Religious Quest Research Articles

Refining Christian Religious Orientations through Cluster Analyses

To explore religious orientations, 163 Christians answered the Intrinsic and Extrinsic Religious Orientation and Quest Scales. Cluster analysis showed that Extrinsic Item 2 (“It doesn't matter so much what I believe so long as I lead a moral life”) did not fit in the two- or three-cluster model. One cluster of the two-cluster and one of the three-cluster models were exactly the same and reflected intrinsic, personal religion. The remaining clusters showed why a correlation is found between the Extrinsic and Quest scales and suggest refinements of the scales.

Chasing Voices, Hunting Love: The Meaning of the Italian Caccia

Chasing Voices, Hunting Love:The Meaning of the Italian Caccia Lucia Marchi The fourteenth-century Italian genre of the caccia has received attention largely for its peculiar musical construction and idiosyncratic texts. A typical caccia (pl. cacce) is a three-voice piece in which a lower voice (tenor) supports two upper parts written in canonic counterpoint. In this musical technique, the voices sing the same melody at a given distance in time, musically "hunting" each other. The poetic texts describe hunting scenes, including technical terms, call and response patterns, and onomatopoeia. It is quite clear, though, that the hunt represents a metaphor for the quest for love. The production of cacce spans about a century, from the first generation of fourteenth-century composers (Magister Piero, Jacopo da Bologna) to the beginning of the Quattrocento. Although their number is not as large as other genres such as madrigali and ballate, they are consistently transmitted in all the major musical anthologies of the Trecento. This article re-examines the caccia repertory, focusing on what I believe to be some significant issues: (1) the meaning of their texts in the broader context of medieval literature; (2) the metaphorical significance of the genre and its effect on the understanding of individual pieces; (3) the Trecento theory of musical genres and the contemporary perception of the caccia as an autonomous form. Lastly, I address individual cases the analysis of which implies methodological approaches of more general interest for future research. 1. The hunt in medieval literature The concept of intertextuality, as elaborated by the French post-structuralists in the 1960s (Kristeva, Barthes), employed the allusions of a given text to other pre-existing ones as a fundamental exegetical tool. The concept can be applied in musicology as well, but in the case of secular vocal music two elements have to [End Page 13] be included: a poetic text and its musical setting. First of all, we need to decide if it is possible to apply this approach not only to the artistic product as a whole, but also to the two elements separately. More generally, the question implies an evaluation of the concept of poesia per musica and its independence—or interdependence—from the musical setting. Most of the texts of cacce, as well as of madrigali and ballate, were written to be set to music, as shown by many rubrics in literary manuscripts: e.g., madriale tonato or caccia da cantare. Nevertheless, the existence of independent transmission in literary sources supports the perception of their poetic text as an autonomous artistic product. In some cases, such as Niccolò Soldanieri's A poste messe, the musical manuscripts preserve only one of the two stanzas, whereas the more complete version has only a literary transmission.1 In the broader context of medieval literature, caccia texts reveal meanings not evident otherwise. The hunt is an extremely widespread topic, as demonstrated by two important studies: Marcelle Thiébaux's The Stag of Love: The Chase in Medieval Literature (1974) and the more recent one by Giovanni Barberi Squarotti, Selvaggia dilettanza. La caccia nella letteratura italiana dalle origini a Marino (2000). From ancient literature onwards, the hunt had different meanings, ranging from the religious quest to the spiritual journey towards virtue.2 The act of hunting can represent the bravery of the hero, but the metaphor may be also be reversed to mean humankind as "hunted" by vice, temptation, and death. By far the most common allegory is the erotic one, present since Greek and Latin literature, as in, for example, Horace's Ode I.23 (lines 1-4): Vitas inuelo me similis, Chloe,quaerenti pavidam montibus aviismatrem non sine vanoaurarum et silvae metu. [You are running away, Chloe, just like a fawn / seeking on the remote mountains her terrified / mother not without needless / fear of forest and fitful breeze.]3 Dido's passion for Aeneas is represented by Virgil in Book IV of the Aeneid as an arrow stuck in her side: Uritur infelix Dido totaque vagatururbe furens, qualis coniecta cerva sagitta,quam procul incautam nemora inter Cresia fixitpastor agens telis liquitque volatile ferrumnescius: illa fuga silvas saltusque peragratDictaeos; haeret lateri letalis...

