Vol. 12, Issue 1 (1997) -- Book Reviews

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Book reviewsJohn A. Salibaa; Peter Beyerb; William Keenanc; David Martind; James Sweeneye; Gavin D'Costaf; SueJeffelsg; Sanda Ducaruh; Magnus Bradshaw; Farzin Negahban; Malory Nyei; Rgine Azria; Joseph

Rhymera University of Detroit Mercy, b University of Ottawa, c The Nottingham Trent University, d Honorary

Professor, Department of Religious Studies, Lancaster University, e Scotus College, Glasgow f

Department of Theology & Religious Studies, University of Bristol, g Religious Resource and ResearchCentre, University of Derby, h Japanese Religions Project, King's College, London i University of

Stirling,

To cite this Article Saliba, John A. , Beyer, Peter , Keenan, William , Martin, David , Sweeney, James , D'Costa, Gavin ,Jeffels, Sue , Ducaru, Sanda , Bradshaw, Magnus , Negahban, Farzin , Nye, Malory , Azria, Rgine and Rhymer,Joseph(1997) 'Book reviews', Journal of Contemporary Religion, 12: 1, 99 120

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Journal of Contemporary Religion, Vol. 12, No. 1, 1997 99Book Reviews

Gods in the Global Village: The World's Religions in Sociological PerspectiveLESTER KUR TZ, 1995Thousand Oaks: Pine Forge Pressxii + 279 p p ., 15.95ISBN 0-8039-9037-5A volume in a series entitled "Sociology for a New Century", this book presentsan overview of the current scholarship in the sociology of religion. The authorbegins by describing three major sociological metaphors about religion:"constructing a sacred canopy", "religious marketplaces", and "electiveaffinities". He then opts for the last mentioned metaphor that is employed "toidentify connections between religious traditions and various social groups inthe global village" (p. 15). He also explains how he uses the four majorsociological approaches, namely, the subjective, structural, dramaturgical, andinstitutional, to analyse the world religions.A brief sociological tour is given of the world's main religious traditions(Hinduism, Buddhism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam), each of which pro-vides a coherent world-view for its adherents. Accepting the commonly-heldview that certain features distinguish Western and Eastern religions, the authorargues that each of these major traditions arose in the context of social andexistential conflicts which must be taken into account for any indepth under-standing of the various beliefs, rituals and institutions that came into being inthe course of history.Individual chapters are dedicated to (1) beliefs, rituals and institutions;(2) religious ethos; (3) modernism; (4) multiculturalism; and (4) religion andsociety. The author maintains that religious traditions are dynamic, diverse,systematic and dialectical in nature. He thinks that, contrary to Durkheim'sprediction, science has not replaced religion, bu t has revitalised it and reformu-lated it. In his analyses of the religious ethos he takes a functional approa ch andexamines the process of ethos construction, the relationship between religionand social stratification, the ethical systems of the five major traditions and theways they shape or are shaped by social organisation, and the role each of themajor traditions has played in recent political developments.A distinctive feature of this book is its tendency to study the relationshipbetween religion and society in the context of various crises most of which arerelated to the emergency of the global village. Two major upheavals, namelymod ernism, which began in the nineteenth century, and mulriculturalism, wh ichhas become a distinctive feature of the twentieth century, are examined and theresponses they have provoked among the world's religions and cultures aretraced.Several major challenges to each of the great religions are noted: the growthin internal diversity, the increase in structural differentiation, and the need to1353-7903/97/010099-22 1997 Journals Oxford Ltd


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100 Book Reviewsface the challenges of cultural pluralism and scientific criticism. Contemporarymulticulturalism, especially during the second part of the twentieth century hasresulted in anti-modernist movements, liberation theologies, new religiousmov ements an d quasi-religious forms, and religious syncretism. While maintain-ing that religious conflict is not in itself a "sociological liability", the authorthinks that conflict can be either constructive or destructive. Religion has, in fact,contributed b oth to violence and non-violence. It is fraught w ith dan ger since itcan be "used to destroy as well as to create, for greed as well as for altruism"(p . 240).This is a comprehensive and well-written introduction to the contemporarysociology of religion. Among its good features are the author's efforts to treatreligions in a global perspective and as living organisms which interact withculture and society. Equally important is the author's effort to incorporate thedifferent religious traditions, thus contributing to a sociology of religion whichis less provincial in outlook. On the ne gative side, the sections that provide shortdescriptions of the major religions are somewhat too sketchy and far too shortto do justice to the complexity and variety th at is treated so well throu ghout thewhole volume. Moreover, the local religions of the world (such as the nativereligions of Africa) are, with a few exceptions, omitted in the author's specula-tions. However, these are relatively minor points in a volume which coverspractically all the major issues that dom inate the changing religious scene at theturn of the millennium.JOHN A. SALIBAUniversity of Detroit MercyThe McDonaldization of Society: An Investigation into the ChangingCharacter of Contemporary Social LifeGEORGE RITZER, 1996 (revised edn)Thousand Oaks: Pine Forge Pressxii + 265 p p. , 12.50 (pb)ISBN 0-803-99000-6In this book, Ritzer seeks to bring a long-standing argument up to date: thatmodern society is becoming increasingly rationalised, heading toward what MaxWeber called an 'iron cage' of technical reason. As such, Ritzer's contributionstands in the critical tradition of not only Weber, but also Marx, Adornoand Horkheimer, Ellul, Habermas, and many others. His basic thesis is thatMcDonald's exemplifies the latest stage of this process in which the dehuman-izing logic of instrumental reason progressively makes us cogs in a self-perpetuating machine, no longer creative human agents: Big Mac and fries asstep along the road to the Brave New World.Two editorial decisions on the part of the author circumscribe the approach.The book is written for a wide audience, most notably for university under-graduates; and it consciously avoids extended discussion of the possible advan-tages of McDonaldisation, since the carriers of the process have supposedlyalready done a thorough job in this regard. Ritzer operates on the assumptionthat most readers will not have been made sufficiently aware of the dangers ofMcD onaldisation, perhaps a questionable assum ption given that the wor d all by


