A Study Guide to Non-christian Religions

Many of the books on world religions that are being published in the United States are blatantly inaccurate or deceptively superficial. They continue to convey impressions of such non-existent entities as the “Eastern Mind” or the “Indian Mind” or the “Buddhist Mind.” Writers on the various religions of the world also tend to portray “Hinduism” or “Buddhism,” for example, as monolithic entities that happen to agree with the author’s own outlook, which often may be included under twentieth-century scientism or mysticism. The uninformed reader then may take the author’s religious stance as true of all “Hindus” or all “Buddhists.” In this survey I will give my choices—i.e., those of one historian of Asian religions—of works that ought to be read by those who want reasonably accurate portrayals of non-Christian religions.

There are two large texts that I consider the best one-volume introductions to the religions of the world. The first is by one author, John B. Noss: Man’s Religions (Macmillan, 1974). Now in its fifth edition, it is still going strong. The second has the advantage of being written by various experts who handle their specialties: Religion and Man, edited by W. Richard Comstock (Harper & Row, 1971). Both are reliable beginnings in the field.

A recent well-publicized book is an aesthetically pleasing (more than 250 photographs) work by Walter Kaufmann entitled Religions in Four Dimensions: Existential, Aesthetic, Historical, Comparative (Reader’s Digest, distributed by Crowell, 1976). Historical elements are often astutely interpreted, but with the author’s explicit emphasis on the “existential,” “aesthetic,” and “comparative,” one finds a subtle critique of the religions on the basis of a twentieth-century, Western, atheistic, Jewish, humanistic standpoint.

RELIGION IN INDIA By far the best introduction to the religions of India is the relevant section by Robert D. Baird in Religion and Man. It and the sections on China and Japan have been printed in a paperback volume, Indian and Far Eastern Religious Traditions, by Robert D. Baird and Alfred Bloom (Harper & Row, 1972). The section on India contains a wealth of material, and the author attempts to present the religions objectively. Regrettably, the China and Japan sections, though less technical, are unduly colored by Bloom’s world view.

Libraries should have the five-volume work by S. N. Dasgupta, A History of Indian Philosophy (Cambridge, 1922–69), which is unequaled in scholarship by any other introduction to Indian philosophy. The quickest way into the texts of India is through Radhakrishnan and Moore, A Sourcebook in Indian Philosophy (Princeton, 1957), though the introductions to the texts at times tell one more about Radhakrishnan’s thought than that of the texts themselves. Special studies abound, but one must be cautious in taking the views of members of any one Hindu group as if they were representative of the whole Hindu tradition. I have had them approach me with erroneous claims for their books (“This is the most important text in Hinduism,” or “This is the first English translation of this text”). The most popular Indian text in the West is probably the Bhagavad Gita. Translations abound, but some even change literal meanings of the Gita to their opposites! The most literal translation and the most beautiful according to Sanskritists is Franklin Edgerton, The Bhagavad Gita (Harvard, 1972).

RELIGION IN CHINA The religions of China have been harder to grasp because a number of Chinese scholars, influenced by nineteenth-century rationalism, believed that there were no religions in China, just philosophies. However, C. K. Yang in Religion in Chinese Society (University of California, 1970) has successfully disagreed with this position in a book that surveys Chinese religion with a functionalist sociological analysis. Fung Yu-Lan, A Short History of Chinese Philosophy (Free Press, 1966), is still a good paperback introduction to traditional Chinese thought. For a very readable survey see H. G. Creel, Chinese Thought From Confucius to Mao Tse-tung (New American Library, 1971). A recent introduction that relies heavily upon Yang’s work is the small paperback by Laurence G. Thompson, Chinese Religion: An Introduction (second edition, Dickenson, 1975). Libraries will want to have the classic two-volume history of Chinese thought on which Fung Yu-Lan’s Short History is based, A History of Chinese Philosophy (Princeton, 1952).

Translations of Chinese texts sell well on the American scene as do those of Indian religious texts. Most are translated in terms of modern, Western interpretations, especially the I Ching and the Tao-te-ching. Starting with Wing-tsit Chan, A Source Book in Chinese Philosophy (Princeton, 1963), is advisable. His annotated bibliography can lead one into good translations of other texts. Another good but different source book is by Laurence G. Thompson, The Chinese Way in Religion (Dickenson, 1973). Its emphasis is on many of the texts that Chan ignores probably because he thought them less philosophically significant.

For religion in the People’s Republic of China, a valuable documentary history is Donald E. MacInnis, Religious Policy and Practice in Communist China (Macmillan, 1972). The thought of the late Chinese leader Mao Tse-tung can be probed through the collection of “philosophical essays” in Four Essays on Philosophy (Foreign Languages Press, 1968). Remember when reading Mao that his earlier works were made to conform to his latest opinions, though they kept their original date.