The quest for meaning: Religious affiliation differences in the correlates of religious quest and search for meaning in life.

Religious traditions are considered to provide their members with a way to integrate their experiences into a coherent, comprehensible whole; functioning as a meaning system. Given that religious traditions vary in certain ways, the meaning systems they provide to their members might also differ from one another. The present study was concerned with whether seeking existential meaning in religion and life is compatible with other expressions of religiousness across denominations. Using a multigroups application of path analysis, we investigated whether the relations of two forms of existential seeking, secular (search for meaning in life) and sacred (religious quest), with several religious and psychological well-being measures differed as a function of denomination in a sample of Catholic and Protestant young adults (Study 1; N 284) and a sample of Catholic, Evangelical, and Non-Evangelical Protestant young adults (Study 2; N 454). Although comparisons across studies are difficult because the “Protestant” category in Study 1 could have included both Evangelical and nonEvangelical Protestants, one consistent pattern did emerge: there were no denomination-based differences in any of the relations of search for meaning with any of the religiousness variables in either study. Also, in both studies, Catholics demonstrated a positive relation of search for meaning with religious quest and negative relations of search for meaning with presence of meaning in life and overall religiousness. Results for religious quest appeared unstable across studies, raising possible questions about its measurement qualities. Implications for the study of cultural and existential factors and religion are discussed.

In Memoriam: Ewert Cousins 1927–2009

Ewert H. Cousins, Ph.D., Professor Emeritus at Fordham University, and internationally renowned theologian, died in his home on Saturday, May 30, at age 82 after enduring 2 years of difficult health challenges. Dr. Cousins served as the Director of Fordham' s Spirituality Program. As the chief editorial consultant for the innovative 107 volume Paulist Press series, The Classics of Western Spirituality, he forged new ground in inspiring interreligious dialogue. This seminal opus brought together the best scholarship in the Christian, Jewish, and Muslim traditions and created the impetus for numerous worldwide interreligious conferences, bringing members of different faiths together in dialogue. Dr. Cousins was the General Editor of the 25-volume series, World Spirituality: An Encyclopedic History of the Religious Quest (Crossroads). He authored the provocative and prophetic text, Christ of the 21st Century and Bonaventure and the Coincidence of Opposites. His other publications include Process theology: Basic Writings, Bonaventure: The Soul's Journey into God, the Tree of Life, the Life of Saint Francis; Global Spirituality Toward the Meeting of Mystical Paths, and Hope and the Future of Man. Cousins had a profound ability to integrate the wisdom of religion, spirituality, theology, philosophy, depth psychology, and literature. His vast and synthetic mind could easily encompass the nature of the psyche, according to Carl Jung, a psychological perspective that he found most harmonious in relation to some of the most critical and reflective insights of religion and theology. The Journal of Religion and Health: Psychology, Spirituality, and Medicine was most honored to have him serve on our Editorial Advisory Board for nearly 10 years. Cousins was born and raised in New Orleans, joined the Society of Jesus at age 1 8, and entered seminary studies at Grand Coteau, LA. In his early Jesuit years, he worked on the Rosebud Reservation where he found himself deeply drawn to the vibrancy and depth of Native American spirituality. This experience ignited a yearning to explore the religious experience of a diversity of cultural traditions, including a 1-year study of Islam at the Tantur Ecumenical Institute in Bethlehem, Palestine, and many trips to India to study