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Book Reviews 101itself can already suggest the insidious s pread of a glitzy and superficial pro du ctdevoid of much quality and taste.For Ritzer, the logic of McDonaldisation or rationalisation seeks to maximisefour basic dimensions: efficiency, calculability, predictability and control. Eachof these is the subject of one chapter in which the author demonstrates howthe fast-food industry in particular operates as muc h as possible with these goalsin mind; and how factors, such as quality food and a varied and interestingworking environment are sacrificed in the process. He supplements that basicargument in two ways: with a chapter on precursors of McDonaldisation,such as modern bureaucratisation, the Holocaust, the assembly line, andshopping malls; and with examples of the process from other spheres of life,notably higher education, health care, the workplace, and various others, suchas sports, entertainment and housing. The second half of the book dealsmore explicitly with the negative effects of McDonaldisation, most notablywith what Ritzer calls dehumanisation; and with questions, such as how seriousthe threat really is, what the frontiers of the process are and what to do aboutit . In all cases, the author presents his perspective clearly and gives the readersa great many examples of what he is talking about. Probably the greateststrength of the book is that it is clear and provocative: it seeks to presentits perspective in an accessible way and thereby to generate thought anddiscussion. In this it has probably succeeded (hence, the revised edition only 3years after the first). For what is, at root, an American critique of capitalism, thisbook is written and packaged to be marketable.As is frequently the case, however, the strengths of a book also point toweaknesses. The reader will find here no depth of theoretical argument. Muchis left implicit or treated only superficially, such as, for instance, the criteria fordistinguishing what is 'dehumanising' from what is 'humanising', or how aprocess that constantly throws up acknowledged 'irrationalities' can be con-sidered so inexorable. Such questions and many others have been addressedmuch better by others, including Marx, Ellul and Habermas, but their versionsare significantly less accessible.Moreover, a number of Ritzer's examples verge on the tendentious. To givebut two examples: to claim that Grade Point Averages and post-secondarycredentials tell little about a person's competence (p. 65) is surely to beg thequestion of what would and why competence is important; and to suggest thatrecipe books which substitute exact 'tablespoons' for approximate 'pinches'McDonaldise home-cooking (p. 75), rather than making it more accessibleandthus reducing the visits to McDonald'ssmacks of seeing things so that theywill fit the thesis.Without a better development of the theory of rationalisation itself, even thevast majority of good examples that Ritzer gives can easily fail to convince.In fact, the author might even be suspected of substituting quantity of examplesfor quality thereof, a confusion that he presents as a main feature of McDonald-isation.In general, the lack of depth for the sake of accessibility and the deliberatefailure to consider alternative interpretations of the evidence makes this bookrather unconvincing when compared to others of its genre. An apt parallel forthe readers of this Journal may be the condem nation of NRMs as 'cults ' throug h


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10 2 Book Reviewsselective interpretation of their characteristics: the Moonies ma y well be o pen tovarious telling criticisms, but that does not make them soul-destroying demons.Similarly, rationalisation is indeed a very powerful factor in modern society,and this book supports this quantitative part of the argument very well.However, as Ritzer himself puts it, the quality of the 'cage' varies according toevaluation: we can see it as velvet (good), rubber (flexible and ambiguous), oriron (bad). The author claims to take the last position and dismisses the first as,in effect, false consciousness. Failure to consider the middle perspective seri-ously, however, compromises the evaluative part of his theoretical endeavour,and yet this latter is the core purpose of the book.PETER BEYERUniversity of Ottawa

The Spirit of Capitalism and the Protestant Ethic: An Enquiry into the WeberThesisMICHAEL H. LESSNOFF, 1994Aldershot: Edward Elgar Publ.160 pp., 29.95 (hb)ISBN 1-85278-875-5A review of another book on the Weber Thesis (particularly one published in1994) needs perhaps some justification. The author's own grounds seemsufficient, viz. "the enormous importance of the question that Weber sought toanswer, and the brilliance of his essay (not the same thing as its truth). Nor canit be said that the problem Weber set himself has been solved". However,Lessnoff's "more melancholy justification, namely the fact that the generalquality of argument on the Weber Thesis has been (despite some conspicuousexceptions) extremely low... In fact, not a few of the discussants, especiallycritics of the Thesis, give the impression of not knowing what it is . . ." (p. 1), isa cavalier dismissal of the huge volume of scholarship generated by the Puritanethic thesis, a mere fraction of which (noticeably little of the sociological sort) isdiscussed by Lessnoff or listed in his bibliography. One doubts very much thatthe particular range of engagement of this contribution to Weber studies will infact, as the d us t jacket proclaims, "b e welcomed by ... all sociologists", althoug hit has a stronge r claim to be of interest to "h istorians of religion an d econom ics",especially for its middle chapters on early capitalism and its Puritan supports.

Were I promoting this book, I think I would be tempted to point out that i tmust be the only book on the market that brings together the unlikely trio ofMax Weber, Mandy Rice-Davies and Margaret Thatcher (each in his/her ownway destined to provide insight into the ups and downs of capitalism). Max,Ma ndy and Maggie m ay make un easy bedfellows, but Lessnoff is to be congrat-ulated for at least the implicit suggestion that they have a connection with thecomplex and ambivalent ethical framework of capitalism, albeit from widelydistinct angles of allure. Mandy's position is the least of Lessnoff's interests,meriting but a casual reference, despite perhaps her former profession's (andpersonal) contribution to the twists and turns of capitalist political economy and


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10 4 Book Reviewsmilitary consumption based on, as Smith in The Wealth of Nations has it (1961,Vol. 1: 433), "a multitude of retainers and dependants", the new Reformdispensation ushered in a universal diet of bread arid dripping, flattenedorganisations and ubiquitous signs and symbols of the Reign of Peace, shouldconsider the corporate hospitality tents and prime ticket-holders at our mostprestigious artistic (National Gallery Openings, Royal Ballet First Nights,National Theatre Premieres, etc.) and sporting occasions (Badminton HorseTrials, Ascot, Wimbledon, Henley Regatta, Euro96, etc.), and other corroboreesof the military-industrial complex, such as Air Shows, Military Tattoos, and soforth. Here can be found grace and favour, wealth and distinction blessedbeyond the dreams of Avarice, if not of Mandy. Not much evidence here of"moderation of our ... affections ... concerning worldly goods" or "soundhatred" of extravagance, (cf. Lessnoff, pp. 84-85) What Samuel Smiles, AndrewUre, William Paterson (founder of the Bank of England) and other 'guid' Scotspioneer capitalist practitioner-apologistsan assembly of these figure promi-nently in Lessnoff s.studywould have thought of this scale of display ofexcess, we can, perhaps, infer from Maggie's own favourite moral authority,John Wesley, who preached

diligence in our calling ... the plain necessaries of life ... not delicacies;not superfluities ... aiming, not at ease, pleasu re or riches ... but m erelyat the glory of God. (in Lessnoff, p. 108; cf. also p. 131 on the formerPrime Minister's endorsement of the Wesleyan credo in principle.)If Lessnoff's boo k has particular academic originality and value, it must surelylie in the detailed and fascinating review of "Protestant C atechisms That DiscussThe Decalogue's Commandment Against Stealing" (as he expresses it in Appen-dix B wh ere s om e 83 of these primary instructional vehicles are listed). Here, w elearn just how authoritarian and hierarchical so-called Reform C hristianity reallywas and just how much the shibboleths of sola scriptura and sola fidei were, ineffect, confessional ideologies, instruments of moral and social control in prac-tice, as families, schools and congregations w ere policed to ensure conformity tothe prevailing hermeneutics of this or that band of "learned and godly Divines"(cf. Lessnoff, pp. 60-61). That the system of catechetical discipline had aparticularly severe impact on "the Scottish psyche", albeit "almost entirely thewo rk of En glish Puritan divines" (ibid) is explicable, in part at any rate, in thesewords of Sir Donald MacAlister, a former Principal of Glasgow University:The system of popular education initiated and fostered by John Knoxand his successors gave the Scottish people a power of apprehensionthat enabled all classes to assimilate what the minds of the best

