referencebooks

Encyclopedia of the Vatican and Papacy

Edited by Frank J. Coppa

Published by Greenwood Press, 1999

This is a 6.5" by 9.5" hardback book running to 484 pages including the index and appendices, plus a brief preface.

The emphasis on this book, which is not stated in the title, is on the modern period, or anyway the period since the Renaissance. The preface begins, "This volume, which is a collaborative effort involving more than forty contributors from the United States and abroad, focuses on the historical, politcial, diplomatic, social, cultural, and religious role of the Vatican and the papacy in the modern world." This saves the editor from having to deal with the many uncomfortable facts about the Church during the periods of its greatest corruption and most obviously evil activities. There is plenty of evil left to talk about in the history that is covered, but, predictably, this is mostly whitewashed by the "neutral" approach of the editor. Most of the entries provide basic historical information about popes, diplomatic relations, and the organization of the Church. Some uncomfortable topics are addressed, but often more defensively than objectively (for example, apologizing for and excusing Pius XII's passive response to Hitler's crimes).

This book is a reliable source for the "official line" on papal history in the modern era, but shouldn't be relied on for more than that.

1001 Health-Care Questions Women Ask, Third Edition

By Joe S. McIlhaney Jr., M.D., Obstetrician-Gynecologist, with Susan Nethery.

Published by Baker Books, 1998.

This is a 7" by 9" paperback book running to 575 pages including a lengthy glossary and a brief index.

The intent of this book appears at first glance simply to be to provide solid, practical information on women's health to a popular audience. It is organized into three main parts, each with chapters (totaling 14), more specific topics under each chapter, and specific questions under each topic. The main parts are "The Female Body in Change," "Bearing a Child," and "Special Concerns." The fourteen chapters, with a sample topic and a question under that topic in parentheses for each, in these sections are:

1. Basic Anatomical Facts (How Female Organs Develop and Change - "How do the fallopian tubes develop from birth through menopause?")
   
2. Infant and Early Childhood Years (The "Facts of Life" - "What guidelines do you suggest for the sexual and moral development of my daughter?")
   
3. The Adolescent Years (Bulimia and Anorexia - "My daughter seems to be overly concerned about her weight. She is very thin and yet constantly talks about how fat she is. Her eating habits are strange. Could she be developing an eating disorder?")
   
4. The Reproductive Years (Endometriosis - "If I have endometriosis and want to have more children, what should be done?")
   
5. Middle Age, Menopause, and Maturity (General Health Care in Midlife - "What major health hazard should be avoided by women seeking optimum health in later years?")
   
6. Conception (XX and XY Chromosomes - "What techniques might I try so that I can increase my chances of choosing my child's gender?")
   
7. Pregnancy (Diabetes and Pregnancy - "Should I be tested for diabetes as a routine procedure if I am pregnant?")
   
8. Preparation for Childbirth (Home Births - "Is a delivery outside a hospital a good alternative to a hospital delivery?")
   
9. Labor and Delivery (Postdelivery Details in the Hospital - "Is 'rooming in' a good idea?")
   
10. Disorders of Sexual and Reproductive Organs (Problems of the Cervix - "What is leukoplakia of the cervix?")
    
11. Infertility (Emotional Support for the Infertile Couple - "Why are my husband's and my own emotions running so out of hand as we consider and work on our infertility?")
    
12. Birth Control--Temporary and Permanent (The Intrauterine Contraceptive Device - "How does an IUD affect fertility?")
    
13. Sexually Transmitted Disease (HPV--Genital Warts--Condyloma Acuminata - "How are abnormal Pap smears associated with sexually transmitted disease?")
    
14. Marial and Sexual Relationships (Some Basic Marital Principles - "When you say, 'Realize the importance of sex, does that mean you believe that a couple's sexual relationship is a primary factor in marriage?")
    

At first glance a book on women's health might seem automatically feminist, but I do find it odd how much of the book is concerned with women's roles as mother and wife. I don't think we have many resources on men's health, but I have seen Men's Health magazine, and it is not nearly so much about reproduction, fatherhood and marriage. Aren't there women's health concerns that relate specifically to work, to play and exercise, to other activities that women do?

That may not seem like a big problem to some, but looking further into the book reveals a related surprise not advertised on the front cover: this is a biblically-based book that makes frequent reference to scripture throughout, and states quite blankly that life begins at fertilization. Given that, I am surprised to find this book in our library's reference collection and I wonder if it's a case where we bought it in ignorance of its religious ideology. Now it might be said that a library collection should represent all points of view. I am not sure this is meant to apply to a reference collection, where the attempt is to provide facts, and I'm not sure that religion is appropriate in a medical text.