Incarnation, Inwardness, and Imagination: George Eliot's Early Fiction

The secret of our emotions never lies in bare object, but in its subtle relations to our own past: no wonder secret escapes unsympathising observer, who might as well put on spectacles to discern odours. --George Eliot, Adam Bede Is there not a spiritual existence that belongs to individuals? --Soren Kierkegaard, Repetition can't help laughing at imbecility of that pious dictum--that if Shelley had lived till now he would have been a Christian--that is, he would have been old woman enough for it by this (Haight, Letters II: 126). This biting comment from Marian Evans to her friend Sara Sophia Hennell in 1853 stands as a warning to anyone wanting to reopen question of George Eliot's attitude towards religion. Yet, as several recent publications suggest--notably Peter Hodgson's book, The Mystery Beneath Real: Theology in Fiction of George Eliot; Barry Qualls's chapter on in Cambridge Companion to George Eliot; and Michael Davis's chapter on in Daniel Deronda in George Eliot and Nineteenth-Century Psychology--it is time for a reappraisal of George Eliot's understanding of and for a more comprehensive analysis of deep and inextricable interrelation of and imagination that informs her aesthetic. In great age of religious questioning, which U. C. Knoepflmacher notes was obsessed with epistemology (160), Eliot's importance was such that Lord Acton can call her the emblem of a generation distracted between intense need of believing and difficulty of belief (Carroll, George Eliot: The Critical Heritage 463). In conflict of interpretations that David Carroll rightly sees as central to her narrative situations, (George Eliot and Conflict of Interpretations), Eliot's fiction reveals, I will argue, her own exploration of and imagination and her discovery of their inseparable connection as hermeneutical mindsets. It is impossible to read Eliot's novels without thinking about religion, one would think, since, even when they do not directly concern religious clerics, they focus on characters engaged in deeply religious struggles. Eliot's work is rich enough that astute readers can find material for almost any sophisticated reading, and it is perhaps not surprising that while critics in a secular culture have tended to follow standard view that Marian Evans lost her faith as a young woman, there is increasing interest in necessary complexities of any such trajectory. While there have always been critics and readers speaking against tide, pervasive tendency has been to acknowledge her early piety and reiterate wisdom (Hodgson 1) that after her encounter with higher criticism, firstly through Charles Hennell and then Strauss and Feuerbach, and with Comte school, her Christian beliefs were replaced by a Feuerbachian version of of humanity. While crucial influence of all of these is undeniable, I agree with Peter Hodgson when he argues that George Eliot never became a disciple of any system or ideology. (1) Instead, rather like one of mollusks which were subject of her husband's study, she accreted these beliefs like so many layers, each new level of knowledge adding to and adapting, rather than displacing, her earlier views. While it is easy enough to find comments in her letters declaring her rejection of conventional forms of Christianity, it is not much harder to find as many comments that modify and complicate these declarations of unbelief. (2) In his book, Hodgson briefly analyzes each of Eliot's novels for their Christian content, and extrapolates from that principles of what he calls George Eliot's future religion (13), a form of revisionist postmodern theology (152) which he aligns with various theologians from Schleiermacher to Ricouer. Hodgson's idea that George Eliot practiced a faith, which kept reality of God in suspense (2), echoes ideas of philosopher Richard Kearney, himself a student of Ricouer. …

Cognitive Conflict and Well-Being among Muslim Clergy

This paper surveys the relationship between Clergy Vocational Conflict, cognitive conflict (religious conflict and Quest) and psychological well-being in a sample of 178 Muslim clergy in Turkey. It was found that Clergy Vocational Conflict is accompanied by religious conflict and Quest. Those who experienced Clergy Vocational Conflict and religious conflict (but not Quest) suffered from poor psychological well-being. Quest, which does not affect psychological well-being, and religious conflict, which adversely affects it, are more common among the younger stratum of the sample. However, well-being prevails among the older layer and among the more educated clergy. Finally, psychological well-being, self-esteem, Quest and religious conflict were found as predictors for Clergy Vocational Conflict.

The Wonderlic Personnel Test and elementary cognitive tasks as predictors of religious sectarianism, scriptural acceptance and religious questioning

Lynn, Harvey and Nyborg [Lynn, R., Harvey, J., & Nyborg, H. (in press). Average intelligence predicts atheism rates across 137 nations. Doi:10.1016/j.intell.2008.03.004.] discovered that average intelligence (IQ) co-varies with national atheism rates. Extending this work, we investigated relationships among individual IQ scores, elementary cognitive task (ECT) performance, and three types of religious beliefs. Sectarianism (believing one's religion is the only path to God) correlated negatively with IQ and ECT. Considerable mean differences also existed on this factor between the highest and lowest IQ ( d = .69) and ECT ( d = .73) quartiles. Scriptural acceptance (believing one's scripture is literally true), however, correlated only nominally with IQ and ECT. Religious questioning (one's willingness to question religious convictions) correlated positively with ECT, and consistent differences existed on this factor between the highest and lowest scoring IQ ( d = .38) and ECT ( d = .55) quartiles. Only ECT explained unique variance in religious beliefs, as controlling for it attenuated the effects of IQ. Possible theoretical explanations for these effects are discussed.

