Reviews for Letters of an English Traveler to His Friend in England: On the Revivals of Religion, in Ame...

The average rating for Letters of an English Traveler to His Friend in England: On the Revivals of Religion, in Ame... based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2015-10-25 00:00:00 Stuart Bazzle Hippies were far from being the first tree-huggers in history, as this condensed yet comprehensive study from 1897 well illustrates. In fact, joking aside, tree-worship is as ancient and pervasive as any kind of worship. Certainly from the earliest records of recorded history, such as those found in Assyrian or Chaldaean sources, the scared tree seemed to hold a central position. Trees could either represent or house gods, such as the oak tree for the earliest incarnation of Zeus at Dodona; could do the same for spirits, such as the jinni of Arabia and hamadryads of Greece. Trees have also played a significant role in myths about the creation of the human race, such as the story of Mashya and Mashyana in Zoroastrian cosmogony, and Ask and Embla in Norse myth - where the first man and woman in both instances were born out of trees. Then there are the examples of the universal-tree, which supports and nourishes the world, a common concept held by diverse cultures, from East to West, of which the most renowned version is the Norse tree, Yggdrasil. Gardens filled with trees are the usual settings for paradise, such as the Elysian Fields, Eden, the Islamic Jannah and Avalon. Originally gods resided there, then later the deserving dead. Trees were also associated with oracles, which originated in the oldest idea that gods dwelt in certain trees. As Philpot notes, with some contempt of the practice, the 'divining-rod is the meagre survival of the once renowned tree-oracle.' She finishes off her study with a quick look at two of the more modern forms of tree-worship, the May-day and Christmas celebrations, both pagan in origin, one suppressed by Christianity, the other adopted. Very informative on its subject but, the above zinger at the expense of water-divining aside, short on enlivening commentary.

Review # 2 was written on 2013-05-19 00:00:00 Jeffrey Christopher Overall, it's an awesome book if you wanna to know something about religion in China. Among the articles, I find Dru Gladey(?)'s article on Chinese Islam in XingJiang very helpful: it parses out the nuanced differences as well as relations among religion, ethnicity, and citizenship. It's a messy one but Dru did a great job in teasing out all the important factors. Ashiwa's introduction is top quality as well, an in-depth analysis of politics and religions in their co-constitutive formations. I will resort to this book later (especially the bibliographies) for further information.