Englishmen had prepared, (p. 62)This early example of what is today called cultural imperialism in whichreligious forces sweep up after the swords of earthly colonial powers have donetheir ground-clearance work, may be precisely the kind of history we see comingto an end, as Thatcher's brand of Calvinismthe parable of the talons?fell onstony Scots ears. Lessnoff himself does not put this construction on his data.How else can a sociologist read the disposition of these influential authors offormularies for the promulgation of frozen religio-moral orthodoxies (and Ispeak as one for w hom Keenan's Catechism su pplied a Tridentine Truth versionof the genre!) to mak e of the simple childlike injunction 'Tho u shalt not ste al' an


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Book Reviews 105entire sophisticated scholastic social gospel of profit-maximisation, thrift, frugal-ity, contentedness in our estate, and other such sober virtues congenial to thelife-world of those who dom inate wh at Weber called "the trem endo us cosmos ofthe modem economic order" (1930: 181)?Try telling Mandy that "sobriety, temperance, diligence, and all other moraland Christian virtues are truly your temporal, as well as your eternal interest"(cf. the episode of the ill-starred Darien scheme, p. 95). This Puritan Ethicbusiness 'dont arf look like a bit of special pleadin, Gov..,!' Mrs T., devotee ofSt Francis she, migh t still, no dou bt, take comfort from the Puritan divine, JohnFlavell, doggerel commentator on the Westminster Shorter Catechism:

Soul-work to all deserves to be preferred.This is an unknown Trade. Oh, who can countTo what the gains of godliness amount? (quoted in Lessnoff, p. 91.)WILLIAM KEENANThe Nottingham Trent UniversityThe Enchantment of Sociology: A Study of Theology and CultureKIERAN FLANAGAN , 1996London: Macmillan293 pp. , 40ISBN 0-333-65167-7This book, learned, original, glancing and truculent, and intermittently pro-found, claims to be the only example of its genre and that may well be so. Itsprim ary objective is to use the curren t sociological concern w ith culture to elicitmatters that might suggest a theological response. Its secondary objective is toshow how theologians have either ignored or misread modern society andsociology. Beyond those objectives this is a Book of Lamentations, a Jeremiadthat could hav e come from the Frankfurt School about the banausic cond ition ofcontemporary culture and its commodification.The book is not easy to read any more than the earlier work on Sociology an dLiturgy was easy to read. I know for a fact that some of those key people whomight have benefited from the earlier work lacked the stamina to do so. In fact,the liberal theologians addressed in this book may similarly lack stamina.Alternatively, they may be put off by coat-trailing, for example, about whatKieran Flanagan calls the disastrous consequences of female ordination. I doubtif that issue is all that central to his argument, and it is a pity to offer hostageswhere resistance is in any case going to be vigorous. Those who attemptmodernisation become specially an gry w hen told they sold the pas s for nothing.I don't think they are going to be very teachable.Certainly, Flanagan suppresses no opinions. After all, sociology is interalia a species of rhetoric and this book is flamboyantly rhetorical, even oc-casionally Joycean. Much sociology employs the rhetoric of the legal brief,marshalling evidence in the spirit of advocacy. We tilt our arguments to givethem shape and direction and this particular argument h as a great deal of shapeand direction. Yet it is also discursive and occasionally opaque. The principal


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10 6 Book Reviewsdefensive m ove lies in the idea that an Irishman in E ngland takes on the role ofSim mers 'strang er'. As the Jew wa s to Catholic civilisation so the Irish C atholicis to ex-Anglican, post-modern, post-enlightened England. He belongs to theminority wh ich represents a majority in the past or an o riginal source or a largercivilisation elsewhere. This is the spirit in which Kieran Flanagan wandersaround English cathedrals or the cultural supermarket: recollecting a spirithalf-fled in the cathedral; and in the supermarket revolted by the culturalmish-mash into which the sacred has been so carelessly interpolated with nosense of limit or of what properly belongs where.Another rhetorical move is to present certain of the pioneers of our post-modern condition as prescient about our present discontents. Baudelaire,Huysmans and Wilde were fin d e svtcle figures who anticipated our own fin desiecle and took ou t fire insurance by becom ing Catholics. It is certainly true thatthe conversions of intellectuals since the mid-nineteenth century are interestingand significant, and I could, in fact, have wished for a more extended accountof them. They really do p oint to vulnerab le aspects of ou r society. What exactlyis conversion to Rome a stand against?Nowadays, to what do they convert? Kieran Flanagan flies the flag of thenew Catechism, but his case is that Vatican II was misused to sell off left-oversfrom the flea-market of liberal theology. This has undermined the reproductivecapacity of the Roman Ch urch. Here, I think he attributes too muc h to the pow erof theology, just as he takes intellectual theorising rather too seriously in general.I doubt whether the obscure lucubrations of intelligentsias are necessarily allthat important. Certainly, the emergence of vast waves of conservative Protes-tantism, especially in Latin America, is no more attributable to LiberationTheology than to American cultural imp erialism. I believe the world itself ne edsmore attending to than its evanescent theorists.In a limited space I can only indicate some areas where liberal theology hasmisread the sociological signs of the times, including some where I, too, havehad my own run-ins with mem. One has to do with boundaries and the notionof openness. I recollect ho w in the mid-sixties the W CC declared 'the world setsthe age nda '. At the same time, in the m id-sixties, the SCM declared itself 'op en 'and erased its boundaries. I predicted then that the spirit would flow out ratherthan the peop le flood in. The unbound ed is soon the em pty. Another misreadinghas to d o w ith 'inc ulturation'. I recollect a Reverend Father com ing to me full ofthis concept and deaf to the gentlest hint of critical doubt. There are costs toinculturation, including the alienation of those who were attracted to yourmessage precisely because it was different.However, perhaps the most important, and one that has concerned me withrespect to authoritative language and the framing of the rite, has to do with theconservation and demarcation of the holy through prolonged induction andhabit, through vestment of body and investment of devotion, through settleddisposition, quietude and music, demarcation and framing. Flanagan provides aparticularly helpful discussion of this harking back to his Sociology and L iturgy.He uses Bourdieu in particular, especially the notion of habitus, and notesBourdieu's raid on such theological metaphors as consecration and oblation,canon and icon.I have not elaborated on those areas of modern culture which, in KieranFlanagan's view, can be exposed to a theological response. I do recognise that,


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Book Reviews 107so far as sociology is concerned, the subject is not as denatured as once it was,and is evenas Kieran Flanagan saysreturning to the humanities, so thatpeople and their stories actually count and our own biographical contribution isnot suppressed. That helps. More permissions have been given. The key areas towhich Flanagan points have to do wi th the relentless pressure on limits, and theexaltation of choice; with deception, trust, anxiety and tribulation; and with thequest for 'Paradise N ew s'. I wo uld m yself a dd the strictness of moral accountingand accountability, since we live in a world which is morally consequential andwhere we all pay for our choices down to the uttermost farthing.At times as I read I wond ered if my uncertainties in this particular area of sitesfor theological development derive from the biblical and symbolic focus of myown understanding. I think theology has to do with exodus, wilderness andpromise, with law and remission, with the making of gifts and sacrifice,forgiveness and cleansing, replenishment and beatitude, corruption and resto-ration.