Walter Kasper's Religious Quest for Jesus Christ

Walter Kasper brings to light the religious quest for Jesus Christ in a secular, historical world. Taking up the turn towards anthropology and demythologization, he sets out to articulate rationally the logic of faith in which Jesus is recognized as the Christ. Pursuing this quest, he develops a theological discourse on freedom, redemption and self-transcendence.

Asceticism and its critics: historical accounts and comparative perspectives

Scholars of religion have always been fascinated by asceticism. Some have even regarded this radical way of life the withdrawal from the world, combined with practices that seriously affect basic bodily needs, up to extreme forms of self-mortification as the ultimate form of a true religious quest. This view is rooted in hagiographic descriptions of prominent ascetics and in other literary accounts that praise the ascetic life-style. Scholars have often overlooked, however, that in the history of religions ascetic beliefs and practices have also been strongly criticized, by followers of the same religious tradition as well as by outsiders. The respective sources provide sufficient evidence of such critical strands but surprisingly as yet no attempt has been made to analyze this criticism of asceticism systematically. This book is a first attempt of filling this gap. Ten studies present cases from both Asian and European traditions: classical and medieval Hinduism, early and contemporary Buddhism in South and East Asia, European antiquity, early and medieval Christianity, and 19th/20th century Aryan religion. Focusing on the critics of asceticism, their motives, their arguments, and the targets of their critique, these studies provide a broad range of issues for comparison. They suggest that the critique of asceticism is based on a worldview differing from and competing with the ascetic worldview, often in one and the same historical context. The book demonstrates that examining the critics of asceticism helps understand better the complexity of religious traditions and their cultural contexts. The comparative analysis, moreover, shows that the criticism of asceticism reflects a religious worldview as significant and widespread in the history of religions as asceticism itself is.

Hsieh Liang-tso and the Analects of Confucius: Human Learning as a Religious Quest (review)

Reviewed by: Hsieh Liang-tso and the Analects of Confucius: Human Leaning as a Religious Quest Vincent Shen (bio) Thomas W. Selover. Hsieh Liang-tso and the Analects of Confucius: Human Leaning as a Religious Quest Oxford University Press. xi, 183. $69.95 There has been a gap, in English scholarship, between the publication of Angus Graham's work on the Cheng Brothers (Mingdao 1032–85 and Yichuan 1033–1107) in 1958 and more recent works on Zhu Xi (1130–1200) by Julia Ching, John Berthrong, and others. To a certain degree, Thomas W. Selover's Hsieh Liang-tso and the Analects of Confucius helps to fill up, at least partially, that gap. Focusing on Xie Liangzuo (Hsieh Liang-tso 1050–1103), the most brilliant disciple of the Cheng Brothers, this is indeed a remarkable contribution to the study of neo-Confucianism in North Song Dynasty. It is also a fascinating work on the hermeneutics of Confucius's Analects, the founding scripture of Confucianism, on which Selover attempts to base his vision of comparative theology. Two chapters of Xie's commentary on Confucius's Analects, translated into English and attached as appendices, are quite useful for English readers to check how Xie 'savors' the texts under his interpretation. Xie has inherited and developed Cheng Mingdao's concept of ren, his emphasis on 'knowing ren,' his interpretation of ren as the sensitive and dynamic relatedness among human beings and all things, and the attainability of ren by the moral praxis of cheng (sincerity) and jing (reverence). Nevertheless, Selover has made clear Xie's originality in his own interpretation of ren as jue (sensitive awakening), arguably under the [End Page 375] influence of Chan Buddhism of his time. But the most interesting part of this book consists in its making explicit the hermeneutic implications of Xie's practice of 'savoring' the scripture in his commentary on the Analects. Although the methods of intertextuality and intratextuality he used are quite common practice in hermeneutics in the East and West, Xie's reading of the Analects contains a hermeneutics of savouring scripture that awakens the ren in one's own mind and heart, while one is reading a scripture, by pointing directly to one's own moral praxis with self-awareness. This is quite different from Western hermeneutics, such as Heidegger's, for which what one understands in a text is the 'possibilities-to-be' it reveals; or Betti's hermeneutics, which targets the objective meaning structure of a text. On the contrary, 'savoring the scripture' is essentially a moral awakening of one's sensitive and dynamic relatednesss with other people and all things in the universe by way of reading a scriptural text. In a sense, Xie is following Mencius's hermeneutic principle 'to trace the expressed intent by understanding,' applied first to the reading of Odes. Here is something similar to what Wilhelm Dilthey says about the function of understanding as re-enacting the process of an author's creative expression by way of empathy. Unlike Dilthey's, Mencius's empathy is not merely psychological; it is immediately ontological and involves one's moral experience. As to Selover's own project in comparative theology, the fourfold pattern of scripture, tradition, reason, and experience constitutes indeed an ambitious conceptual framework, worthy of fuller development in the future. But this book of 180 pages is too short to unfold the project in a more satisfying way. It is also debatable whether to put God and ren on the same level of comparison. Matteo Ricci's Confucian Concept of Heaven seems to be a better candidate. Also, there are some minor details to reconsider for correction in the next edition. For example: all Chinese sources indicate Xie lived in the period 1050–1103, but Selover puts it repeatedly c 1050–c 1120, without any justification. Also, although this book justifiably adopts the Wade-Giles system, since all libraries in the world are now switching to pinyin system, it is better for publications on China to change to the pinyin system to be more convenient for Western readers. Note also that Confucius's disciple who asked the question in Analects 14.1 should be Yuan Xian...

