History Of Religion Research Articles

“Everything That Really Matters”: Social Suffering, Subjectivity, and the Remaking of Human Experience in a Disordering World

When William James launched into the Gifford Lectures of 1901, he admitted to his Edinburgh audience a certain feeling of trepidation. Those lectures, which he would later publish asThe Varieties of Religious Experience, evoked in James a sense of consternation because, as he remarked on the occasion, he was neither a theologian, nor a historian of religion, nor an anthropologist. “Psychology is the only branch of learning in which I am particularly versed,” James pleaded.

American Religious History and Women's History: Old Divides and Recent Developments

American Religious History and Women’s Divides and Recent Developments R. Marie Griffith (bio) Carolyn De Swarte Gifford, ed. Writing Out My Heart: Selections from the Journal of Frances E. Willard, 1855–96. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1995. xxvii + 474 pp. Essay on the source, bibliography, and index. $29.95. Rosemary Radford Ruether and Rosemary Skinner Keller, eds. In Our Own Voices: Four Centuries of American Women’s Religious Writing. San Francisco: Harper, 1995. 542 pp. Notes and index. $30.00. (cloth); $18.00 (paper). Susan Juster and Lisa MacFarlane, eds. A Mighty Baptism: Race, Gender, and the Creation of American Protestantism. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1996. x + 288 pp. Index. $16.95. Scholars attentive to the religious history of American women routinely lament the perceived chasm between the field of American religious history, rooted in university departments of religious studies as well as theological schools, and the field of American women’s history, housed primarily in history departments and women’s studies programs. Those desiring to bridge these fields argue, in essence, that whereas historians of American religion have developed intricate models for interpreting religious devotion, women’s history as a “secular” discipline has all too often either blunted the intricacies of religion and its complex impact upon women’s lives or simply erased religious expression from those lives altogether. Whatever intentions and assumptions continue to motivate this erasure—animosity toward religion as invariably debilitating for women; hope of severing the associations among piety, submission, and “femininity”; suspicion that religious language simply disguises more tangible social, economic, and political meanings—the usual result has been to interpret women’s religiosity in purely functionalist terms, evaluating it variously as a mixed source of false hope and limited compensation while disregarding its expressive content and expansive social impact. 1 Gender issues aside, this disciplinary fissure between religious history on the one hand and intellectual, social, and cultural history on the other [End Page 220] illustrates the persistent unease of many academic scholars toward the categories and questions of “religion” and a widespread reluctance to take seriously the theological beliefs and devotional practices of historical subjects as potentially transformative for them. Equating religion in general with conservative Protestant teachings on traditional gender roles and fixed hierarchies, accounts by women’s historians unimpressed by theological ambivalence and religious complexity have all too habitually (whether implicitly or explicitly) disdained religion as nearly everywhere championing a repressive status quo. Historians of religion, meanwhile, insist that close attention to articulate religious sensibilities, commitments, and rituals, including those presumed to be thoroughly reactionary, calls for a fundamental rethinking of this assumption and an ongoing reappraisal of religion’s mixed impact on individual agents, as well as on culture and society more broadly. Read together, the three volumes here under consideration distinctly illumine the stakes in this interpretive battle and represent the range of varied positions taken by several able scholars of religion, history, and literature. Carolyn De Swarte Gifford’s selected edition of Frances Willard’s journal is a marvelous contribution to the task of rereading religious devotion into historical women’s lives. The journal, consisting of over fifty volumes and totaling more than eight thousand pages, had been presumed lost or destroyed for several decades. In the early 1980s, staff members at the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union (WCTU) national headquarters in Evanston, Illinois, unexpectedly discovered the volumes in the back of a cupboard, where they had apparently been deliberately hidden from prying eyes. Laboring for seven years over Willard’s uneven handwriting, Gifford transcribed the volumes in full, then selected less than a tenth of them for this published volume. (She has made the entire transcript available to researchers at the WCTU Archive, adjacent to the national headquarters.) The journal, supplemented with Gifford’s short biographical and analytic essays interspersed throughout the collection, richly evokes much seen elsewhere in Willard’s writings: her constant self-discipline and striving to improve herself; her irritation toward various social and cultural constraints on women; her abhorrence of imperfection and vice. Yet the journal also highlights what Willard’s chief modern biographer, Ruth Bordin, downplayed in her account: the passionate, concentrated piety that galvanized and sustained Willard’s...