I wonder if, maybe, Kieran Flanagan's interests are more strictly theologicaland more inclined to abstract and existential intellection than to this fundamen-tal poetry of symbols.It is good this book has been written and these concerns made public. Suchconcerns will encourage us to bring a fresh seriousness to our subject-matterthough not perh aps as Flanagan hopes to a 'holy new gam e'. A text to muse andponder upon and to allow to talk to us over time.DAVID MARTINHonorary Professor, Department of Religious Studies, Lancaster University

The Consecrated Life: Crossroads and DirectionsMARCELLO AZEVEDO, 1995Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Booksxv +1 41 pp ., US$17.00 (pb)ISBN 1-57075-003-3Consecrated Life is the theological term for religious orders, this book beingrestricted to those (the majority) with an active apostolic role and leaving asidemonastic-contemplative institutes. Marcello Azevedo, drawing on a lifetime ofpersonal commitment, careful research and active engagement, writes from aLatin American perspective, so the book's found ations lie in liberation theology .The author outlines lucidly the form this gives to orders' Vatican II-inspired'renewal', and he obviously has confidence in the enduring value of this way oflife. Mu ch w riting in this area, both social scientific and theological, concentrateson problem s of decline (the precipitou s d ro p in vocations, loss of social role), butAzevedo is relaxed about such factors, believing that a qualitatively new kind ofconsecrated life is already emerging in the Church. Some first fruits are to beseen in the move (mainly of religious sisters, but also brothers and priests) tolive among, and consequently to espouse the cause of, the poor ('insertion').Active apostolic orders, according to the author, are driven by their sense ofmission, giving them their ecclesial role and identity. This approach is widelyespoused , but is not the only starting poin t for defining a religious order, nor the


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10 8 Book Reviewsofficially favoured onethe Pope's recent Exhortation Vita Consecrata on thesubject puts the emphasis precisely on consecration to God. Azevedo does notengage w ith suc h controversies, bu t formulates all the basic ideas in a very clearand helpful way.Two chapters on themes at the interface between theology and sociologyChapter 4 on inculturation and Chapter 5 on the option for the poorareparticularly noteworthy for expounding the deep motivations of the shift toinsertion. Inculturationa major preoccupation of Catholic theology todayisthe requirement to overcome any cultural imperialism in spreading the Gospelmessage, giving full space to the receptor culture to apprehend, assimilate, andfind its own expressions for Christian values and practice. This makes institu-tional as well as pedag ogic dem and s, and ord ers (most of them originating in andrun from Europe) come under pressure in the Third World (and from Azevedo)to allow for fuller and deeper indigenous developmentIt is easy to state such principles, bu t negotiating cu ltural codes and contents(even convincing that 'local is good') is less de ar cut. Azeve do d oes not enter thisterritory, nor does he refer to what cultural lessons might be leamt from theextraordinary take-off across Latin America of a new foreign-based religiouspenetration pentecostalism often in its sectarian variety.The preferential option for the poor obviously central to liberation theology,but also strongly emphasised in official Roman Catholic social teachingis dealtwith as "A Crucial Option"; on this point hangs the whole future. Its scripturaland theological foundations and its practical implem entation are w ell coveredas well as ways this controversial item can be misrepresented. For Azevedo, thehermeneutical key for understanding not only consecrated life, but Christianityitself is "the option of the God of Israel and Jesus Christ for the poor" (p. 49);and this, consequently, provides Christians with their epistemological stance:"Through the eyes of the poor we begin to see and perceive, analyze andinterpret the reality in which we live" (p. 56).This is the viewpoint of much of Latin America, and it is very persuasivelyargued. Througho ut, however, there seems to lurk an assump tion that this mo delboth of Church and consecrated life is without serious opposition. In fact, it isall highly con tested. The book m akes a strong case, not least because of the innercoherence of the directions it offers consecrated life at today's crossroads. Howfar its programme will or can be implemented, in the West as well in the ThirdWorld, is one of the crucial questions preoccupying members of orders today.JAMES SWEENEYScotus College, GlasgowIn Good Company: The Church as PolisSTANLEY HAUE RWA S, 1995London: University of Notre Dame Press268 pp., US$29.95 (hb)ISBN 0-268-01172-9Hauerwas is proud to preach as a straight speaking Texan Methodist (of ahigh-church persuasion). He restlessly and provocatively explores what it


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Book Reviews 10 9means to be a Christian in modern day USA, and in so doing continueshis long-standing battle against liberal modernity's shaping of Christianpractice and identity. His indebtedness to Alasdair Maclntyre is evidentthroughout.If there is an argument running through this collection of 13 essays (four ofwhich are co-authored), it may look something like this. Christians in the USAhave lost sight of their single vocation, to worship and praise God together, andonly from this ecclesial basis can Christian identity be forged. Being a church isthe primary business of Christians and when they forget this, they are seducedby all manner of idolatry. One such seduction is to align the church with thestate so as to shape and serve the world, but in this process the inevitablesecularization of the church followseither to the left in the shape of liberalChristianity or to the right in various unholy coalitions. This is because theEnlightenmen t nation state, in the form of liberal capitalism in the USA, can onlytolerate religion (Christianity) if it remains within the private and domesticsphere; a product for private consumption by those who have that kind ofpreference. Hauerwas argues that Christianity resolutely resists such antinomies(private-public, domestic-civil), which is why one of his heroes is Pius XI, for hetoo saw in modernity the destruction of Christianity's holistic vision. Hauerwasunfairly berates John Paul II for his alleged accommodation with modernity inLaborem Exercens, although he views the same Pope's later works (CentesimusAnnus and Veritatis Splendor) most favourably. Not surprisingly, his othersources of inspiration come from the Mennonite and Anabaptist traditions ofnon-conformity. Hauerwas is a high-church Methodist with strong RomanCatholic leanings. In fact, for some time while teaching at a Catholic university,he felt like a Catholic!From this ecclesial basis, Hauerwas is able to offer some insightful anddisturbing analyses on matters, such as teaching ethics at Duke University(which he structures around worship to question the divisions between ethicsand theology, and worship and ethics), medical ethics and casuistry (with acareful welcome to casuistry operating within a tradition-specific virtue ethics)and our relationships to animals (arguing that vegetarianism is an eschatologicalsign of the kingdom!). Hauerwas sometimes falls painfully short of beingthoroughwhich he happily and disarmingly acknowledges. For example, inthe chapter on animals, he promises to show how a trinitarian theology con-strues vegetarianism as an eschatological act. However, while there are goodcritiques of rights-based arguments and various biblical 'theistic' approaches tothe question of animals, the inner logic of his trinitarian position never reallybecomes clear and the argum ent relies loosely on parallels between pacifism andnon-violence towards creation.Hauerwas has a shrill and provocative style and some will find him intenselyirritating. Take this lovely sentence for example: "I confess that I find the'humility' of much current Christian theology and practice humiliating" (p. 235).Humility in the face of liberal tyranny is capitulation. However, for all mysympathies with Hauerwas I am left with one especially uncomfortable ques-tion. Why does a man who finds church practice so essential to theology havesuch an ambiguous relationship to his own ecclesial location? Is his hoveringbetween high-church Methodism and Roman Catholicism itself a symptom ofmo dern ity's comm odification of religious choice? How can one constantly speak