This book might be good for conservative Christians; others should watch out.

A Dictionary of Alchemical Imagery

By Lyndy Abraham

Published by Cambridge University Press, 1998.

This is a thin, 7" by 10" clothbound book. It runs to 249 pages including the bibliography and index of alchemical and literary authors, plus a list of figures, abbreviations, and a substantial introduction. The type is fairly small, and the margins (left margins on both left and right pages) are large and hold the entry titles.

The book is what its title says it is - a dictionary of alchemical imagery. However, a little more needs to be known about it to make use of it. Unlike many subject-oriented dictionaries, this one does not serve as an accessible introduction to the field. The entries, which can be for either terms from alchemy (processes, concepts) or names of objects used, are written for an audience that is already familiar with alchemical literature. For example, here is the the entry for sol niger:

sol niger (the black sun), symbol of the death and putrefaction of the metal, or of united *sulfur and *argent vive at the *nigredo, the initial stage of the opus alchymicum (see chemical wedding) (see fig. 38). At the nigredo the metal or matter for the Stone is 'killed' and dissolved into its *prima materia so that it may be resurrected in a new form. At the death of the matter, darkness reigns. The light of the sun (gold) is said to be put out, totally eclipsed (see eclipse). Artephius wrote: 'But first this Sol by putrefaction and resolution in this water, loseth all its light or brightneess and will grow dark and black' (SB, 4).

Asterisks in the above entry indicate terms discussed elsewhere in the book.

Contemporary interest in alchemy tends to be literary, psychological and spiritual; no one today believes in it the way the alchemists did, but find humanistic significance in what they were up to. Carl Jung's approach to it in his Mysterium Conjunctionis is instructive (though that book is not listed in the bibliography of this dictionary). So this book, which is classified in the PN's in our collection, could be of use to students of literature, history, religion, psychology, or, because of the focus on imagery, art. It's an interesting book but one that would have to be used by someone with background knowledge or in conjunction with a more introductory text.

Historical Dictionary of New Religious Movements

By George D. Chryssides

Published by Scarecrow Press, 2001 as number 42 in their series, "Historical Dictionaries of Religions, Philosophies, and Movements."

This is a 6" by 9" clothbound book running to 515 pages including the introduction, glossary, bibliography and index, plus 31 pages of preferatory material that include a preface, a listing of abbreviations and acronyms, and a chronology.

As the title says, the book is a historical dictionary of "new religious movements," including cults, sects, relatively new religions, and important organizations or practices that have a religious element. The author spends several paragraphs explaining his criteria for inclusion of a new religious movement in the book, since those choices are going to be controversial among members of groups who for various reasons don't want to be included. (For example, the Rosicrucians say they are not a religion, and the Mormons say they are a revival of an ancient religion and not new, but both are included simply because many people would expect to find them listed.)

One important thing about this book is that it is really global in scope, though North American and European movements do seem to be favored somewhat.

Groups and individuals are included, as are a few entries for aspects of religious movements. As an example of what's in the book, here is the full list of entries in the "O" sequence:

• Oahspe
  
• Obu, Olumba Olumba
  
• Oneida Community Perfectionists
  
• Open Brethren
  
• Opus Dei
  
• Orage, A. R.
  
• Order, The
  
• Ordo Templi Orientis (OTO)
  
• Original Kleptonian Neo-American Church
  
• Osho
  
• Ouspensky, Pyotr Demainovitch
  

Entries range in length from a short paragraph to just over a page in length. Opening the book at random I find myself looking at the entries for Baba Ram Dass and Rastafarianism. The entry on Ram Dass is biographical and the entry on Rastafarianism historical; both are informative, clearly written and not controversial or dismissive.

This is an informative and well-done reference book, useful for finding information on a wide range of new religious movements.

The New Encyclopedia of Islam

By Cyril Glassé.

Published by Rowman & Littlefield on their AltaMira imprint, 2001.

This is a clothbound book measuring 7" by 10" running to 534 pages including the introduction (by Huston Smith), the graphical appendices, chronology and bibliography, plus three sections with color plates.

This book is a revision to a previous work titled Concise Encyclopedia of Islam.

