Reviews for Toward a Universal Theology of Religion

The average rating for Toward a Universal Theology of Religion based on 2 reviews is 2.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2012-03-22 00:00:00 Manuel P�rez Palomo This is an excellent choice for a book to introduce people to Ancient Egypt. It definitely deserves to be better known! Though, I might note, the way it is written would be more suitable for the reading level of a teenager or adult than for children, which is probably why the book is not nearly as successful as some of the other many ancient Egypt books for young readers. An expansive amount of information is covered, perfectly accompanied by just the right ratio of illustrations and visuals to text. The detailed illustrations are great, really allowing you to visualize life in this fascinating time and place. The text is well written, even surprisingly so - with the author slipping into cinematic, prose-like descriptions at times. I could see children, however, not quite getting the writing. The vocabulary and writing style are more advanced than what you'd see in other similar books on Egyptology, which are clearly aimed at children. There is not much to suggest that here, aside from the mere presence of illustrations. There are certainly hundreds of different books for young readers about Ancient Egyptians and their daily lives, but some things stood out in this book in particular: - The book gives a more in-depth background to the actual land of Egypt than most books of its kind, highlighting the former Green Sahara, showing in illustrations how it went from a "verdant savannah" of lush waterfalls and grasslands to a rocky desert. - The excellent depiction of the three ancient Egyptian seasons - Akhet, Peret, and Shemu, which all revolved around the flooding of the Nile. I loved how a farm was shown in all three seasons, from the exact same perspective, in the different seasons. The author spends 4 full pages on the seasons, which I thought an excellent choice. I cannot remember any other 'children's' book on ancient Egypt devoting so much attention to the seasons, or even sharing their names. But since the flooding and withdrawing of the Nile was such a massive, integral part of every ancient Egyptian's lives, this seemed very fitting. - The illustrations depicted a more realistic ancient Egypt than many other illustrated Egyptology books, which normally show impeccably clean streets and spotless houses. In these illustrations, things seemed a bit more real; the artist was willing to include imperfections such as muddy puddles, chipping plaster on walls, dead plants, and clutter. The only questionable or potentially erroneous fact that I caught was, the book states that there were "no slaves in Egypt," which is misleading and simply not true. The author goes on to immediately clarify that the concept of slavery was different in ancient Egypt - slaves were not believed to be inanimate objects, and some people chose to sell themselves into slavery, since they still retained rights. He also hints that all slaves were, thus, well treated and given those rights. While slaves were, in theory, better treated in ancient Egypt, a slave is a slave, and common sense tells us that we cannot simply airbrush over that fact. Also, similarly, the author states in another section of the book that all foreign emissaries "serve the Pharaoh obediently." Surely an oversimplification. All in all, this is a great book about one of the most fascinating cultures to have ever existed.

Review # 2 was written on 2012-01-29 00:00:00 Jesse Zacson A fantastic read and take on comparative study on religions. A must read... Balagangadhara discusses the twin dynamic of Christianity of proselytization and secularization; how the West remains a religious culture; how the secular state may provoke religious conflict in a predominantly pagan milieu like India; how Indians lack normative thinking; and how the criterion of reasonableness in normative political theory is only accessible to those who share a common Western history. The Heathen told us how a comparative science of cultures would look like by plotting the differences between the Western and an Asian culture, the Indian. Reconceptualizing takes that agenda further through a number of contemporary problems on which further light is shed when they are recast as part of a larger comparative science of cultures. The promise of the first is partly fulfilled in the second, but much more clearly remains to be done. The books under review should constitute a serious challenge, but they are also an inspiration.