Religion, Gender and Education in a Durham Parish during the Early Nineteenth Century

Historians of religion and society are often confronted with the difficult task of defining the distinctive characteristics of the various adherents of Church and chapel. Certainly, one of the most useful as well as the most frequently employed analytical tools in this endeavour has been the correlation of occupation to religious preference.1 While this approach can be, and has been, enormously revealing, it still has several distinct drawbacks. First, of course, there is the common problem of appropriately identifying and grouping the enormous variety and gradations of skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled occupations. While the grouping of occupations itself presents several inherent difficulties, its use as an analytical tool is further restricted by the fact that while occupational identification may provide a rough guide to status levels in society, it can in no way compensate for our lack of knowledge of, for example, the range of earnings within a specific occupational group at any particular time.

Elitism and Esotericism: Strategies of Secrecy and Power in South Indian Tantra and French Freemasonry

AbstractDespite the proliferation of interest in the subjects of secrecy and esotericism throughout popular culture, media and entertainment, these phenomena have only recently begun to be treated seriously by historians of religions. In this essay, I suggest a new way of looking at esotericism by engaging in a comparative, cross-cultural analysis, and by looking in particular at its social and political implications. Specifically, I compare two traditions — the Srīvidyā school of Indian Tantra, and the Rectified Scottish Rite of French Freemasonry — juxtaposing and analogically relating them in order to shed new light on both. Contrary to many popular conceptions, I argue that esotericism is by no means primarily a “counter-cultural” or “subversive” phenomenon; rather, it is very often an elitist phenomenon, the province of highly educated, affluent and powerful intellectuals, who wish, not to undermine existing social structures, but rather subtly to reinforce them, or else to bend and reshape them according to their own interests. This essay examines three primary strategies employed by the Tantrics and Masons: 1) the creation of a new social space or private sphere, which promises “equality” and liberation for all classes, while at the same time constructing new and more rigid hierarchies; 2) a hermeneutical strategy, which appropriates the authority of traditional scriptures, while at the same time asserting the superiority of esoteric exegesis; 3) a ritual strategy, which creates a homology between the body of the initiate, the hierarchy of the cosmos and the hierarchy of the esoteric sect, inscribing the individual into the body of the order, and inscribing the order onto the human body.

Sociology of Early Christianity: By Way of Introduction

The articles that follow by Harry W. Eberts, David Horrell, and Lloyd Pietersen should occasion some satisfaction on the part of sociologists of religion. Each article reports a study by a scholar from another discipline who has benefited from our own line of work. It has not always been so; many earlier works in the sociology of early Christianity involved forced impositions of our theoretical frameworks and terms of art to materials for which they were illsuited. The result was often a caricature of our field. However in recent years we have witnessed more sophisticated readings and uses of our collective insights by biblical scholars, historians of religion, and comparative religionists. The present set of articles is only illustrative of the kinds of sociological work now being done in these fields, as well as our own, on early Christian materials since there are many more to which one can point.1 Early Christian phenomena are of importance to the sociology of religion as a field. The Weberian trajectory of study, including the typological framework of Ernst Troeltsch, was based in part on early Christian history as that was understood early in the twentieth century. The religious texts that took form in the early Christian setting have provided tenets and customs that came to be elements of a large civilizational framework that, in crystallized form, define twentieth century conventionality. Moreover, in recent years an interest has emerged in new religious movements; with early Christian materials we have historical data on a new religion that over time became an established Ecclesia and later a tradition embracing many denominations and sects. Comparisons between the ancient new religion and contemporary ones, as well as between the ancient and contemporary contexts, follow naturally from our disciplinary perspective. It is necessary to keep a few basic facts in mind in order to assess and appreciate sociological studies of early Christianity. First, the context is that of the Roman Empire, a setting in which all three kinds of stratification class, status, party were at work. Discrepancies among these dimensions were known and written about in the satirical literature of the period. Consequently there was a tendency to seek social acceptance on the one hand and on the other, in a true

Buddhist Preaching and Sinhala Religious Rhetoric: Medieval Buddhist Methods to Popularize Theravāda