RELIGION IN JAPAN Japanese religions have often been overshadowed in scholarship by Chinese religions but have recently become more popular in the West. The most complete and up-to-date account of Japanese religion in one volume is Joseph M. Kitagawa, Religion in Japanese History (Columbia University, 1968). A smaller but also thorough account is H. Byron Earhart, Japanese Religion: Unity and Diversity (second edition, Dickenson, 1974). On Japanese folk religion, Ichiro Hori, Folk Religion in Japan (University of Chicago, 1974), is a perceptive historical study.

The best-known Japanese religion in the West is probably Zen, popularized here by Allan Watts and D. T. Suzuki. Watts is superficial in his work and more mystical than historical. Suzuki promulgated a type of Zen (Rinzai) that was less popular in Japan than other schools of thought, yet more popular in the West. The standard handbook is the reprint of Charles Eliot, Japanese Buddhism (Barnes and Noble, 1967). For an introduction to Japanese texts, begin with the first volume of Sources of Japanese Tradition, edited by William Theodore de-Bary (Columbia University, 1958), or with H. Byron Earhart, Religion in the Japanese Experience: Sources and Interpretations (Dickenson, 1973).

The modern Japanese religious scene is accurately surveyed in a good introduction to the so-called new religions, H. Neill McFarland, The Rush Hour of the Gods (Harper & Row, 1970).

RELIGION IN AFRICA This field of study has exploded in the last few years. Quite a bit of what is written by African writers attempts to show that African religions are as good as any other, yet interprets them in terms of other religions, not regarding them as they have traditionally regarded themselves. A good one-volume survey of the elements of religion in Africa is Benjamin C. Ray, African Religions: Symbol, Ritual, and Community (Prentice-Hall, 1976). Ray interprets the possible polytheistic elements in psychological terms, however. For the variety of religion among the peoples of Africa, one might read the technical collection of essays by anthropologists edited by Daryll Forde, African Worlds: Studies in the Cosmological Ideas and Social Values of African Peoples (Oxford, 1954).

Many studies of the religions of individual African peoples are available, but they are quite uneven in value. Ray’s bibliography would be helpful here. Written texts are absent in this tradition, but Aylward Shorter’s study of African prayers—Prayer in the Religious Traditions of Africa (Oxford, 1975)—is quite revealing. Modern developments involve revolution and the reaction to Islam and Christianity. See Robert I. Rotberg, editor, Rebellion in Black Africa (Oxford, 1971), and R. C. Mitchell and H. W. Turner, Bibliography of Modern African Religious Movements (Northwestern University, 1967).

ISLAM The classic introduction to Islam is still H. A. R. Gibb’s work, Mohammedanism: An Historical Survey (New American Library, 1953), even though its title is rejected by Muslims because they do not worship Muhammad. Another good introduction is Alfred Guillaume, Islam (Penguin, 1956). A contemporary Muslim, Fazlur Rahman, also has written an introduction that is interesting because one can see how a modern Muslim thinker interprets and reinterprets his tradition: Islam (Doubleday, 1967). For a sympathetic yet scholarly treatment of Muhammad’s controversial life, read W. Montgomery Watt, Muhammad: Prophet and Statesman (Oxford, 1961). The importance of Islamic thought for the understanding of the history of Christian philosophy needs to be emphasized. The best introduction to Islamic philosophy is Majid Fakhry, A History of Islamic Philosophy (Columbia University, 1970).

Anthologies of Muslim texts continue to be disappointing in their scope. Islam from the Prophet Muhammad to the Capture of Constantinople (Harper & Row, 1973), a two-volume paperback set edited by Bernard Lewis, is more cultural than theological. An older collection of writings in the so-called Sunni or “orthodox” tradition is Islam: Muhammad and His Religion, edited by Arthur Jeffery (Bobbs-Merrill, 1958). Translations of the Qur’an (or Koran) abound even though the Sunnis discourage its translation from Arabic. The standard translation is still that of A. J. Arberry, The Koran Interpreted (Macmillan, 1964). The rise in interest in mystical experience has brought Islamic mysticism (Sufism) to the fore. Idres Shah has become a modern popularizer of the movement, declaring it the essence of Islam and all other religions. A valuable introduction is A. J. Arberry, Sufism, An Account of the Mystics of Islam (Harper & Row, 1963). No recent work deals carefully with modern Islam. Still valuable is Wilfred C. Smith, Islam in Modern History (Harper & Row, 1959). On modern Islamic thought, three thinkers are featured in Sheila McDonough, The Authority of the Past: A Study of Three Muslim Modernists (Scholars Press, 1970).