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11 0 Book Reviewsof church practice and not deal with the question of authority regarding churchpractices? Given the subtitle of the book, "The C hurch as Polis", the question ofauthority within church government cries out for attention, and perhaps a bettertitle would be "The Church as Polis and Oikos" (given the movement of hisargument).Nevertheless, I was entertained and moved by this book, and it will certainlyprovide stimulating and good company to all who read it .GAVIN D'COSTADepartment of Theology & Religious Studies, University of Bristol

Women in the Presence: Constructing Community and Seeking Spirituality inMainline ProtestantismJODY SHAPIRO DAV IE, 1995Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania P ress; Londo n: Academic & U niversityPublishers Group163 pp., 28.50 (hb), 13.95 (pb)ISBN 0-8122-3286-0 (hb), 0-8122-1515-1 (pb)In this book, wh ich began as her doctoral thesis, Jodie Shapiro Davie sets out toinvestigate the spiritual and religious lives of middle-class American Presbyte-rian women.The author is Adjunct Assistant Professor of Anthropology at Drew Univer-sity, and she writes from a folklorist's viewpoint about contemporary Americanreligious life. The book is the result of eighteen m onths of participant observa-tion with a women's Bible study group at a suburban Presbyterian church. Thebook bridges the gap between feminist theology's critique of historical andmasculine orientated religion (p. 32), and the grass-roots level of ordinarywomen's experience; in this sense it is a unique and ground-breaking adventureinto this field.As the author says, much of the work that has been accomplished in thefolklorist rea lm h as been in the form of articles rather than boo ks and has dealt,primarily, with women preachers and ministers rather than the laity (see p. 33).She writes dear ly an d concisely about her subject and d etails the faith n arrativesof her chosen group of women with insight and sympathy. There is a detailedanalysis of the spiritual journey of the group and its individual members. Whatmay strike the reader most strongly is the contradiction between the women'spractice of traditional religion, and their own private experiences and faithjourneys. The book also highlights their hesitation in revealing how they feelabout spiritual matters, not just to an observer, but to the other women in thegroup.Although it is a women's Bible study group, it is led by a man who issurprisingly empathetic and innovative. The participants are made to feel thatthey can speak openly without fear of recriminations. On the one hand, thisencourages them to feel comfortable with one another, but on the other, itimposes unspoken boundaries. This could, to some extent, account for thewomen's reticence in speaking to people about their own private thoughts and


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Book Reviews 111spiritual journeys, but is perhaps necessary in the sensitive area of personalspirituality. Although the group may be afraid of too much self-revelation, theyare nevertheless actively engaged with the life of the soul.

The book shows a clear progression of the group's individual and collectivespiritual narrative and, as the author says, what comes across most strongly isthat, with their changing knowledge, the group develops more tolerance for thebelief of others as they com e to accept the prov isionality of their ow n beliefs (seep. 138). This is a useful insight for anybody interested in studying Christianwomen's attitudes to the religions of other women. The private beliefs of thewom en ra nged from the traditional acceptance of Jesus as the divine Son of God,to imaging God as feminine or simply as a divine spark that is essentiallyunknowable. Yet all these women see themselves as Christian and worshipwithin a traditional Christian framework.The Presence mentioned in the title refers to the presence of the Holy Spirit.While only six mem bers of the gr ou p m ad e direct reference to the Spirit, it wa sfelt by all of them that there was something special about the meetings andabout the atm osphere in the church library wh ere these meetings are held. JodieDavie states that the women are of a liberal Protestant outlook, she makes nodirect claims that the women are looking for emancipation. They do, however,appear to have achieved a certain spiritual autonomy and this is an interestingpoint for further research into this area.Perhaps one of the most interesting points to emerge from this work is thequestion of what the results of the women's personalised revelations might befor the group and the community in general. This is a question which is ofparticular interest to this reviewer.At first glance it seemed that perhaps the focus of the book might be toonarrow. However, this perception changed, when, on further investigation, itwas discovered that there was such a variety of beliefs among this relativelysmall group of women.As men tioned above, this is a ground -breaking work, highlighting particularlythe tension between conventional religion and personal faith. It is a book thatshou ld be required read ing for anyo ne wo rking in the area of feminist theologyand women's spirituality.SUE JEFFELSReligious Resource and Research Centre, University of DerbyThe Recovering Catholic; Personal Journeys of Women Who Left the ChurchJOANNE H. M EEHL, 1995Amherst: Prometheus Books288 pp., 21.00 (hb)ISBN 0-87975-927-5This is a book with a causeas the author explicitly states in the preface, itis aimed at encouraging and guiding women who want to leave RomanCatholicism behind, not for those "who wish to stay within the church andchange it" (p. 20). Therefore, at first sight, the questions Meehl asks herinformants seem very tend entious. To a sociologist or anthropo logist of religion


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11 2 Book Reviewsconcerned with rendering as objectively as possible the words and opinions ofothers, questions such as: "How you m ay have been m ade by the church to feelsecondary and ... to children", or "... [H]ow your intelligence may have beenunderestimated" or even "How the church may have denied your humanness",must seem extremely leading at worst and slanting the answers at the very best.Joanne Meehl, however, is not a sociologist of religion and does not seek toreplicate the scientific objectivity of the detached observer (an objectivity that ismore often desired than actually attained). As she is quick to point out herself,the responses she obtained are neither a random nor a representative sample.Also, she herself is a "recovering" Catholic and the whole book tingles with herown anger and frustration towards the church; although this might make for aless officially acceptable piece of scientific evidence, it by no means diminishesthe value of the book as a human document. The stories contained within aresometimes funny, often sad and certainly very mo ving, familiar not on ly to thoseraised within the Catholic Church, but within any strict and pious family.

The book also raises two important general questions: Why are people leavingthe Catholic Church above all? And why are women more eager to leave thanmen, considering that their suffering and agonising over this decision seems tobe far more acute?Vierzig (1987) explains this in terms of the difference in religious socialisationpatterns of women and men. Women, he claims, assimilate and internalisenorms more than men, they identify with the norm-setters, feel the pressures ofco-depend ence (that their own be haviou r affects others), and are thus co nstantlypreoccupied with the ideas of fear and guilt. Men, on the other hand, perceivenorms as external, do not identify with the norm-setters, consider themselves tobe fairly flexible and independent of others, are less prone to succumb toarticulate fears and guilt. Therefore, for men, the disengagement from the churchis rarely as important an issue as it is for women, since they are relativelydetached from it anyway (Vierzig, 1987: 170). For women, the rebellion is costly(in emotional and sometimes in actual financial terms, as in some divorce cases),painful and drawn out over a long period of time, since the ties are strong,although ambivalent (Vierzig, 1987: 168-69).While this is an interesting psychological explanation of gend er differences inthe perception of religion, I think Meehl is right to go beyond that in heranalysis. Socialisation is indeed an im porta nt aspect in her bo ok as well, bu t themain reason for the discontent women feel within the Catholic Church, sheargues, is that the Church itself, and no t just our percep tion of it, is at fault. Th eissues on which the Church is particularly adamant are usually those that affect.women more: contraception, abortion and divorce; it is natural then that womenshould be more concerned and affected by them.While the author's thesis that almost all women are adversely affected bybeing raised within the Catholic Church is debatable, and while we could havewished for other, more p ositive voices in this collection of interviews, it is goodtha t the ange r and dissatisfaction ha ve been voiced. Within the framework of theaims it has set out for itself, the book succeeds remarkably well.SANDA DUCARUJapanese Religions Project,King's College London


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Book Reviews 11 3Power, Gender and Christian MysticismGRACE M. JANTZEN, 1995Cambridge: Cambridge University Press384 pp., 13.95, US$18.95 (pb), 40.00, US$64.95 (hb)ISBN 0-521-47926-6 (pb), 0-521-47376-4 (hb)A 'deconstructuralist' study of Christian mysticism, this ambitious work rangesfrom Greek, German and contemporary philosophy to the whole Christianmystical tradition. Jantzen takes her cues from Foucault's theories on theintimate connection between knowledge and power, and the feminist belief thatsuch power relations inevitably involve gender issues. She seeks to expose theoppression and injustice suffered by women at the hands of the Christianestablishment whose "technologies of patriarchy" (p. xvii) have usually ex-cluded them from positions of power access to scriptures and being counted asmystics.