AbstractBuddhist preaching is one of the most neglected areas in modern scholarship. In Buddhist societies, though varieties of preaching rituals are found, existing scholarly literature contains only scattered and often inadequate or misleading references to Buddhist preaching. Since both historians of religions and Buddhologists have tended to ignore the role of Buddhist preachers and preaching in Theravāda Buddhism, this paper stresses the importance of paying attention to ‘preaching’ in developing a holistic understanding of Sinhala Buddhism.Focusing on the term ‘bana,’ this paper examines the development of Buddhist preaching in Sri Lanka. It demonstrates the way bana has functioned in the popularization of Theravāda since the thirteenth century. First, through an examination of inscriptions, it establishes the development of the term bana as an important religio-historical category in Sinhala Buddhism. Second, it examines the specific usage of the term bana in the sense of preaching in the thirteenth century Pūjāvaliya. Finally, focusing on the Butsarana, an early thirteenth century Sinhala text which contains extensive references to bana, it examines the way Vidyācakravartī innovated Theravāda Buddhist intellectual framework by employing an unconventional term such as ‘kāma’ (desire) to describe Theravāda religious concepts in order to popularize them. It argues that Buddhist preaching developed and grew in the context of Sinhala banapot, and functions as a rich cultural, educational, and religious resource influencing the attitudes and practices of Sinhala Buddhists.

Discourse analysis within the study of religion: Processes of change in ancient Greece

AbstractThe aim is to show how formations of discourse can be seen as the subject matter for the historian of religions, drawing on structuralist and hermeneutic approaches. Although these may differ on important theoretical and methodological issues, I find the way in which they correspond, namely by pointing to the topic of discourse as their field of investigation, even more important. In this article a discourse is understood as a framework of communication, and the focus is laid upon religious discourse as a special kind of authorization. In ancient Greece, for example, "authors" such as Homer and Orpheus were the authorities of two different discursive traditions. The analysis of discourse can present us with a view of how certain frames of communication were interacting by means of contest, and how, eventually, it was the very strategy of authorization that was contested. Hence, what has often been seen as a paradigmatic shift from mythos to logos could more fruitfully be viewed from a discursive angle than from a perspective of different mentalities. Discourse analysis, as presented in this article, is a way of coming to terms with the process of transformation by regarding dynamic properties of communication, that is, as interrelated strategies on connected levels of system and event.

Facing death: where culture, religion, and medicine meet

We have learned a great deal in recent years about keeping death at bay through medical technology. We are less well informed, however, about how to face death and how to understand or articulate the emotional and spiritual needs of the dying. This profound and eloquent book brings together medical experts and distinguished authorities in the humanities to reflect on medical, cultural, and religious responses to death. The book helps both medical personnel and patients to view death less as an adversary and more as a defining part of life. In the first half of the book, physicians and the founder of Connecticut Hospice discuss the current clinical setting for dying, with attempts to find the balance between alleviating suffering and providing life support, the problem of finding a peaceful death, and the differences the AIDS epidemic has made in our attitudes toward dying. In the second half of the book, theologians, historians of religion, anthropologists, literary scholars, and pastors describe Christian, Judaic, Islamic, Hindu, and Chinese perceptions of death and rituals of mourning. An epilogue considers the resonances between medicine and the humanities, as well as the essential differences in their approaches to death.

In the Shadow of History: Jews and Conversos at the Dawn of Modernity (review)

