|
Choice
American Reference
Books Annual
Review from:
Choice, September 2001
In concise entries, usually one to three sentences
long, this work traces key events and people in development and change in
religions, and reciprocal influences between religions and societies and
cultures. It provides a chronology of historical events concerning
different religions, Paleolithic times to the present. Subject codes are
used for cross-references. Besides an index and bibliography, the work has
over 200 informational sidebars giving focused background information in
greater depth. Equal treatment is given all religions. The material
follows the format of The Wilson Chronology of Science and Technology, ed.
by George Ochoa and Melinda Corey (1997), and The Wilson Chronology of
Ideas, by the same editors (1997). Levinson, a cultural anthropologist
specializing in contemporary social issues and cross-cultural
understanding, has published extensively (Religion: A Cross-Cultural
Dictionary, CH, Jun'87)....General and academic collections.
Review
from:
American
Reference Books Annual 2002
Chronologies often appear to be useless book making
at first glance, yet such tools can prove to be very useful. The one
element missing from nearly everyone’s education is a sense of the flow
of history throughout time. It is helpful, for example, to grasp that
Plato’s birth coincided with the end of the Peloponnesian War while the
Nok culture commenced in West Africa and China’s “Warring States”
feud began. Levinson’s book does just this for the world’s religions.
Herein are included the major events in the development of the spread of
religions over all cultures. Thousands of entries detail events, people,
places, things, and cultures as the occurred simultaneously. Readers see,
for example, how the Romans, with the dominance of Christianity, ceased
using catacombs to bury their dead while Dignaga established the fourth
foundation of Mahayana Buddhist logic, and Japan’s Shintoism helped to
solidify the Yamato clan’s ruling power.
Along the way Levinson and his collaborators have
added sidebars on various forms of religions (both well known and little
known), religious movements, and religious figures. This handy tool, with
a useful index and helpful bibliography, will prove its value in spades
not only for the serious student of world religions, anthropology, or
theology, but also for the curious amateur seeking to expand their
knowledge base.
|
