Traditions in Contact and Change: Selected Proceedings of the XIVth Congress of the International Association for the History of Religions

Brian Champion was Reference Librarian, Humanities and Social Sciences Library, University of Alberta, Edmonton.

Slater and Wiebe have compiled a formidable collection of writing, the thoughtful product of the XIVth Congress of the International Association for the History of Religions held in Winnipeg in August 1980. While a disclaimer in the Preface seems to apologize for the preponderance of North American conference attendees, the Proceedings is a tantalizing anthology coursing the breadth of religious history. Five sections cover: Indian religious traditions and western interaction; Buddhist, Chinese, and Japanese studies; Mediterranean cultures; Islamic, African, and American Indian developments; and a final section of methodological and theoretical discussions. The authors are scholars from various parts of the world and a complete reading of this volume requires knowledge of German, French, and Italian.

It is difficult to summarize in limited space the essays and articles Slater and Wiebe have selected.

This volume is a smorgasbord of readings, offering a variety of topics from which the reader may choose to nibble or to indulge. Its size does not lend the book to quick perusal, but as an offering of “state-of-the-art” religious historic research and writing it is excellent. Recommended for all academic libraries and for serious scholars.