Book Reviews 167 This is of course not a new theme, but it is fleshed' out nicely by Anita Bunyan in her essay analyzing the Kolnische Zeitung and its position on Emancipation in the Vormarz years. She concludes by asserting that religious conformity was no longer a prerequisite for citizenship, but cultural conformity was demanded ofJews if they wished to be assimilated into Prussian society (p. 51). The debate about Emancipation is carried further by Keith Pickus in his splendid essay on the Freie Wissenschaftliche Vereinigung. Despite the efforts of a student organization to promote Jewish emancipation and equality in a sea of antisemitism, Jews still found themselves forced to form their own student groups because of the social isolation extant at German universities. "The establishment of Jewish student associations," Pickus writes, "can be seen as an attempt by German-Jewish university students to reconcile the dialectical tension resulting from being a highly acculturated, but still socially segregated, segment of the student body" (p. SO). There is no question that the Jews kept their part of the bargain concerning emancipation, but unfortunately the same measure and standards for citizenship demanqed by the nineteenth-century nationalists were ignored by the racial requirements of the Nazis. This collection, which as always contains a comprehensive bibliography, is a poignant reminder that Jewish life in Germany was vibrant and varied, but to certain groups of people Jews could not hope to remain in Germany as Germans and as Jews. Glenn R. Sharfman Department of History Hiram College In the Shadow of History: Jews and Conversos at the Dawn of Modernity, byJose Faur. Albany: State University.ofNew York Press, 1992. 311 pp. $19.95 (P). Jose Faur's latest book is a philosophical history of Iberian Peninsula Sephardim and post-1492 Sephardi dispersion. The central theme of this work is the status and role of the conversos: the Jews of the Iberian Peninsula who converted to Christianity in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries and confronted the challenges of spiritual controversies, readaptation , and re-integration. The book is divided into nine chapters and is based on important primary/secondary data that include religious and philosophical sources 168 SHOFAR Winter 1996 Vol. 14, No.2 such as R. Solomon 'ibn Verga's Sbebet Yebuda, Misbne Tora, Tesbubat baRisbba , the Kuzarl, and Baruch Spinoza' writings, as well as the major historiographical and philosophical works of F. W. Russell (1bougbt and Heresy in tbe Middle Ages), J. Freudenthal (Spinoza, sine Leben und seine Lebre), Eric Fromm (Escape from Freedom), and George Foot Moore (History ofReligion). Before delving into the definition and status of the conversos, the first chapter highlights the radical thesis that the anti-Maimonidean movement that swept the French and Iberian Jewish communities in the twelfth and thineenth centuries was the result ofChristian assimilation at a time when Christian society persecuted "disagreeable" minorities. The anti-Maimonidean movement (1180-1230) symbolized the clash between two modes of religious devotion: one developed in Andalusia, or Moorish Spain; the other in Catalonia and Gerona, the cradle of Christendom. Whereas the Maimonidean tradition developed in the pluralistic and the more religiously tolerant Andalusia under Muslim influence, the anti-Maimonidean movement emerged to the fore in the authoritarian societies of Christian Spain and France. In this respect Faur's analysis is vital, for it challenges the type of historiography that suggests that Iberian Jewry was Maimonidean. Faur is highly convincing in arguing that there were two parallel spiritual religious traditions-the Maimonidean/Andalusian rationalistic; and the Catalonian anti-Maimonidean tradition imbued with religious zeal and Christian influence, at times incorporating astrological and mystical ideas. The major conflict between the two modes of religious devotion stemmed from religious premises. For Andalusian Jewry it was the Law, whereas for the anti-Maimonideans it was religious fervor. The Maimonideans insisted upon God's worship according to the Sinaitic covenant, while the anti-Maimonideans resorted to ijtibad: the devotion to Judaism in terms of intellectual diligence and religious zeal rather than grappling with the precise legal definitions of the Law. So powerful were the anti-Maimonidean currents in Spain and other parts of Western Europe in the fourteenth century, that Maimonidean rationalism was weakened. The influence...

Contemporary China Studies in Scandinavia

Thirty years ago contemporary China studies in Scandinavia was largely an unknown phenomenon. Most sinologists worked on aspects of traditional sinology such as historical phonology, classical religion, philosophy and linguistics, and contemporary studies were seen as a rather shallow preoccupation which could be left safely in the hands of journalists and diplomats. However, as the public interest in contemporary China studies in Scandinavia grew and as development economists, political scientists and sociologists began to encroach on the China field, it increasingly became difficult to limit Chinese studies to classical pursuits. Today the contemporary China field in Scandinavia has grown strong and active and consists of approximately 90 active scholars. In most Scandinavian institutes classical studies occupy a dominant position in terms of faculty staff, but new positions are increasingly established within the contemporary field, where one also finds the majority of new Ph.D. projects.

Genealogy of the Way: The Construction and Uses of the Confucian Tradition in Late Imperial China (review)