Aurora Leigh's Radical Youth: Derridean Parergon and the Narrative Frame in "A Vision of Poets"

Aurora Leigh's Radical Youth:Derridean Parergon and the Narrative Frame in “A Vision of Poets” Stephanie L. Johnson (bio) With the publication of Aurora Leigh in 1856, Elizabeth Barrett Browning not only offered readers a poetic work that rivaled Wordsworth's The Prelude in innovation of form and content but also identified this work as the pinnacle of her career. In the dedication to her cousin John Kenyon, she describes it as "the most mature of my works, and the one into which my highest convictions upon Life and Art have entered."1 Following her lead, critics since the 1970s have often either discounted her shorter and earlier poetry or considered it merely as a foundation for the greater work to come. Much recent criticism maintains this view of Aurora Leigh as the height of Barrett Browning's career as well as the corresponding view that her earlier work is less "mature." In Steve Dillon's consideration of her tropic use of crying, singing, and breathing, for example, he claims to follow the lead of Linda M. Lewis, Dorothy Mermin, and Marjorie Stone in arguing for an "apprentice to master" story of Barrett Browning's career.2 Published in Poems of 1844, "A Vision of Poets" seems to hold a secure position within this critical narrative of progression because it anticipates Aurora Leigh's concern with the relationship of a female poet to the male poetic lineage. Lewis, while only briefly mentioning "A Vision of Poets," connects it to other poems of 1844 that affirm "the gospel of Suffering and the gospel of Work," representing the second stage of Barrett Browning's religious quest; Aurora Leigh embodies the final stage in which the poet preaches the gospel of "divine love and divine truth" (p. 13). Mermin characterizes Barrett Browning's progression in feminist terms and compares "A Vision of Poets" both to the earlier "A Vision of Fame" and "The Poet's Vow" and to the later works that concern the poetical position of women. Its "conclusions are unstated but obvious," she claims; "women can be poets, and women's lives can be their theme," which prompts us to think of the later novel-poem in which this conclusion becomes explicit (Mermin, pp. 87-88, 115). Stone gives credence [End Page 425] to Harold Bloom's six phases of poetic progress as paradigmatic even as she critiques his patriarchal model, and she places "A Vision of Poets" at the turn to Barrett Browning's "later phases of 'poetic incarnation,'" which culminate in the mastery of Aurora Leigh (pp. 93, 154). Additionally, Helen Cooper asserts that "A Vision of Poets" begins to reconfigure the classical relationship between the male poet and his female muse, an effort that "is consummated in Aurora Leigh."3 Finally, Dillon does not consider "A Vision of Poets," perhaps because its "breath[ing] back" the music of God's blessing works against his argument that breath is a later representation of poetic voice for Barrett Browning, following her early use of the cry and the song.4 Rather than continue the conversation about progression and the full scope of Barrett Browning's work, this study examines one complication of its trajectory. It follows Linda Shires' argument that certain female poets of the nineteenth-century, including Barrett Browning, were critiquing the male tradition and experimenting with form as early as the 1830s.5 "A Vision of Poets" presents a female poet who is more adversarial toward her male predecessors than has been recognized, positioning this poem as itself adversarial within Barrett Browning's oeuvre. While "A Vision of Poets" considers women's potential for poetry in the vein of Aurora Leigh, it does not wage the same battle to open the male tradition to the female poet. In the relationship between these two works, published twelve years apart, the later poem qualifies and tempers the earlier, more radical feminist position, problematizing any critical impulse to identify Barrett Browning's maturation as a steady progression toward feminist self-autonomy. The subversiveness of "A Vision of Poets" stems from its narrative of the death of the male poetic tradition and the survival of the independent female voice; independence is...

