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Religious Foundations of Western Civilization ed Jacob Neusner. Pub Abingdon Press/Alban Books, pp600, ISBN 0-687-33202-8, £19.99
In discussions on the relationship between religion and culture it is often assumed Christianity and Western civilization are coterminous. Theologians from Africa and Asia remind us that the Christianity found in the Western world should not be seen as the only valid form of the religion; it is also a mistake to see Christianity as the only religion that has influenced the development of Western Civilization. Judaism and, to a lesser extent, Islam, have played an important part. This is a matter of historical record.
But it is all too easy to lapse into a sloppy piece of inter faith advocacy that overstates other religions contribution at the expense of Christianity; as one finds for example in some commentaries on the period when Spain was under Muslim rule.
Religious Foundations of Western Civilization is not such a book: it is a balanced and fair study of the subject that should be on the reading list of every student of theology or indeed anyone who cares deeply about the past, present and future of our society. The book is a collection of articles on a range of issues by distinguished scholars in the field.
After an initial introduction the articles are divided into five sections: ‘Religions of the West’; ‘Historical Common Interests’; ‘Historical Encounters’; ‘Modernity and the West: Negotiating Change’; and ‘Religion and Western Civilization in the Twenty-First Century’. At the end of each article are questions for discussion which not only assist the thinking around the subject but also make the book a useful resource for group work.
Of course these are huge subject areas and each essay gives only an introduction to the subject, but this book would be a useful starting point for anyone wishing to explore these matters in more detail. What makes the book particularly useful is that it gives a very broad account of the nature of the inter-religious encounter covering theology, philosophy, spirituality, history and politics.
One could not expect a single book to be exhaustive on this vast subject and, if one wanted to be churlish, one could complain about the absence of a detailed study of the role of trade in communicating different religious ideas or the way the three faiths have impacted on each other (positively and negatively) through art, music and literature. But these omissions are not a serious criticism and do not detract from praise for this important and indispensable study.
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