564 China Review International: Vol. 3, No. 2, Fall 1996 While Hurvitz may remain the preferred version for those requiring scholarly conventions such as the use of Sanskrit diacritics, the Watson translation will prove especially accessible to those encountering this important scripture for the first time. In the final analysis, readers will have to evaluate Watson's version based on their own needs and interests, but I, for one, will be switching to the Watson translation for classroom use. William E. Deal Case Western Reserve University William E. Deal is Severance Associate Professor ofthe History ofReligions in the Department ofReligion at Case Western Reserve University specializing in Japanese interpretations ofthe Lotus Sutra. m Thomas A. Wilson. Genealogy ofthe Way: The Construction and Uses ofthe Confucian Tradition in Late Imperial China. Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1995. xiv, 376 pp. Hardcover $49.50, isbn 0-8047-2425-3. Thomas Wilson's Genealogy ofthe Way is about the ideological use of genealogical discourse in Confucian learning from the Song period into the Qing. This was ideological because, Wilson argues, genealogical discourse was used as a signifying strategy by certain Confucian scholars "to establish control over the institutional, ritual, and textual practices that have regulated statements about the Confucian tradition as a contested arena" (p. 14). The discourse—its constituent problems, organizing concepts, modes of articulation, and institutional sites—was genealogical because it defined tradition in terms of a lineage of orthodox masters (Dao School Confucians). In support of this, a body of texts (Confucian anthologies) was produced. Genealogy and anthology came together during the course of the Song dynasty thanks largely to the efforts of Zhu Xi, but the Song legacy was challenged from two perspectives during the late Ming and early Qing periods. First, followers ofWang Yangming redefined the genealogy of the Way and produced new anthologies to mediate between the Cheng Yi-Zhu Xi and Lu Jiuyuan-Wang Yangming lines, efforts that were resisted by supporters ofZhu Xi. Second, Huang y niversi y zongxi proposed a new, more historically grounded way ofthinking about the tradition ofConfucian learning. Wilson demonstrates that Song thinkers were quite conscious ofwhat they were doing and, when it came to their anthology project, what editorial adjustments were necessary to support the chosen genealogy. The ofHawai'i Press Reviews 565 book deals with the two sides ofthis separately, the firstpartwith state and private efforts to canonize an orthodoxlineage and the second with the various kinds ofanthologies produced in the process. Genealogy ofthe Waydraws intelligently and broadly from a vast amount ofmaterial spread over a period of nearly two and a halfmillennia. It is well informed in the matters it addresses. Its quotations are well chosen and well translated, and its interpretations of the texts are persuasive. Traditional sinological circles might define the subject ofthis book in other terms. Genealogy ofthe Way is about the use by Song and Ming Neo-Confucians1 ofthe idea of daotong (the idea that there was a single, exclusive succession offigures who had truly understood the Way, beginning with the sages and worthies of antiquity and then, after a fifteen-hundred-year intermission, continuing with Zhou Dunyi, the Cheng brothers, and Zhu Xi in the Song dynasty) to claim authority over truth, and their compilation ofanthologies in support of their claims. It explains how they began to make these claims in the Song (but looks at related issues in earlier periods as well) and how the Cheng-Zhu versions were contested and defended in the late Ming and early Qing. Although much ofthe ground Wilson covers is known, it has not been put together like this before. Moreover, he adds to our knowledge an account of a number oflate Ming to early Qing Neo-Confucian anthologies and a discussion of the apparent intellectual pluralism that informed Huang Zongxi's compilation ofthe Cases-of-Learninganthologies ofSong through Ming literati thought. However, it is not the seventeenth-century anthologies that claim our attention but Wilson's development of a postmodern perspective on the Neo-Confucian tradition. Genealogy ofthe Way is evidence, I think, ofhow valuable this kind oftheoretical reflection can be. It has given the author a method for making sense ofwhat would otherwise be a...

Approaching church history with T.A.C.T

T.A.C.T., a bundle of analysis applications for MS-DOS computers originally developed for computational linguists, may be used profitably by historians of religion. It converts an ASCII text file into a "database," which may be queried to produce indicators of broad trends in language use and word counts, as well as isolating "node collocate pairs" and "phrasal repetends." The article is based on results of actual research projects, from different periods and of radically different-sized original documents. From these, T.A.C.T.'s tests were able to extract otherwise irretrievable evidence

Psychoanalytic methods in the history of religion: A personal statement1

AbstractFor the Scandinavian tradition of the history of religions, in which I was trained, not the numinous, but the experience of the numinous is the sui generis subject matter of the discipline; and historians routinely emphasize the experiential aspects of religions. The better to understand religious experience, I work interdisciplinarily with psychoanalysis. Freud's treatment of group processes as though they were individual psyches and his pathologizing of religious symbolism are badly dated. Current work in both clinical psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic anthropology is more sophisticated. My major innovations are two. (1) Where historians of religions aspire for religious devotees to recognize themselves in their portraits of the religions, I seek for devotees additionally to gain insight into the unconscious dimensions of their religions. Religions are not reducible to their symbolism, but unconscious motives influence the imagery that religions use to symbolize their metaphysical concerns. (2) I also use psychoanalytic findings and methods to contribute to historiography, in some cases as aids to textual exegesis, but more extensively in studies of shamans, prophets, apocalyptists, and mystics, where psychoanalytic observations on the techniques for inducing and controlling alternate states furnishes historical information that enriches the research findings.

