBETAN INDEPENDENCE MOVE-
Inner Asia MENT POLITICAL, RELIGIOUS AND
GANDHIAN PERSPECTIVES. By Jane
Ardley. New York Routledge (Curzon), 2002.
TIBET, SELF, AND THE TIBETAN DIAS- Pp.xii + 211. $90.00, ISBN 0-7007-1572-X.
PORA: VOICES OF DIFFERENCE. Edited
Although the origins of the Tibetan Inde-
by P. Christiaan Klieger. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 2002.
pendence movement can be traced back to its in-
Pp.256. $62.00, ISBN 90-04-12555-8. vasion in 1950 by the Chinese and its subsequent
This edited collection is an excellent demon-
occupation and incorporation into China, it as-
stration of how far Tibetan studies has advanced
sumes concreteness with the failure of the gue-
in the last decade or so. The articles here go well
rilla movement in 1959 and the setting up of the
beyond the Buddhological and anthropological Tibetan government in exile in 1960. Although
models of most previous scholarship, and be-
guerilla activity hasn’t completely subsided it
yond the standard post-orientalist diaspora
seems fair to say that the focus has shifted to-
scholarship of the last decade or so which focus
wards achieving independence through other
exclusively on the relationship of both Tibetans
means, and decidedly peaceful ones in the view
and non-Tibetans to an imagined homeland, and of the individual who embodies the Tibetan cul-
on the Westernization of diaspora Tibetans. In- tural and political resistance to the Chinese in his
cluded here are excellent articles by D. Anand on
person-the Dalai Lama. This book offers a de-
the symbolic geography of Dharmasala: G.
tailed survey of the history of the Tibetan inde-
Dreyfus on the construction of Tibetan religious
pendence movement since its very inception and
nationalism, which he convincingly shows
a detailed comparison with the Indian independ-
against prevailing opinion, is an indigenous,
ence movement. Notwithstanding the obvious
non-secular, non-Western formation; Klieger’s
differences, the explicit deployment of
study of the shifting culture of gender identity in
Gandhian attitudes and techniques by Tibetans
the diaspora; and E. Yeh on the problem of Ti-
provides an obvious bridge between the two. It is
betan identity and acculturation in America.
indeed fascinating that two themes central to that
Two articles focus on self-representation of Ti-
movement: the relationship of religion and poli-
betans in different languages: L. H. McMillen on
tics and the role of violence and non-violence
Tibetan autobiography in English, and L.
have also surfaced in the context of the Tibetan
Maconi on the social poetry of the Tibetan intel- independence movement. The author argues that
lectual Yi dam tshe ring in Chinese. J.
a more forthright recognition of the political na-
Magnusson considers the Tibetan use of the
ture of the struggle (instead of soft-peddling it in
myth of Tibet as a political tool. A. Terrone re-
favor of an appealing spirituality) seems called
flects on the religious world, visions, and iden-
for if the movement is to make headway. This is
tity of a present-day “treasure discoverer.” N.
an excellent study of its kind, in which the ideol-
Grent addresses the position of the old Tibetan
ogy of a movement is subjected to as detailed an
practice of polyandry in present-day
examination as its history, although some might
Dharmasala. Finally, K. Garratt has written an
feel that the Indian pole of comparison has been
excellent account of contemporary Tibetan reli-
overelaborated. Recommended at all levels.
gious biography as represented in popular
Arvind Sharma
Tibetan language newspapers and magazines.
McGill University
Altogether a worthy collection to the literature
on the Tibetan diaspora.
Frederick M. Smith
University of Iowa