Hsieh Liang‐Tso and the Analects: Humane Learning as a Religious Quest – Thomas W. Selover

Hsieh Liang‐Tso and the <i>Analects: </i>Humane Learning as a Religious Quest – Thomas W. Selover

Fundamentalism, Father and Son, and Vertical Desire

Fundamentalism, Father and Son, and Vertical DesireRuth SteinRuth Stein1. 355 East 72 Street, #3AB, New York, NY 10021Search for more papers by this authorPublished Online:April 2006https://doi.org/10.1521/prev.2006.93.2.201PDFPDF PLUS ShareShare onFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack Citations About Previous article Next article FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Cited byCited by1. The rise of fundamentalist narratives - a post-9/11 legacy? Toward understanding American fundamentalist discourseOnline publication date: 30 August 2021. Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar2. Reverberating Disquietude: A response to Shalini Masih’s “A Sustained Note of Disquiet”Online publication date: 12 March 2020. Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar3. Terrorist organizations: Group-analytic and psychoanalytic perspectivesOnline publication date: 5 November 2019. Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar4. Paradoxical Representation: The Royal Road to CreativityOnline publication date: 18 November 2019. Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar5. Can psychoanalysis contribute to the understanding of fundamentalism? An introduction to a vast questionOnline publication date: 9 May 2018. Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar6. Fundamentalist mindsetOnline publication date: 16 October 2017. Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar7. Introduction: The Feeling of Certainty, Towards a Psychosocial ApproachOnline publication date: 11 November 2017. Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar8. Between Ultimate Sacrifice and Yearning for DeathOnline publication date: Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar9. BibliographieOnline publication date: Go to citation Crossref Google ScholarErwin Flaxman10. The Cambridge Spies: Treason and Transformed Ego IdealsOnline publication date: 30 August 2010. Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar11. Idealization, Splitting, and the Challenge of HomophobiaOnline publication date: Go to citation Crossref Google ScholarCharlotte Kahn12. Culture EndangeredOnline publication date: 16 April 2008. Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar13. “Other”-Less, “Other”-More, “Other”-Like: A Response to DiscussionsOnline publication date: Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar14. Father regression: Clinical narratives and theoretical reflectionsOnline publication date: 31 December 2017. Go to citation Crossref Google Scholar Volume 93Issue 2Apr 2006 Information© N.P.A.P.PDF download

Faith in Nature: Environmentalism as Religious Quest

Faith in Nature: Environmentalism as Religious Quest

Book Review: Faith in Nature: Environmentalism as Religious Quest

Book Review: Faith in Nature: Environmentalism as Religious Quest

Faith in Nature: Environmentalism as Religious Quest

Faith in Nature: Environmentalism as Religious Quest

Lancelot und der Gral by Hans-Hugo Steinhoff (review)

