356 - The Quest for Human Unity: A Religious History

The Quest for Human Unity: A Religious History

By Joseph Mitsuo Kitagawa

Minneapolis, Fortress Press, 1990. 289 Pp. $16.95.

The very title of this book suggests a project of quite awesome magnitude, and, indeed, it is that. The reader should be advised, however, that this volume is not about Kitagawa's own proposals in relation to such a quest. Subtitled "A Religious History," it is a far-ranging and comprehensive study of how people from different cultures at different ages and stages have projected ways of thinking about human unity, both theologically and politically. These he describes as "... the persistent longings of various people, religions, and cultures for a glimpse of the vision of unity." One of the most important contributions of this study is Kitagawa's repeated lifting up of H. Richard Niebuhr's distinction between the "inner" and "outer" meanings of religious traditions in particular and of religion in general. Through this, he links the vision of a religious community with the ways in which its people have actually lived out that vision in history.

It would be difficult to think of anyone better suited to undertake this very considerable task. Joseph Kitagawa, who taught for thirty-five years at the University of Chicago and was for ten years Dean of its Divinity School, is without question one of the premier historians of religion today. As few other scholars are able to do, he moves with ease through historical, cultural, and religio-political complexities, presenting the reader with a very substantial amount of material in a volume of moderate size. There are few major cultures or religious traditions in

358 - The Quest for Human Unity: A Religious History

the history of the known world that do not receive at least brief mention here, and he treats squarely the complexity that has long faced scholars doing comparative studies that some religions have been reified into traditions that we can identify and name, while others are really aspects of civilizations that can best be identified by a geographical designation.

One of the virtues of this study-its range-is also a potential liability for the reader who may not have some nodding acquaintance with human religious history. Kitagawa moves us through so many cultures and ages with such speed that even one familiar with much of the material may find it a little breathtaking. And it is inevitable that this march through history allows for only the briefest presentation of factual materials with little time for interpretation. Once having made this encyclopedic presentation, however, Kitagawa then offers what is the original and most engaging part of the book in a section entitled "The Search for a New Synthesis." There he seems to relax a bit and really develop this theme. He reveals what may be implicit throughout his work, that one of his purposes in writing this book is to expose to Western (primarily Christian) readers the many forms of imperialism that our relations with the rest of the world have taken and how others have fashioned their responses to that imperialism. He does this not blatantly, as characterizes some writers today, but with erudition and persuasive finesse, and adds some striking information about Western treatment of Asians to our growing understanding of the many dimensions of racism.

K'itagawa is a fine scholar who is able to bring the resources gained over a lifetime of work to bear on a complex and intriguing issue. Most of his references, it should be noted, are more than twenty years old; one might wish that he had taken more account of some of the fine studies in the area of history of religions that have been done more recently. Nonetheless, his ability to order and to interpret this material is impressive, particularly his weaving of theological conceptions of unity, which at times might better be expressed as universality, with political visions. As he proceeds through this great amount of material he does return now and then to information presented earlier by way of illustration and comparison, giving the work, as a whole, a tightness that may not be immediately evident.

This book should surely be recommended reading for students of the history of religions, comparative religion, and Christian history and theology. Parts, if not all, might be used by church congregations interested in a serious investigation of the inner and outer dimensions of human religious experience.

JANE I. SMITH

Iliff School of Theology
Denver, Colorado