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put forward. Goldish offers an explanation forthis phenomenon that is both innovative andconvincing in his new book. He suggests thatthe reasons for the success and widespreadacceptance of Sabbateanism are to be found inthe outbreaks of “popular prophecy” and mille-narianism that affected not only Jews, but alsoChristians and Muslims in the middle of theseventeenth century. It is millenarianism thatprovides the fertile soil in which Sabbateanismcould sprout and flourish. The Sabbatean move-ment began with a prophetic vision by Nathanof Gaza, a young and highly respected mystic.In his vision, he saw that Sabbatei Sevi was theawaited messiah. As the news spread, the move-ment was strengthened and disseminated byoutbreaks of “prophetic activities” among allsectors of the Jewish community, includingwomen and children. The contemporary paral-lels in the Christian and Muslim communitiesthat Goldish discusses add weight and sub-stance to his argument. This work is an out-standing example of the synergistic effect ofstudying Jewish history in its broader contextand is a major contribution to the study of earlymodern religious history and culture. It can behighly recommended to anyone interested inearly modern history and would be a significantaddition to any library.

Morris M. FaiersteinUniversity of Maryland

Judaism: ModernDEFINING THE YIDDISH NATION: THEJEWISH FOLKLORIST OF POLAND. ByItzik Nakhmen Gottesman. Detroit, MI: WayneState University Press, 2003. Pp. xxiii + 247.Cloth, $34.95, ISBN 0-8143-2669-2.

Secular Yiddish nationalism sought to createa Jewish “national” identity at the beginning ofthe twentieth century that was not based on theJewish religion and the Hebrew language. Intheir place, they proposed the Yiddish languageand its modern literature as the unifying andidentifying core of Jewish identity. Like othermodern “national movements” in Central andEastern Europe based on German Romanti-cism, the early Jewish folklorists turned to thecollection and analysis of folklore as a primarytool in the creation of a new “national” identity.In this study, Gottesman traces the role of folk-lore as a tool in the development of a Yiddishistidentity in Poland, from its beginnings beforeWorld War I until its end in the Holocaust.He describes the key figures and institutionsinvolved in the creation of the Yiddishistfolklore movement and its source materials.Beginning with individual collectors of folksongs and proverbs, the movement becameinstitutionalized first through the Ansky JewishHistorical-Ethnographic Society and its culmi-nation in the YIVO Ethnographic Commissionin the 1930s. What is missing from this study

is a critical evaluation of the larger goals andmotives of these folklorists in the context ofJewish life in interwar Poland. Nonetheless,Gottesman’s book is a significant contributionto our understanding of prewar Jewish life inPoland and its wide variety. It adds to ourknowledge of the history of folklore andYiddishism.

Morris M. FaiersteinUniversity of Maryland

THE REGAL WAY: THE LIFE ANDTIMES OF RABBI ISRAEL OF RUZHIN.By David Assaf. Palo Alto, CA: Stanford Uni-versity Press, 2002. Pp. xv + 456. $65.00, ISBN0-8047-4468-8.

This biography of Rabbi Israel of Ruzhin,one of the most influential and controversialhasidic leaders of the nineteenth century, is amajor scholarly contribution. Israel of Ruzhinwas the prototype for a new type of hasidicleader that became the dominant model fromthe middle of the nineteenth century to thepresent. Family lineage became more importantthan learning or personal charisma in choosinghasidic leaders, and materialism and luxuryreplaced austerity and asceticism in hasidiccourts. Assaf breaks new methodologicalground in his study and illuminates a previouslyneglected period in the history of Hasidism. Hisstudy goes beyond the theology and intellectualhistory of Hasidism, utilizing archival and non-hasidic sources not available for previous peri-ods of hasidic history. His examination of thesocial and economic structure of the hasidiccommunity and the hasidic court, how it wasadministratively organized, and how its mani-fold activities were financed, is path breaking.This volume is a revised translation of the orig-inal Hebrew edition. Some primary sourcesin Hebrew have been deleted from the notesand new research since the publication of theHebrew edition has been added. It is a veryimportant addition to the history of Hasidismand the study of East European Jewish history.It is highly recommended for anyone interestedin these areas.

Morris M. FaiersteinUniversity of Maryland

The Americas: Central and South

LA LUCHA CONTINUES: MUJERISTATHEOLOGY. By Ada María Isasi-Díaz.Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2004. Pp. xiv +270. $24.00, ISBN 1-57075-557-4.

La Lucha in this case is “the struggle”of Hispanic/Latina women—mujeres—fromwhich the word mujerista has been crafted;however, such a neologism is warranted, inso-far as the experiences of Latinas are differentfrom those of feminists, who tend to be white

and middle-class, and those of “womanists,”who are African American. This book is acontinuation of the author’s earlier volume,Mujerista Theology: A Theology for the Twenty-First Century (1996; reviewed in RSR 23: 154),and, like that volume, a collection of previouslypublished essays. As in similar collections, onefinds some repetition, but on the whole, the flowof thought from one essay to the next is betterorchestrated than in Mujerista Theology. Thefirst three essays are autobiographical: reminis-cences of a Cuban youth, the trauma of teenageemigration, missionary activity in Latin Amer-ica, participation in the women’s ordinationconference, graduate theological studies—allthese experiences are shared in such a way asto constitute an eloquent and engaging personalstatement of mujerista spirituality. The remain-ing nine essays provide many additional detailsfor this attractive portrait of mujerista theology:a search for liberation in the face of multifac-eted discrimination, an acceptance of ethnicand racial diversity, a recognition of the divinein lo cotidiano—the struggles of everyday life,a picaresque mocking/tricking of oppressors,the continual and unending quest for justice,love and reconciliation, and so on. Many read-ers will find this book both liberating—freeingthem from a variety of obstacles and oppres-sions—and encouraging—providing readerswith an incentive for working on theirown proyecto histórico—a Gospel-inspiredself-realization.

John T. FordCatholic University of America

RESURGENT VOICES IN LATIN AMER-ICA: INDIGENOUS PEOPLES, POLITI-CAL MOBILIZATION AND RELIGIOUSCHANGE. Edited by Edward L. Cleary andTimothy J. Steigenga. New Brunswick, NJ andLondon: Rutgers University Press, 2004. Pp. vii+ 268. Cloth, $65.00, ISBN 0-8135-3460-7;paper, $24.95, ISBN 0-8135-3461-5.

The Quincentennial of the “discovery” ofthe Americas was marked by a growing recog-nition of both the indigenous presence in LatinAmerica and its multidimensional aspects: cul-tural, political, social, and religious. The eightessays in this collection are case studies of theinterlinked “political mobilization and religiouschange” in six countries: Bolivia, Ecuador,Guatemala, Mexico, Paraguay, and Peru. Whilethe details about political–religious interactionare quite contrasting and sometimes apparentlycontradictory, these accounts are linked bythree panoramic themes: 1) religious syncre-tism that takes kaleidoscopic forms as Chris-tianity continues to interface with indigenousreligious beliefs and practices, 2) a shift awayfrom the theologies of inculturation thatappeared in the wake of the Second VaticanCouncil (1962-65) and the Latin AmericanEpiscopal Conference in Medellín (1968) to theformulation of indigenous theologies, and 3)the interaction of indigenous religion and cul-