856 Reviews most serious indicator of the poet's 'literary ineptitude and lack of control' (p. 276), but also notes that the body of vernacular homiletic material on which this poet was drawing is unlikely to have been available in a particularly coherent or well-structured form. By way of contrast, Wells draws on the Old English homiletic corpus of i^Elfric of Eynsham, which has been organized by 'a single tidy mind' (p. 266). However, although Wells makes no claims for any particular aesthetic merits in this text, he clearly communicates enthusiasm for the intellectual challenges which it poses?and his groundwork will be invaluable to future readers engaging with these challenges. Oriel College, Oxford Annette Volfing Lancelot und der Gral, vols I and ii (=Prosalancelot, vols in and iv). Ed. and trans. by Hans-Hugo Steinhoff. (Bibliothek des Mittelalters, 16 and 17) Frankfurt a.M.: Deutscher Klassiker Verlag. 2003. 2 vols; 853 and 977 pp. ?154. ISBN 3618 -66160-6. With these two volumes the new five-volume edition ofthe monumental Prosalancelot is carried a long step forward afterthe firsttwo volumes (reviewed in MLR, 92 (1997), 782-83). Whereas the firsttwo volumes were devoted to Lancelot and Guinevere, those under review shift the emphasis to Lancelot and the Grail. The basis of the German text is the Lancelot and Grail romance cycle, composed in Northern France between 1215 and 1230 as a trilogy and made up of the Lancelot propre, the Queste del Saint Graal, and the Mort le RoiArtu. Only this trilogy was translated into German, whereas the French cycle also contains the Estoire del Saint Graal and the Estoire de Merlin. In dividing the firstfour volumes of this edition into two pairs (Lancelot und Ginover and Lancelot und der Gral) Steinhoff acknowledges that he is following a lead given by Elspeth Kennedy, who divided the French work into 'Lancelot without the Grail' and 'Lancelot with the Grail'. In these two volumes the story moves onto significantly new ground. In them the role of the saviour hero is taken over from Lancelot by a new Grail hero, Galaad, which also amounts thematically to a change of focus from Lancelot's sinful love for Arthur's queen to a religious quest for the Grail made up of episodes of a markedly legendary nature. At the same time, tensions growingly apparent in the Arthurian world, especially in the figure of Mordret, prepare the way for the death of Arthur, the culminating theme of Volume v. As was the case with the firsttwo volumes, the text is provided with a commentary, amounting usefully to as many as 210 pages, fully 189 of which are devoted to clarifying individual words or passages. This is somewhat less than in the earlier volumes, but understandably so in the light of earlier detailed explanations. The rest of the commentary section is given over to separate points: the nature of the German text, its layout in this edition, variant readings, and corrections to Volumes 1 and 11. As with Kluge's earlier edition, the basis of this edition is the Heidelberg manuscript, even though this is incomplete, lacking about one-tenth of the French text. To fill this gap Steinhoff reverts to MS a (from the Bibliotheque de l'Arsenal de Paris), whereas Kluge had fallen back on MS k (from Cologne). This stopgap solution has the unfortunate result of producing a disparate textual basis, made up of an older and a later manuscript tradition. This is the price that has to be paid to remedy the gap, and is to some extent more acceptable if account is taken of the chronological spread of all the German Prosalancelot manuscripts, ranging from the thirteenth to the sixteenth century. It is certainly preferable to Kluge's summary account of the French text to fillthe gap. Again as with the opening volumes, cross-references to the French text (in the edition by Alexandre Micha, Lancelot, roman en prose du XIIIe siecle, 8 vols (Paris MLRy 100.3, 2005 857 and Geneva: Droz), 1978-82)) are helpfully provided in the margin of the German text, but the reader is not so well served in his wish to correlate this...

:Faith in Nature: Environmentalism as Religious Quest.Foreword by William Cronon. (Weyerhaeuser Environmental Books.)

:Faith in Nature: Environmentalism as Religious Quest.<i>Foreword by William Cronon. (Weyerhaeuser Environmental Books.)</i>

Faith in Nature: Environmentalism as Religious Quest

Review: Faith in Nature: Environmentalism as Religious Quest By Thomas R. Dunlap Reviewed by Carter Meland University of Minnesota, USA Thomas R. Dunlap. Faith in Nature: Environmentalism as Religious Quest. Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 2004. 224 pp. ISBN: 0-295- 98397-3 (cloth). US$24.95. Recycled, acid-free paper. Is environmentalism a religion? It promotes standards of ethical behavior for the morally righteous (who intone the mantra of reduce, reuse, recycle, sometimes with the fervor of a snakehandler speaking in tongues) and it advises that we should stand humble before Creation—even if there may not be a Creator, acknowledging our insignificance in a grand design we can only assume is at work. In Faith in Nature, Thomas Dunlap has written an academic, intellectual history of the (largely Euro-) American environmental movement. His book explores the origins of Euro-American environmentalism, looking at the nexus of scientific materialism and romantic transcendentalism that informed environmentalists like Thoreau, Leopold, and Carson in their work. Dunlap proposes that the environmental movement seeks to resolve the tension between science and religion, “offering material explanations,” as he informs us, “but looking beyond facts towards meaning” (p. 149). The drive toward meaning is what makes environmentalism a religious quest in Dunlap’s estimation. It seeks to use scientific facts in order to mobilize a transformation of society, to save the world. The transformative goal of environmentalism is what makes it religious. Every movement needs its histories, and in the turn to a religious perspective Dunlap examines a fruitful area for further inquiry in American environmentalism. The book’s discussion of the historical roots of the movement is in-depth, perhaps too much so to those with more than a passing knowledge of the subject. On the other hand, Dunlap’s discussion in the latter half of the book about the penetration of environmental ethics into everyday life is much stronger. He explores the ways in which the idea that nature is sacred, not just a resource, enters public discourse in the latter 20th century through the campaigns of the environmental movement, finding hope in the idea that the movement is changing American culture, even if it has yet to transform it. In the end Dunlap prescribes the need for an environmental myth to counter the American myth of rugged individualism and the exploitation of nature.