According to Jantzen, "within the Christian tradition it [i.e. mysticism] hashad a variety of meanings quite different from those which are ascribed to ittoday" (p. 323). These meanings, such as that inner, mystical sense in whichscripture refers to Christ, have little in common with the views of mysticismadopted by modern philosophers. Their perspective, strongly and uncriticallyinfluenced by William James, treats mysticism as an intense, private experience.Since the mystics themselves have a different understanding, many studies ofthem have been seriously flawed. This important point highlights the short-comings of many contemporary studies of mysticism.Besides these limitations, James's version of mysticismwith its unacknowl-edged power and gender assumptionshas led to a 'privatised' spirituality cutoff from concern for social justice, a development Jantzen opposes because"feminists deplore a division between the personal and political" (p. 11). Byseeking refuge in prayer and contemplation we tolerate social and political evilsinstead of seeking "constructive change" (p. 26).Such a view seems to owe more to contem porary socio-political concerns tha nto Christian theology and mysticism, for which "constructive change" wouldmore likely mean overcoming one's 'fallen' nature, seeking salvation and ulti-mately 'union with God'. The injunction to "first cast the mote from thine owneye" seems to imply that, since evil resides primarily in the human heart ratherthan in imperfect social factorswe can only help others by virtue of our owneffort towards salvation. Is not the primary concern of Christian mysticism therelationship with a personal, transcendent God rather than a collective social'progress' in time?

Elsewhere, the "holistic" mysticism of women, such as Hadewijch, that"involved the passions and em otions, the whole feeling centre of the pers on" (p.139) is contrasted with the arid d ualism , the "climbing u p into the h ead " (p . 139)of male mystics such as Dionysius a nd Eckhart. With such simplifications as this,the whole intellectual tradition of Christian mysticismthat of Eckhart's"uncreated and uncreatable" Intellect which is inseparable from loveeffec-tively rejected. Whilst Jantzen denounces the "gender-skewed understanding"(p . 156) of mysticism held by others, she seems at times to fall into this trapherself.


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114 Book ReviewsThis 'counter history' aims to redress an ideological balance and is writtenwith considerable feeling"a resentful woman is divine" Jantzen proclaims inher prefaceto the extent that the line between person al sentiment an d d etached

analysis is blurred. Likewise, at times it is unclear whether Jantzen is simplycondemning injustices within Christianity or if her critique is directed at thereligion as a whole. We are sometimes given the impression that institutional-ized misogyny has been the driving force behind the Church, from the formationof the Logos doctrine (p. 65) to the rejection of the Gnostics (p. 67). If Christianhistory and doctrine is this corrupt, can it have any enduring value? WhilstJantzen provides historical examples of excesses and abuses against women, shefails to convince us that women mystics themselves were much concerned with"justice and liberation". Too often we find here a partial truth presented as thewhole, the expression of a legitimate cause taken out of its total context andartificially accorded quasi-absolute status.Whilst Jantzen notes the "gap between their [i.e. the mystics] concerns andthose of contemporary philosophers writing about them" (p. xiii), she fails tonotice that the same could be said of her own approach. According to theneo-Kantian 'constructivist' theory to which she subscribes, mystical experienceis socio-culturally determined. Such naturalistic explanations clearly contradictthe implicit perspective of the mystics, denying a priori the subtle, hierarchicalontologies upon which their beliefs rest.The post-modern perspective itself also militates against the mystics' beliefs,for with the denigration of "essences" and the "death of the subject" whatbecomes of the soul? Might not religion itself be one of those "totalisingdiscourses which purport to be universal and objective and are instead theimposition of the powerful" (p. 343) which Jantzen takes issue with? Her ownattemp t to reconcile the relativism of post-mo dernism with the objective criteriafor social justice sought after by feminists seems to fall on stony ground. Here,after Derrida, we are told that despite everything being relative, 'Justice' is, infact, an absolute value. Ultimately, the fundamental underlying assumptionstheir 'points of departure'of Christian mysticism and deconstructionism comeacross as mu tually incom patible to an extent that is insufficiently acknow ledgedhere.MAGNUS BRADSHAW

The Way of Passion: A Celebration of RumiANDREW HARVEY, 1995London: Souvenir Press Ltd319 pp., 18.50 (hb), 12.99 (pb)ISBN: 0-285-63249-3 (hb), 0-285-63269-8 (pb)This is an often very personal account of Rumi's life and work, in the lightof the many problems and upheavals faced by contemporary humanity, withall the religious and spiritual issues that these entail. Harvey reminds hisreaders of a theme central to Rumi's oeuvre: the eternal search of humanity forits divine origin, as expressed in Rumi's words: "He who is torn away from


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Book Reviews 11 5his origin is ever longing for the day he shall return". Harvey suggests thatmany of today's crises are due to the fact that we are no longer aware of ourdivine origin. - -. .One of the strengths of this book lies in its depiction of Rumi's passionatedevotion to his spiritual master, Shams of Tabriz. Harvey tells us on behalf ofRumi that it is through a sincere obedience to the teachings of the master thatthe disciple can be saved from the clutches of the ego. To illustrate this, hementions the essential point that in Islam, the most privileged position that thebeliever may attain is that of servitude to God.This work contains many key passages from Rumi, as well as references toother significant philosophers and mystics. Harvey attempts to relate the teach-ings of Rumi to masters from other traditions, such as Ramana Maharshi. Hemakes som e insightful interpretations of Quran ic verses, thereby clarifying someof the doctrinal foundations of Rumi's poetry, particularly in the chapter"Apocalypse and Glory".In a chapter on sacred art and dance, Harvey gives us a glimpse of some ofthe practical manifestations of Rumi's teachings by describing the sacred danceof the Whirling Dervishes together with the symbolic significance of its move-me nts. He also refers to the reed flute, an instrumen t of fundamental importanceto Rum i, as it symbolises the God-realised m an free from the bondage of worldlyattachments and ever willing to sing the praises of his Creator.It must be said, however, that this work contains a few glaring errors andomissions. At one point, a prophetic tradition is presented as a verse from theQuran. Elsewhere, Harvey refers to the weakness of the Ottoman Empire inRumi's time, whereas it was, in fact, the Seljuks, who flourished well before theOttomans, who were experiencing a decline during Rumi's life. That Rumi metIbn Arabi, as Harvey claims, is most unlikely. Harvey neglects to tell us that,after the death of Shams, Rumi is associated with two other great men,Salahaddin Zarkab the goldsmithwith whom he danced ecstatically in themarketand Chalabi. It was the latter who persuaded Rumi to dictate histeachings and took charge of writing them down. It is unfortunate to see nomention of Bayazid of Bistum (d.875), who assumed a central position in theformulation of Sufi theory and exercised a powerful influence on Ru mi's po etry.According to Rumi, Bayazid and Hallaj symbolised the perfect lovers of God.Harvey makes only passing reference to Sufi terms and methods whichdeserve m ore attention. In particular, the invocation, which is of central imp ort-ance in all Sufi methods, is crucial to understanding Rumi, who tells us to"invoke the name of the truth so much that you forget yourself in the invoca-tion".