Passionate Enlightenment: Women in Tantric Buddhism

The crowning cultural achievement of medieval India, Tantric Buddhism is known in the West primarily for the sexual practices of its adherents, who strive to transform erotic passion into spiritual ecstasy. Historians of religion have long held that the enlightenment thus attempted was for men only, and that women in the movement were at best marginal and subordinate and at worst degraded and exploited. Miranda Shaw argues to the contrary, presenting extensive new evidence of the outspoken and independent female founders of the Tantric movement and their creative role in shaping its distinctive vision of gender relations and sacred sexuality. Drawing on interviews and archival research conducted during two years of fieldwork in India and Nepal, including more than 40 works by women of the Pala period, the author reinterprets the history of Tantric Buddhism during its first four centuries. In her view, the Tantric theory of this period promotes an ideal of co-operative, mutually liberative relationships between women and men while encouraging a sense of reliance on women as a source of spiritual insight and power.

Ancestors, the sacred and God: Reflections on themeaning of the sacred in Zimbabwean death rituals

This paper holds that the sacred refers to the central and most fundamental reality for believers which, although wholly other, is manifested through worldly objects or events (hierophanies). In this view, the concept of God also becomes a hierophany of the sacred through symbols and is neither higher nor lower than the hierophanies of the sacred which do not refer to a Supreme Being. An examination of three contemporary field descriptions of traditional death rituals in Zimbabwe shows that although references to the Supreme Being (Mwari) are entirely lacking, the sacred reality is overwhelmingly present through ancestral spirits mediated largely through religious specialists. In contrast to this view, African Christian theologians have stressed the central role of God in African Religions in part as a reaction to misrepresentations by Westerners of African religiosity. The emphasis by scientists and historians of religion on Mwari in Zimbabwe, however, is not as easily explained and may represent different agendas which should be acknowledged so that the rituals themselves can shed light on the meaning of the sacred for believers.

Walford's guide to reference material: v.2: Social and historical sciences, philosophy and religion

Walford's guide to reference material: v.2: Social and historical sciences, philosophy and religion

The Remnants of Desire: Sacrificial Violence and Sexual Transgression in the Cult of the Kāpālikas and in the Writings of Georges Bataille

Notorious for its transgressive sexual and sacrificial practices, the Śaivite sect of the Kāpālikas, or skull bearers, has long been misunderstood by historians of religions. This essay suggests a new way of approaching the Kāpālikas by using some of the insights of the controversial French thinker, Georges Bataille. By examining the symbolism of sacrifice and sexuality, beheading and castration, and the dialectic between taboo and transgression, this paper argues against many past interpretations, like that of Mircea Eliade. The Kāpālikas, it is argued, were not simply attempting to escape the world of history and death by transcending the duality of purity and impurity and achieving a state of other worldly detachment. Rather, they were deliberately playing upon and exploiting the dangerous, transgressive power on the margins of the social order, as a source of this-worldly power and liberation.

Piety and Nationalism: Lay Voluntary Associations and the Creation of an Irish-Catholic Community in Toronto, 1850-1895 by Brian P. Clarke

