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The Quest : History and Meaning in Religion.MIRCEA ELIADE. Chicago: University

of Chicago Press, 1969. 180 pp., index,n.p. cloth).

R e v ie w e d b y WILLIAM A LESSAUniversity o California os Angeles

We have com e to e xpe ct th at when Mir-cea Eliade publishes a “new” book it islikely to have already seen the light of d ay insome other language or under some othertitle. Interesting probing of his publicationrecord could be done; indeed, a prominent

anthropologist has already do ne so in ahighly critical review that reveals the repe-titive and interlocking character of his vol-umes. The Quest is no exception, exceptthat it is a collection of sometimes revisedessays, all but one of which have alreadyappeared in print, either in English orFrench. Th e lone exception is “Prolego-menon to Religious Dualism: Dyads andPolarities,” and is by far the lengthiest of thelot. What ties the eight essays together is adefense of the Religionswissenschaft or“history of religions” approach, as well as ademonstration of that approach, especiallyinsofar as it pertains to the symbolic meansfor establishing communication betw een thesacred and t he profane.

Eliade is an avowed anti-positivist andmakes an urgent plea for the recognition ofthe history of religions as the basis out ofwhich new human ism could develop,saying that one must know the religioussources of values in order to understandthem “A New Humanism”). He follows thiswith an historical review of his discipline buthe tries to cover too much in too few pages“The History of Religions in Retrospect:

1912 and After”). He maintains that thereare fo ur different approaches to th e stud y ofreligion-sociological, ethnolo gical, psych o-logical, historical. It would seem that forEliade functionalism does not exist. He de-

votes only one sentenc e in his whole book toRadcliffe-Brown and none to W. LloydWarner, which might seem forgivable in asmall book except that he otherwise dropsnames lavishly. He places most of his stresson Continental writers. The third essay isone of the best. It begins with Renaissanceman’s longing for a primordial revelation as

eligion

64

hoped for in hermetism, and races in se

quence through the beginnings of com-

parative religions; m aterialism, spiritism, an dtheoso phy; and the obsession w ith origins ofsuch men as Lang, Schmidt, and Marett

“The Quest for the ‘Origins of Religion’ ”).

Eliade wisely acknowledges that historiansof religion no longer try t o find th e origin ofreligion, looking instead for im por tant tr uth sabout men and man’s relation to th e sacred.The fourth essay betrays some discourage-ment about the history of religions field,which Eliade fears may leave to other dis-

ciplines the task of inte rpre ting spir itua luniverses “Crisis and Ren ewal”). A defeatistattitude, he says, stifles the potential of t h ehistory of religions to contribu te, as it can,both to the widening of th e W estern culturehorizon and to rapprochement with repre-sentatives of the oriental and archaic cul-tures.

The fif th essay turns to methodology andmaintains that we can best understand the

structure of mythical thought by studyingsuch cultures, as anthropologists have done,where m yth is no t a fiction but a living thingand is considered to reveal the truth p a rexcellence “Cosmogonic Myth and ‘SacredHistory’ ”). However, complains Eliade,most anth ropolo gists have no t been com-parative. Yet his ow n grasp of th e can ons ofthe comparative method leaves much to bedesired and hardly goes beyond the Fra-zerian stage. His use o comparison is toillustrate rather than t o generalize. T he sixthessay draws a good deal upon other writersbut is nonetheless fascinating, dealing withthe quest for an earthly paradise, the“Adamic nostalgia” of such Americanwriters as Hawthorne and Thoreau, and thesearch of the Guarani Indians for the LostParadise “Paradise and Utopia: MythicalGeography a nd Eschatology”). Here, as wells at many oth er points in the book, th e

author writes of a religious “nostalgia” forone thing o r another, such as “th e longing toreiterate the primordial totality that existedbefore the creation,” “the longing to recoverthe primordial epoch that began imme-diately a f t e r the creation,” and “nostalgiafor the final rest.” Nostalgia is never clearlydefined bu t on e gets th e uneasy impression

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RELIGION 65

that there is something Jungian and arch-

etypal about it all. The seventh essay deals

with what Eliade thinks of as the three types

of initiation and their manifestation in

Greek mystery religions, oral literature, and

the contributions of psychoanalysts andliterary critics (“Initiation and the Modern

World”). Modern man’s nostalgia for ini-

tiatory trials and scenarios “reveals [his]

longing for a total and definitive re-

newal. .capable of radically changing his

existence.” The last essay is the new one

mentioned above and deals with religious

dualism and such related problems as po-

larity, antagonism, and complementarity. It

takes recognition of Gvi-Strauss’s structural

approach but turns away from it in favor ofa “hermeneutical” effort.

One wishes that Eliade were more cau-

tious in his use and interpretation of source

materials, especially from the anthropo-

logical literature, and that he would employ

comparison in the more controlled and

sophisticated manner of current anthro-

pology. Moreover, one cannot escape the

feeling that he is much too biased by a

personal mysticism and an unjustified re-

jection of positivism t o win wide support for

many of his speculations.

Religion across Culture s: A S tu dy in theC o m m u n i c a t i o n o Christian Faith.EUGENE A. NIDA. New York Lon-

don: Harper Row, 1968. vii pp.,figures, bibliography, notes, index. 4.95

(cloth).

Rev iewed byA N N E M A R I E D E W A AL M A L E F I JT

CUNY Hunter College

Apart from his impressive linguistic

studies, Nida’s writings have been largely

directed to seminary students and mis-

sionaries. This book is no exception. The

author hopes that it will have “practical

implications” (p. vii), namely to facilitate

the spread of Christian faith, and to make itmore relevant to the needs of modern man.

Such concerns are not generally shared by

anthropologists. But it would be unjusti-

fiable-a “confusion of levels” as Wittgen-

stein would call it-to judge a theological

concern on its anthropological merits. The

interest of this book for anthropologists

rests not in its message but in Nida’s attempt

to apply his knowledge of communication

theory to the understanding of the adapta-

tion of religion to social functions and per-

sonal needs.Religious communication is the sending

of messages to supernatural entities, pre-

supposing a “sender” and a “receiver,” inthe expectation that the receiver will react

to the information and become a sender in

turn. Nida classifies supernatural receivers in

“personal” and “impersonal” powers, and he

characterizes communication with the

former as “religion” and with the latter as

“magic.” Apart from those, in some religions

man also communicates with sub-human

entities: animals, plants, and objects. In

those instances, these entities may become

part of the supernatural world: in Hinduism

the sacred cow is almost divine (p. 29).

Based on this model, Nida compares re-ligious communication systems in Hinduism,

Buddhism, Islam, and Christianity. In Hin-

duism, the Brahmin caste is the indispensible

“channel” of communication. In Buddhism,

this channel is eliminated and replaced by

self-discipline. In Islam, the channel is sub-

mission, while in Christianity the mech-

anisms of religious communication have

been different at different times, varying

according to political and cultural circum-

stances. The ideal Christian communication

is via the channel of love.

Nida’s idea of using the communication

model o a comparative level could have

been very productive, but he does not take

full advantage of its possibilities. His criteriaof comparison are seemingly arbitrary, in

any case they are not fully explained. As a

result, the scientific language appears in-

appropriate to the topic at hand, as if the

author were intent upon giving religion andmission work a scientific veneer.

Yet, it is an encouraging sign that the-

ology and anthropology are now beginning

to take notice of each other’s principles and

findings. Both disciplines will enhance their

understanding of religion through such co-operation.

Religion in Africa. GEOFFREY PARRIN-

DER. New York London: Praeger,