Wh ilst Harv ey ten ds to criticise religious dog ma and hierarchy in the name ofRum i, the latter certainly believed bo th in religious hierarchy and orthodoxy, hisiconoclastic reputation being largely un found ed. In the 'Discourses'; he mak es itdear that outer religion is indispensable for all believers, Sufis included; whilstthe divine essence transcends all religious forms, it is only with the aid ofreligious teachings and methods that one may approach it .In referring to Rumi's attack on the intellect, Harvey fails to understand thatRumi is referring to the shortcomings of discursive reasoning, rather than todivine gnosis which is of an altogether different order. Rumi often refers to theexcellence of the universal intellect, withou t wh ich h um an intelligence would be


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116 Book Reviewsuseless; Rumi clothes his intellectual perspective in the language of love anddivine attraction.As a popular and 'inspirational' work with little concern for the apparatus ofscholarshipsources for quotations are never mentionedThe Way of Passiondoes not ad dress academic concerns so much as the concerns of today's 'spiritualseeker'. Harvey's valid insights and passionate concern for his subject arepresented in the context of 'new age' philosophising that often seems to havelittle relevance to Rum i. An appea l to contem porary concerns, whilst novel, tend sto exclude some of the integral issues raised by this great Sufi master himself.FARZIN NEGAHBANSouth Asian Religions in the Americas: An Annotated Bibliography of Immi-gra nt R eligio us T radition s, Bibliographies and Indexes in 'Religious Studiesseries, number 34.JOH N FENTON , 1995Westport: Greenwood Press241 pp., 71.50 (hb)ISBN 0313 27835 0, ISSN 0742 6836The image of South Asian religions in the Americas is a fairly mixed one. Formost, the image is usually of an 'import' or new religionHare Krishnascollecting money at airports or meditation groups following an Indian swami.The reality is far more subtle than thisthere are huge differences between thevarious religious traditions that have made their way from the Indian subconti-nent across the globe to the Americas. Many religions have been brought byIndians and other South Asians directly through migration, and have beentransplanted to new contexts so that they are now becoming indigenous religionsof America. The majority of migration took place after th e US immigration lawswere changed in 1965, in the US the university sector now has high numbers ofIndian and Pakistani born professors who still maintain their family religions.Others m ad e their way to the Am ericas mo re traumatically, to Canada after bein gexpelled from Uganda by Idi Amin in 1972, and to the Caribbean (particularlyTrinidad and Surinam) as indentured labourers (near slaves) for the British andDutch in the nineteenth century.This volume is a very good attempt to provide up-to-date coverage ofpublications on all of these areas. By South Asian religions is meant Hinduism,Sikhism, Islam, as well as other less prominent religions such as Jainism andZoroastrianism, along with South Asian traditions of Buddhism, Christianity andJudaism. There are separate chapters on the US, Canada and Central and SouthAmerica. The majority of cited sources are on the religions of migrated groups,but there are also some references to what John Fenton calls 'export religions',that is westernised versions of South Asian religious traditions. The mostcommonly cited export religions are ISKCON and the Radhasoamis, for moredetailed coverage of 'new religions' in the West, the reader will have to wait fora forthcoming bibliography coming from Greenwood, edited by P. B. Clarke andE. Arweck. The coverage of religions in the US and Cana da is very widesp read,with not only a number of important sources (both accessible and lesser known),


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Book Reviews 11 7but also extremely helpful annotations. The coverage for Central and SouthAmerica is mainly focused on areas where South Asians have settled in largest. numbers, that is in Trinidad, Surinam, and Guyana. I could find no referencesto South Asians in Brazil, Argentina or Chile. It is extremely likely that there aresmall South Asian settlements in the main cities in each of these countries (theVishwa Hindu Parishad estimate that there are 2000 Hindus in Argentina), butinterestingly this bibliography indicates that there is no scholarly interest in suchsettlement.I wo uld h av e preferred a different ty pe of coverage to that chosen for this book .The volume does certainly provide a very valuable and comprehensive resourcefor scholars looking for resources on South Asians in the Americas, but I believethe split between South Asians in north and south America is very great, withextremely different experiences and types of religiosity. There is much morecommon ground between South Asians in north America and those in WesternEurope and a bibliography specialising in this would be of great use (especiallyif it could bring out the differences between the two as well as the similarities).The material on central and s outh A merica is mo re comparable w ith South Asiansettlement in other former indentured-labour colonies, such as Mauritius, Fijiand, to a lesser extent, Malaya.In general, this is a specialist's book. As a bibliography it is not an introductionto the subject of South Asian religions in America. The first chapter does give abrief, bu t very useful overview of the coverage of the bibliography. How ever, thegeneral reader would do well to consult Raymond B. Williams's Religions ofImmigrants from India and Pakistan (1988) for a more detailed introduction to thetopic. However, the coverage of Fenton's book is extremely good, so for thoselooking for w ays of getting into the diversity of religious traditions now presentin America (and the ever growing publications) then this will serve as animportant and up-to-date starting point.One further reservation that I have is about the general role of such p ublishedbibliographies. Because of their specialised nature these books are inevitablyexpensive and so are only really accessible through dedicated libraries. Anannotated bibliography is a great help to someone new to a field of study, butas the information technology explosion becomes more and more formidable,and as electronic publishing becomes established, it would be very good to seesuch work s mad e mo re accessible (and cheaper) through being pu blished on-line.In conclusion, this volume makes a very good contribution to the study ofSouth Asian religions in America, and hopefully will encourage further study.MALORY NYEUniversity of StirlingJudaism in Modern Times: An Introduction and ReaderJACOB NEUSN ER, 1995Oxford: Blackwell252 pp ., US$54.95 (hb), US$19.95 (pb)ISBN 1-55786-683-X (hb), 1-55786-684-8 (pb)Up to now m od em times have offered Jews and Judaism two radically contrastedfaces, a promising one and an ugly one. On the one side, the nineteenth century