BOOK REVIEWS1 29 I used "foundational" earlier on because I suggest that Isetti's work needs to be complemented by equally probing studies ofreligious women, ofclerical congregations, and perhaps even of diocesan curias in order that Charles's and the Brothers' experiences can take on a deeper meaning in such a context. One hopes such work either exists but has escaped adequate notice, or that it will be forthcoming. We may have more in common than we think, and biography may be the best way to share it all. Brother Patrick Ellis, F.S.C. The Catholic University ofAmerica Canadian Piety and Nationalism: Lay Voluntary Associations and the Creation ofan Irish-Catholic Community in Toronto, 1850-1895. By Brian P. Clarke. [McGill-Queen's Studies in the History ofReligion, 12.] (Montreal: McGiIlQueen 's University Press. 1993. Pp. xii, 340. «39.95.) Brian Clarke's study of Irish Catholics in Toronto is well written and researched , focusing on two of the most important issues in the history of nineteenth-century Irish: religion and nationalism. The author contends the consensus among most historians is that religious renewal emanated from the church hierarchy and orders, thereby casting the laity into an acquiescent mould. Clarke sets out to demonstrate the vitality ofToronto's Irish immigrants who, while adopting a subculture of religious identity, exhibited a strong initiative that supported the group's social interaction, independent of clerical influence. Clarke provides insight into the conditions the Irish immigrants encountered , their reaction to the devotional renewal that followed, the subsequent emergence of devotional organizations and the outgrowth of nationalist associations . His chapters on Irish nationalism are erudite. Of particular note is the concept that the clergy's reluctance to participate fully in advancing the causes of national organizations promoted lay leadership in associations that became disassociated from, if not confrontational with the Catholic Church. One must examine, however, the central theme of this work, that is, the role of the laity in founding many of the Catholic voluntary associations which fostered the development of lay initiative. It seems that Clarke attempts to eclipse the position of the Church and its clergy in the formation of Irish Catholic societies. The major portion of the social work done in Toronto on behalf of the Irish Catholic community occurred under the auspices of the Church and its religious orders of men and women. The Saint Vincent de Paul Society was lay-run, but existed under the guidance of the Church. Prior to the twentieth century the Church led and the laity followed; the Church condoned and condemned. The piety of the people was an outgrowth of what the Church dictated. 1 30BOOK REVIEWS Clarke uses a wide range of primary and secondary sources to support his work. However, while discounting the work of some other writers who have explored the Irish Catholics in Toronto, he fails to provide sufficient evidence to disprove their analyses. For example, while admitting that in contemporary accounts and manuscript material Irish Catholics were stereotypical as drunken brawlers, Clarke takes Kenneth Duncan and Murray Nicolson to task for basing "their respective interpretations on this stereotype rather than exploding it as a myth" (p. 28). Through this in-depth study, Clarke has nonetheless opened a door on an ethno-religious community that contributed to the development of Toronto. It invites new approaches that will lead to a standard work in this field. Murray W. Nicolson Wilfrid Laurier University Latin American South andMeso-AmericanNative Spirituality: From the CultoftheFeathered Serpent to the Theology of Liberation. Edited by Gary H. Gossen, in collaboration with Miguel León-Portilla. [World Spirituality: An Encyclopedic History of the Religious Quest, Volume 4.] (New York: Crossroad . 1993. Pp. xii, 563. «4950 clothbound.) South and Meso-American Native Spirituality offers a sampler of the religious life in a region marked by multiple spiritual traditions, in the preContact period; and by the formation of new traditions from the cultural gifts of Amerindians, Europeans, Africans, and Asians, in die post-Contact era. Coverage includes not only South America and Mesoamerica, but also the Caribbean and other parts ofMexico and ofCentral America. The editor excludes "mainstream Judeo-Christian belief and practice" from consideration; they are "fundamentally linked...

Counter-Reformation Sanctity: The Bollandists' Vita of Blessed Hemma of Gurk

It is now commonplace for historians of religion to treat the creation of saints as a political process that included such issues as doctrinal orthodoxy, church authority and popular practices and beliefs. The early twentieth-century Bollandist scholar of sanctity, Hippolyte Delehaye sj, touched on these when he considered the problems facing the critical, but devout, hagiographer in his history, The work of the Bollandists:To question the lawfulness of the cult of a saint, or to raise doubts as to the authenticity of his relics, were issues which could not in most cases remain theoretical, but which demanded practical measures, and in the application of these more than usual tact was required. How was it to be made clear to the faithful that the authority of the Church was not responsible for certain vagaries? How were devotions which had taken root in the heart of the people to be suppressed without causing serious disturbances? On the other hand how were they to be upheld, in the face of the conviction that they were without foundation?… Of course the faithful have never been taught that the lives of the saints are to be believed in the same measure as the Gospel, but it is a fact that they incline to this belief. Hence was it not dangerous, from the standpoint of faith, to destroy certain pious illusions?

Reasonable Doubts about Newman’s University

A distinguished historian of religion’s rediscovery of Cardinal Newman’s The Idea of a University leads contemporary scholars and leaders in higher education to consider the limits of Newman’s legacy for shaping the structure and mission of the American university today.