263 - A Taste of Water: Christianity Through Taoist-Buddhist Eyes

A Taste of Water: Christianity Through Taoist-Buddhist Eyes
By Chwen Jiuan A. Lee and Thomas G. Hand
New York, Paulist, 1990. 224 pp. $9.95.

Thomas Hand is an American Jesuit who has lived for many years in Japan; Chwen Jiuan A. Lee (“Sister Agnes”) is a Taiwanese member of the Missionary Sisters of the Immaculate Conception. Through a series of linked autobiographical reminiscences and theological meditations, they show in this book how their own religious lives as Christians have been given new depth and meaning by their exposure to Taoism and Buddhism. Their goal is to present Christianity through the lens of these Asian traditions, and by so doing to encourage other Christians to see their own tradition and practice in new ways.

This is not a book for scholars; they will be frustrated by the authors' lack of interest in distinguishing Taoism from Buddhism, and by their easy dismissal of difficult conceptual and theological problems. But it is a book for serious Christians with time and willingness to contemplate the spiritual possibilities present in an attempt to reconceive God, Christ, and the practice of Christianity. It is, in short, a work of popular ascetical theology presented as spiritual autobiography whose major aim is to broaden and deepen the spiritual lives of Christians.

Paul J. Griffiths,
The Divinity School, University of Chicago,
Chicago, Ill.