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11 8 Book Reviews(starting with the French Revolution) emancipated the Jews who, from then on,were no longer to be considered as a "separate nation", but as individualcitizens. On th e other side, the 20th twentieth century (starting in the climate ofgrowing anti-Semitism of the 1880s with Russia's pogroms and ensuing massmigrations to the West) is the century that, thanks to highly effective organis-ation and technology, initiated the largest mass murder ever committed inhistory. Confronted with these dramatic breaks, Jews and Judaism had to findappropriate responses to situations and questions never met before. JacobNeusner, one of the best-known contemporary specialists of talmudic Judaism,intends to analyse some of these responses.His analysis proceeds along two articulated interpretive lines, a chronologicaland a systemic one; this leads him in the two parts of his book to consider thenineteenth century (Part I) as a period during which Jews mainly aspired toensure the continuity of Judaism within a changing environment through theinvention of three new religious types of Judaism ("Judaic systems") whichbased their legitimacy on their claim to faithfulness to the Jewish Law. ReformJudaism tried to reconcile Jewish tradition and integration with global societies;Orthodox Judaism came into existence in reaction against the "excesses" ofReform and called for strict observance and self-segregation; Conservative Judaismwas a compromise between the two other radical options.Quite different were the three main secular Judaic systems of the twentiethcentury (Part II) which did no longer acknowledge the relevance of Jewishtradition as their normative reference. According to Neusner's analysis, theradical novelty was due to the fact that after having been working for fifteencenturies (since the fourth and fifth centuries, Judaism had been based on thedual tradition of written-biblical and oral-talmudic Law ("dual torah" system)and had displayed a capacity to integrate a wide variety of modes of belief andthought, among which philosophy and mysticism, while being politically andreligiously dominated by Christian powers and Churches) now, for the first timein Jewish history, this system was being challenged by new ones that weredeliberately breaking with tradition and openly calling for discontinuity. Zion-ism was advocating self-emancipation for the Jewish people within territorial-political borders, whereas Jewish Socialism and Yiddishism were intending todevelop a political-unionist and linguistic sub-culture of their own among theJewish masses of Eastern Europe before being annihilated. For its part, the lastand most recent one, the American Judaism of Holocaust and Redemption, asNe usne r labels it, took shap e in the late 1960s in th e aftermath of the 6-day w aras a desperate attempt to mobilise Jews around two critical issues: Holocaustcommemoration and political-financial support for the State of Israel.

Neusner's book provides the reader with a clear and documented presen-tation, completed by readings, on the main religious and secular thinking ofJewish modernity. From this view-point, it appears as quite illuminating fornon-specialised readers. However, his interpretation in terms of periodisationand system is less convincing.Except for the last one, his "Judaic system s" are more or less con temp oraneo uswith each other. However, more significant is the fact that they all appeared asauthentic offsprings of secularisation. All had to negotiate their relationship tothe "received system" (the "dual-torah" system), to modernity, to host-societies,while being all equally concerned with the necessity to keep alive the sense of


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Book Reviews 11 9belonging and the idea of the uniqu eness of the Jewish condition. Unfortunately,not all of them were given the chance to last. Whether each type, especially thelast one, actually constituted or constitutes a "Judaic system" is not clear yet andasks for debate.More significant than century-limits, are the Holocaust and the birth of theState of Israel. These two events radically transformed the fate of the Jews and,therefore, are central in the definition and specification of "modern times" as faras they are concerned. From now on, the real challenge of post-Holocaust andpost-Zionist Jewish modernity mainly consists in its capacity to invent "Judaicsystems" allowing it to cope with the newly created situation. Whether thesesystems will display the same capacity as the "d ual torah system" to transmit tothe coining generation something Jewish and positively mobilising, remains anopen and up to now unanswered question. Therefore, Neusner's answer, illus-trated by American Jewry, seems rather too pessimistic and one-sided.RGINE AZRIACentre d'tudes, Interdisciplinaires des Faits Religieux, EH ESS-CN RS, Paris, FranceApocalypse Theory and the Ends of the WorldMALCOLM BULL (ed.), 1995Oxford: Blackwellviii + 297 pp., 15.99 (pb), 50 (hb)ISBN 0-631-19082-1 (pb), 0-631-19081-3 (hb)Two closely related ideas are deeply embedded in popular beliefs: one isconnected with the approaching year AD 2000 in the Gregorian calendar, theother is the ending of the world in some kin d of cosmic catastrophe. The mediaprovide sufficient evidence for the wide-spread acceptance of such beliefs byusing "millenium" and "apocalypse" with no need of further explanation, as ina film title "Apocalypse Now" or in "The Millenium Fund" established todistribute 20% of the proceeds of the British National Lottery to projects to mark"the millenium ". The proposa l to build a 500-foot ferris wheel in central Lond onindicates how far the meaning of "millenium" has moved from its religiousorigins."Apocalypse", meaning "revelation", takes its narrower connotation of catas-trophe from the New T estament book, "The Revelation to John"; bu t the conceptof a dramatic destruction of the cosmos and universal judgement can also befound in much earlier religious traditions, particularly in periods of nationalpolitical disaster. This belief gets its link with "millenium " from the sam e N ewTestament book, which predicts a thousand year reign of Jesus Christ before afinal cosmic upheaval precedes the creation of a new heaven and a new earth(Rev 20 ff.).The modem link between "millenium" and year multiples of 1000 is a goodexample of the way that ancient beliefs can have such a strong grip on popularimagination that they retain their power, even when they have lost any connec-tion with their origins. In the Revelation to John any year might turn out to bethe start of "th e millenium ". The m od ern form of the belief is further confusedby the nu mb er of different calendars in use in today 's shrun ken w orld. AD 2000


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12 0 Book Reviewswill be 1922 in the Hin du calendar, 1501 for M uslims, 5761 for Jews, and so on .Even for Christians, "AD 2000" will in fact be 2006 if it is accepted that JesusChrist was bo m about 6 BC. These deeply rooted m isconceptions are helping toshape our m od em world far more deeply than we m ight wish to admit, becauseof the enthusiastic support given to them by political and religious leaders.Fortunately, there is a wealth of serious academic literature analysing theideas of apocalypse and millenium, so much, indeed, that it is easy to beswamped by the sheer quantity of it. Apocalypse Theory and the Ends of the Worldperforms a valuable service for anyone interested in this field of study bymaking available a wide range of authoritative information and analysis in onevolum e. The book is based on the W olfson C ollege Lectures 1993, wh en 12 of theleading specialists were invited to contribute. Arranged in three parts, the firstfive lectures cover the historical development from "How Time Acquired aConsummation" by Norman Cohn to "Seventeenth Century Millenarianism" byRichard Popkin. The second part contains three lectures on the more seculardevelopments from the Enlightenment to the present day. The three lectures ofthe final part examine, respectively, the contributions of Kant, Derrida andFoucault; end-of-century and end-of-millenium employed to provide a con-venient framework for understanding in terms of transition, however illogicalthis may be; the collection is round ed off w ith a delightful lecture by Edw ard W.Said on the conjunction of endings and beginnings in literature and music.The authors demonstrate how w ide-ranging a n influence these ideas can have,from the religions of the ancient Middle East to the works of Beethoven's lateperiod, from America as the home of the Lost Tribes of Israel to the optimismof the eighteenth century Enlightenment and the revolutionary movements ofthe nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Each lecture has a useful bibliographyand there is an excellent index. Definitely a book to have within reach as themillenarian and apocalyptic bandwagon gathers speed.JOSEPH RHYMER

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Vol. 12, Issue 1 (1997) -- Book Reviews