POST-BIBLICAL JUDAISM Histories of Jewish thought are abundant. A thorough study is Julius Guttman, Philosophies of Judaism (Schocken, 1973). A study with an emphasis upon Jewish rational traditions is Jacob Neusner, The Way of Torah: An Introduction to Judaism (second edition, Dickenson, 1970). The classic history of the Jews is Max Margolis and Alexander Marx, A History of the Jewish People (Atheneum, 1927), though also valuable and more up to date is the revised edition of Cecil Roth, A History of the Jews From Earliest Times Through the Six Day War (Schocken, 1970).

Rabbinic Judaism is surveyed in George Foot Moore’s classic work, now in a two-volume paperback edition, Judaism in the First Centuries of the Christian Era (Harvard University, 1927–30). Moore’s work has been surpassed, however, by recent scholarship. His “normative Judaism” portrays a unity where there was diversity. Probably better is Solomon Schechter, Aspects of Rabbinic Theology (Schocken, 1961), a readable, sympathetic, yet accurate account. Still the best introduction to medieval Jewish thought is Isaac Husik, A History of Mediaeval Jewish Philosophy (Harper & Row, 1940), which needs to be supplemented with Gershom G. Scholem, Major Trends in Jewish Mysticism (Schocken, 1961). Scholem has shown that the mystical element has existed throughout the history of Judaism.

The best way to get into the rabbinic writings is through C. G. Montefiore and H. Loewe, A Rabbinic Anthology (Schocken, 1974). The comments on the text enable one to see how an “Orthodox Jew” (Loewe) and a leader of English Reform Judaism (Montefiore) interpret the tradition. Volumes III and IV of B’nai B’rith’s Great Book Series offer the quickest introduction to modern Jewish thought. The third volume is an introduction by Simon Noveck to twentieth-century thinkers, Great Jewish Thinkers of the Twentieth Century, and the fourth is an anthology of their writings edited by Noveck, Contemporary Jewish Thought: A Reader (both B’nai B’rith, 1963). Volume two of this paperback series fills the gap between medieval and contemporary thinkers: Great Jewish Personalities of Modern Times, also edited by Noveck (1959).

COMPARATIVE RELIGIONS Whether a book that compares other religions with one’s own is satisfactory or not depends upon how one defines one’s own position. Those who deny particularity to Christianity would like Paul Tillich, Christianity and the Encounter of the World Religions (Columbia University, 1963). Tillich’s approach is analyzed as follows by the Cambridge philosopher of religion H. D. Lewis:

“This is where I think contemporary Christian apologists fall into such grievous error. For in seeking, in appallingly short-sighted ways, to come to terms with prevailing fashions of thought, they have shown themselves willing, even anxious, to dispense with the element of particularity in distinctively Christian claims. Subjecting the faith to a vague attenuation, in the hope of making it acceptable to agnostics and atheists, baptizing much of it to undiluted humanist terms, they have also, in many instances, treated the alleged particularity of Christian affirmations as provisional and of limited significance. The supreme example of this is Paul Tillich, who, not content with extreme evasiveness and obscurity in the course of being all things to all men, unbelievers included, has latterly shown himself equally anxious to be all things to all religions” (H. D. Lewis and Robert L. Slater, The Study of Religions, Penguin, 1966, p. 207). Lewis goes so far as to claim two pages later that Tillich’s place is among Hindus and not Christians.

Much error has been presented in the name of comparative religions by both universalists and particularists. One wonders if the universalists have not been more guilty because they often ignore obvious differences in order to bring everyone into the Kingdom. Christians ought to read a collection of writings by modern Hindus, Buddhists, Jews, and Muslims in which they present their views of Christianity, Christianity: Some Non-Christian Appraisals, edited by David W. McKain (Greenwood reprint, 1976). A distinguished scholar and one of the best-known American historians of religion, Mircea Eliade, has attempted in many works to compare religions under the guise of history but in terms of the element of the sacred, so as to present a trans-historical “structure” of the sacred that he sees fulfilled in the symbols of Christianity. For his “evidence” see his Patterns in Comparative Religion (New American Library, 1958). For a quick introduction to his procedure read his Images and Symbols (Sheed, 1969). The greatest expert in comparative religions and especially the mystical in religions is R. C. Zaehner. Conservative evangelicals would probably prefer Stephen Neill, Christian Faith and Other Faiths (second edition, Oxford, 1970), or J. N. D. Anderson, Christianity and Comparative Religion (InterVarsity, 1971). Anderson has an interesting interpretation of the first two chapters of Romans. Most Christians, however, after learning about other religions, will probably join me in being dissatisfied with these comparative attempts.

Paul D. Steeves is assistant professor of history and director of Russian studies at Stetson University in Deland, Florida. He has the Ph.D. from the University of Kansas and specializes in modern Russian history.

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