The mission of the book is to provide a beginning to the project of remedying the hopeless misunderstanding of Islam among Westerners (to paraphrase Huston Smith's introduction). Certainly I can admit that I know next to nothing about what is communicated in this encyclopedia.

The first fifteen entries in the "K" sequence are:

• Ka'bah
  
• Kabil and Habil (see Cain and Abel; Ibn Khaldun)
  
• al-Kaff (see "Hand of Fatimah")
  
• Kafir
  
• Kahin
  
• Kairouan
  
• al-Kalabadhi, Abu Bakr
  
• Kalam
  
• al-Kalbi, Abu-l-Mundhir Hisham ibn Muhammad
  
• Kalimah
  
• Kalmuck
  
• Kano
  
• Kapudanpasha
  
• Karamat
  
• Karma Marga (see Makhafah)
  

The entries above are for historical people and places as well as important ideas or elements of Islam. Some are just a few lines long. The longest of the group above are the entries for Ka'bah (which is a cubic stone structure at the center of the Grand Mosque of Mecca) and Kalam (which is Islamic scholastic theology), at around 2.5 pages each. Some entries in the book are longer.

The entries are clearly written and don't require too much background knowledge to make sense of, which is a strength of the book.

This is a recommended resource for anyone wanting a good reference source for background information and facts about Islam. Good for educational browsing as well.

Encyclopedia of Science and Religion

J. Wentzel Vrede van Huyssteen, Editor in Chief.

Published by Macmillan Reference USA, a division of Thomson Gale, 2003.

This is a two-volume set measuring 8.5" by 11" and running to a total of 1050 pages including an annotated bibliography and index, plus a preface, introduction, list of articles, list of contributors and a synoptic outline of the contents.

This encyclopedia covers topics in science, religion and philosophy in terms of a growing dialogue between religion and science, mainly from the point of view of those wishing to reconcile religion and science without compromising religious belief. Treatments of scientific ideas address the challenges those ideas have posed to theology and religion, as well as discussing open questions and critiques of scientific ideas as they can be taken to make room for theology. Likewise, discussion of theological ideas relate to their intersection with science; entries on ideas in philosophy relate to both science and religion.

Here are all the entries in the "D" sequence:

• Dao
  
• Darwin, Charles
  
• Death
  
• Deep Ecology
  
• Deism
  
• Descartes, René
  
• Design
  
• Design Argument
  
• Determinism
  
• Dharma
  
• Disorder
  
• Dissipative Structure
  
• Divine Action
  
• DNA
  
• Double Agency
  
• Downward Causation
  
• Dualism
  

The point of view of the Encyclopedia is postmodern in terms of its foundation for placing science and religion on an equal footing. The introduction states:

"In the West the success and prestige of science has had a fundamental influence on the way that the voices of popular culture describe our world. As a result, relationships among the religions and sciences have often suffered from what some intellectuals have called the modernist dilemma, where the objective and universally true claims of science are often unfairly contrasted with subjective and irrational religious beliefs. This has led to sharp distinctions between objective descriptions and subjective experiences, between scientific and symbolic uses of language, and between empirically justified scientific truths and privately held religious opinions. The appeal of such stark oppositions, however, has waned. Scientism is the term of approbation used for the attitude that takes for granted the alleged rational superiority of science and exclusive value of the scientific method for gaining knowledge. The reductionist views that define scientism are now being attacked relentlessly by scholars who point out that both scientific and religious beliefs, in spite of important differences, are historically and culturally embedded and shaped by comprehensive worldviews...."

As one would expect from an encyclopedia whose readership includes many people who are seated outside the sciences, the entries are uniformly clear and understandable. They go into a little more depth and detail in their discussion of scientific ideas than one might expect, however.

While this encyclopedia would probably raise the hackles of many scientific-minded people, the challenges it poses to the scientific worldview are, in my opinion, often legitimate. In any case, whether the work is on target or an apology for irrationalism, it does an excellent job of surveying the contemporary dialogue between religion and science and can be a very useful resource for anyone interested in that subject.

Great Thinkers of the Eastern World

Edited by Ian P. McGreal

Published by HarperCollins, 1995.

This is a hard bound book of 7.5" X 9.5", running 505 pages.

The preface begins, "Great Thinkers of the Eastern World presents informative essays on over 100 of the outstanding philosophical and religious thinkers of China, India, Japan, Korea, and the world of Islam. Each article in this book summarizes and discusses the central ideas of an outstanding Eastern thinker (or, in some cases, the ideas of a classic work of great influence whose authorship is unknown). The essays are designed to serve as introductions for the general reader to the distinctive philosophical perspectives of the authors or the books discussed."

