Book reviews

Sun at Midnight. The Rudolf Steiner Movement and the Western Esoteric Tradition by Geoffrey Ahern The Aquarian Press, Wellingborough 1984 ISBN 0–85030–338–9 (H/B) £7.95

Religion and Medicine World Religions and Medicine (4th Volume of Essays in the IRM Religious and Medicine Series) (ed) D. Goodacre. Institute of Religion and Medicine, St Giles Oxford. £1.95

Believing and Belonging: The Practice of Believing in The Church by Anthony E. Harvey SPCK £2.50 pp.136 p/b

E. Milingo: The World In Between: Christian healing and the Struggle for Spiritual Survival Edited, with introduction, Commentary and Epilogue by Mona Macmillan London: C Hurst & Co, 1984. pp vi+138. Price: hard covers ‐ £7.95; soft covers ‐ £3.95

Hinduism in England edited by David G. Bowen The faculty of Contemporary Studies, Bradford College, 1981     

Notes on the ‘Nova Era’: Rio de Janeiro and Environs

Wilfred Cantwell Smith, On Understanding Islam, selected studies, The Hague, Mouton, 1981, 351 pages. DM 105

Edward Mortimer, Faith and power: The politics of Islam, London, Faber &; Faber (1982), 407 pp., £10.50

David Westerlund, From socialism to Islam? Notes on Islam as a political factor in contemporary Africa, Scandinavian Institute of African Studies, Research Report no. 61, Uppsala (1982), 62 pp. Skr 20

W. L. Brenneman, S. O. Yarian, and A. M. Olson, The seeing eye: Hermeneutical phenomenology in the study of religion, Pennsylvania State University Press (1982) x+177 pp. £8.10     

The economics of new religious life

James T. Richardson (ed.), Money and power in new religions. Lewiston, New York, and Lampeter, Wales, The Edwin Mellen Press, 1988, Volume 22 of studies in religion and society, pp. 435. $39.95     

Book reviews

Kundalni and the Physical World. Mary Scott. Routledge & Kegan Paul, London 1983 Paperback 274 pp £5.95

Seasons of the Spirit. Readings Through the Christian Year, selected and edited by George Every, Richard Harries and Kallisto's Ware, London, S.P.C.K., 1984 £7.50

Are Religious Cults Dangerous?. Carol Coulter Mercier Press Dublin and Cork 1984 ISBN 0–85342–722–4 (H/B) £4.50

The Making of a Moonie. Choice or Brainwashing?. Eileen Barker. Basil Blackwell, Oxford 1984 ISBN 0–631–13246–5 (H/B) £12     

ANTHROPOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES ON VIOLENCE: UNIVERSALS AND PARTICULARS

Abstract. The problem addressed is how to establish the nature (grounds and consequences) of culturally formulated aggressive displays, for example, Balinese cockfights. Psychological and other research suggests that aggression can be under the control of nature, culture, or both. After surveying the evidence supporting both endogenous, in particular cathartic, and exogenous processes, the paper explores what is involved in establishing which process is operative in particular ethnographic cases. Special attention is paid to institutions which show coadaptation between biological and culture-dependent processes and regulations.     

The New Age in Cultural Context: The Premodern,the Modern and the Postmodern

This issue attends to a relatively ill‐explored, albeit culturally well‐established, topic. Serving to introduce the contributions, an initial task is to characterize the New Age. It is suggested that there is a dominant lingua franca, to do with ‘self religiosity’. Another task is to locate the New Age with reference to the premodern, the modern and the postmodern ‘conditions’. Arguing that the New Age has two main wings, and that it can also be used in consumeristic fashion, it is possible to tease out the various ways in which the three conditions have contributed to its development. Finally, attention is paid to the question of whether the New Age is of any real significance.