Searching High and Lo: Unholy Quests for Lolita

is that most American of tales, a travel narrative. Maps, motels, tourist traps, and scenic viewpoints fill the novel, while issues of displacement and movement drive the narrative as a whole. Yet is more than a simple recounting of Humbert Humbert's travel fetish: this American journey is the final stage in a pilgrimage, a heroic quest of sorts. By casting Humbert's murder confession as a travel journal, Nabokov is able to chart Humbert's movements through time and space as a lifelong ritual of devotion. Humbert crosses Europe, the Atlantic, and America on an unholy quest for his child ideal. Both the comedy and the pathos of come from Nabokov's treatment of that pilgrimage. In its interwoven structure, language, and most of all in its subject, follows the pattern of a quest narrative, moving toward, circling, and moving away from the nymphet at its center. That very object of desire, of course, dooms the quest from the beginning. Young Dolores Haze is a flawed idol: she is 12 years old, four feet ten in one sock (9) and related to Humbert by marriage. She has an agenda and itinerary all her own, which add both sorrow and slapstick to this pilgrimage. While his murder confession seems to follow the pattern of the knight's crusade, Humbert's unique obsessions transform his wanderlust into an unholy quest for his nymphet grail. Given that this is a pilgrim's story, the central motif of can only be travel. Humbert's chaotic, confused, and circuitous tale employs the devices and desires of the quest narrative both to invoke and to guard against the nymphet at its heart. From John Ray Jr.'s preambulatory preface to Vladimir Nabokov's postpartum essay On a Book Entitled circumambulation and interruption move the narrative by fits and starts through Humbert's case history. (1) opening passage of Humbert's confession (the novel proper, so to speak) establishes this trope of movement. By using a nearly palindromic structure, Humbert is able to voyage round his nymphet in one short paragraph: Lolita, light of my life, fire of my loins. My sin, my soul. Lo-lee- ta: the tip of the tongue taking a trip of three steps down the palate to tap, at three, on the teeth. Lee. Ta. (9) While most readers linger over the luxuriously alliterative opening lines, Humbert's true message lies in the syncopated hopscotch of the second half of the paragraph. From Lolita to Lo. Lee.Ta.--from the annunciatory Lo across the medial lees to a Ta of farewell, the novel is writ small in this ringing invocation. Such circuitry follows the geometry of classical journey narratives: the hero's cycle, Dante's helical inferno, the symmetry of and return, and so forth. (2) It also presents the first (and last) of Humbert's ritual circumambulations of his idol. In such repetitions, Humbert sanctifies his quest. As the passing references in the preface to the deaths of all of the major characters establish, the narrative is one that finds its end in its beginning and vice versa. feminine mystique Humbert casts his lifelong journey in the form of a grail quest, a crusade for his nymphet ideal. Structurally, quest and pilgrimage narratives fall into a conveniently Aristotelian tripartite sequence of call to action, journey, and return. Norma Lorre Goodrich explains that the paradigmatic grail quest is an of mystique, focused in equal parts on mystery and veneration (xxiii). In the literature of the European middle ages the grail quest or pilgrimage is often focused on a woman, (3) whether she be Mary, mother of God, or Guinevere, idol of the idylls. engagement of pilgrims with a blessed feminine raises complex questions of divine and human love, and within Christian Europe gave rise to both the courtly love tradition and the spiritual tourist trade. (4) Novel theorist Oliver Lovesy traces such questing from the tradition of knight- or saint-errantry to the delusional Quixote: The journey of the Cervantean Quixote is an aestheticized religious quest transmogrified in the knight's imagination into a refined erotic adventure (375). …