41 scholars contributed essays to the collection. Each article finishes with a bibliography for further reading.

Interesting is the inclusion of a few 20th Century thinkers, as difficult as it is to estimate the ultimate importance of people who were writing only a short time ago. For example, the Indian politician Jawaharlal Nehru is included, but not Gandhi. The Japanese philosopher Nishitani Keiji and the Chinese philosopher Fung Yu-lan are included, perhaps because they represent new engagement with the Western philosophical tradition from Eastern perspectives. This is an interesting aspect of the book.

Besides constituting a very useful reference work on individual thinkers, the book can also serve as an interesting and not insubstantial introduction to Eastern philosophy, a subject of growing importance in today's globalized world.

Encyclopedic Handbook of Cults in America
Revised and Updated Edition

By J. Gordon Melton

Published by Garland's "Religious Information Sytems" imprint, 1992.

This is a 5.5" X 8.5" paperback of 407 pages including the index.

Melton is an established authority on cults, having authored other commonly-seen reference books on the subject, but this doesn't make it any less noticeable and awkward that his list of chapters on "The Established Cults" includes such major American religions as the Church of Christ, Scientist, Jehovah's Witnesses, and The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons). "Cult" is a very loaded and powerful word, so it is surprising to see it applied to such powerful and established groups as these, and raises questions about Melton's criteria. For example, a commonly-understood attribute of cults is that they require members to break ties with the world outside, or that they are outside the mainstream of American religion, things that aren't quite true of the Mormons, for example, though their internal associations and unity are certainly strong.

Melton is aware of the controversial aspect to the gray area of cults and religion, so he devotes his first chapter to the preliminary question of "what is a cult," and provides his working criteria. In this chapter, Melton talks about three major sources of discussion about cults, that contribute varying degrees of pejorativeness to the "cult" label. These are Christian counter-cult ministries representing religious orthodoxies (which beg the question, in my mind, "What would Jesus do?"), secular anti-cultists who arose in the 70's in response to the experience of brainwashed family members, etc., and social scientists who study religious behavior and groups. Melton is relatively private about his own pathway to the study of cults, but my sense is that he is some kind of an orthodox Protestant.

Melton has chapters on 32 different "cults," which include Christian Science, Mormons, Rosicrucians, Satanism, "Spiritualism," Theosophy, The Universal Peace Mission Movement of Father Divine, Scientology, Mormons (separate entries for mainstream and fundamentalist, polygamy practicing Mormons), ECKANKAR, Elan Vital, Hare Krishnas, Nichiren Shoshu, Osho, Unification Church, and "Witchcraft and NeoPaganism" (which hardly seem organized enough to be a cult, but, whatever), among others. Additionally, the New Age Movement is listed as a cult, and there are two chapters on anti-cult movements.

The entry on Nichiren Shoshu, as an example, is seven pages in length. The chapter describes the history and origin of the movement, including internal divisions, and then goes on to discuss the beliefs and practices, organization, current status and existing controversies of the group, and finally a bibliography.

Following the long section that goes into detail about the cults listed is a section titled "Violence and the Cults."

It's a pretty interesting and informative but somewhat tendentious reference book.

Religion and American Law: An Encyclopedia

Edited by Paul Finkelman

Published by Garland, 2000.

This is a hardbound, 7" X 10" volume of 601 pages including the Subject index and the indexes of cases, in fairly small type. The list of contributors and the introduction only run a few pages.

The book gives comprehensive coverage (as near as I can tell) to the treatment of religion in American jurisprudence.

There are entries on specific cases and laws as well as on all kinds of topics that have a religious angle.

The entry on Labor Law and Religion runs five pages, as does the entry on Lemon v. Kurtzman, which was a landmark test established by the Supreme Court, for determining whether legislation encroaches on the separation of church and state.

The entry on Mormon Free Exercise in Nineteenth-Century America runs for eight and a half pages, while the entry on Tax Law and American Religion runs about fifteen and a half pages.

The articles themselves are written for a general educated audience and don't require knowledge of legal jargon, but at the same time are quite detailed about the intricacies of the legal decisions being discussed. They are pretty fascinating.

This is a really valuable reference book for anyone interested in either the free practice of religion or the separation of church and state.