Religion
The Quest: History and Meaning in Religion.
MIRCEA ELIADE. Chicago: University
of Chicago Press, 1969. 180 pp., index,
n.p. (cloth).
Reviewed b y WILLIAM A. LESSA
University o f California, Los Angeles
We have come to expect that when Mir-
cea Eliade publishes a “new” book it is
likely to have already seen the light of day in
some other language or under some other
title. Interesting probing of his publication
record could be done; indeed, a prominent
anthropologist has already done so in a
highly critical review that reveals the repe-
titive and interlocking character of his vol-
umes. The Quest is no exception, except
that it is a collection of sometimes revised
essays, all but one of which have already
appeared in print, either in English or
French. The lone exception is “Prolego-
menon to Religious Dualism: Dyads and
Polarities,” and is by far the lengthiest of the
lot. What ties the eight essays together is a
defense of the Religionswissenschaft or
“history of religions” approach, as well as a
demonstration of that approach, especially
insofar as it pertains to the symbolic means
for establishing communication between the
sacred and the profane.
Eliade is an avowed anti-positivist and
makes an urgent plea for the recognition of
the history of religions as the basis out of
which a new humanism could develop,
saying that one must know the religious
sources of values in order to understand
them (“A New Humanism”). He follows this
with an historical review of his discipline but
he tries to cover too much in too few pages
(“The History of Religions in Retrospect:
1912 and After”). He maintains that there
are four different approaches to the study of
religion-sociological, ethnological, psycho-
logical, historical. It would seem that for
Eliade functionalism does not exist. He de-
votes only one sentence in his whole book to
Radcliffe-Brown and none to W. Lloyd
Warner, which might seem forgivable in a
small book except that he otherwise drops
names lavishly. He places most of his stress
on Continental writers. The third essay is
one of the best. It begins with Renaissance
man’s longing for a primordial revelation as
364
hoped for in hermetism, and races in se-
quence through the beginnings of com-
parative religions; materialism, spiritism, and
theosophy; and the obsession with origins of
such men as Lang, Schmidt, and Marett
(“The Quest for the ‘Origins of Religion’ ”).
Eliade wisely acknowledges that historians
of religion no longer try to find the origin of
religion, looking instead for important truths
about men and man’s relation to the sacred.
The fourth essay betrays some discourage-
ment about the history of religions field,
which Eliade fears may leave to other dis-
ciplines the task of interpreting spiritual
universes (“Crisis and Renewal”). A defeatist
attitude, he says, stifles the potential of the
history of religions to contribute, as it can,
both to the widening of the Western culture
horizon and to rapprochement with repre-
sentatives of the oriental and archaic cul-
tures.
The fifth essay turns to methodology and
maintains that we can best understand the
structure of mythical thought by studying
such cultures, as anthropologists have done,
where myth is not a fiction but a living thing
and is considered to reveal the truth par
excellence (“Cosmogonic Myth and ‘Sacred
History’ ”). However, complains Eliade,
most anthropologists have not been com-
parative. Yet his own grasp of the canons of
the comparative method leaves much to be
desired and hardly goes beyond the Fra-
zerian stage. His use of comparison is to
illustrate rather than to generalize. The sixth
essay draws a good deal upon other writers
but is nonetheless fascinating, dealing with
the quest for an earthly paradise, the
“Adamic nostalgia” of such American
writers as Hawthorne and Thoreau, and the
search of the Guarani Indians for the Lost
Paradise (“Paradise and Utopia: Mythical
Geography and Eschatology”). Here, as well
as at many other points in the book, the
author writes of a religious “nostalgia” for
one thing or another, such as “the longing to
reiterate the primordial totality that existed
before the creation,” “the longing to recover
the primordial epoch that began imme-
diately after the creation,” and “nostalgia
for the final rest.” Nostalgia is never clearly
defined but one gets the uneasy impression
 RELIGION
that there is something Jungian and arch-
etypal about it all. The seventh essay deals
with what Eliade thinks of as the three types
of initiation and their manifestation in
Greek mystery religions, oral literature, and
the contributions of psychoanalysts and
literary critics (“Initiation and the Modern
World”). Modern man’s nostalgia for ini-
tiatory trials and scenarios “reveals [his]
longing for a total and definitive re-
newal. . .capable of radically changing his
existence.” The last essay is the new one
mentioned above and deals with religious
dualism and such related problems as po-
larity, antagonism, and complementarity. It
takes recognition of Gvi-Strauss’s structural
approach but turns away from it in favor of
a “hermeneutical” effort.
One wishes that Eliade were more cau-
tious in his use and interpretation of source
materials, especially from the anthropo-
logical literature, and that he would employ
comparison in the more controlled and
sophisticated manner of current anthro-
pology. Moreover, one cannot escape the
feeling that he is much too biased by a
personal mysticism and an unjustified re-
jection of positivism to win wide support for
many of his speculations.
Religion across Cultures: A Study in the
Communication of Christian Faith.
EUGENE A. NIDA. New York & Lon-
don: Harper & Row, 1968. vii + 111 pp.,
figures, bibliography, notes, index. $4.95
(cloth).
Reviewed b y
ANNEMARIE DE WAAL MALEFIJT
CUNY, Hunter College
Apart from his impressive linguistic
studies, Nida’s writings have been largely
directed to seminary students and mis-
sionaries. This book is no exception. The
author hopes that it will have “practical
implications” (p. vii), namely to facilitate
the spread of Christian faith, and to make it
more relevant to the needs of modern man.
Such concerns are not generally shared by
anthropologists. But it would be unjusti-
fiable-a “confusion of levels” as Wittgen-
stein would call it-to judge a theological
concern on its anthropological merits. The
365
interest of this book for anthropologists
rests not in its message but in Nida’s attempt
to apply his knowledge of communication
theory to the understanding of the adapta-
tion of religion to social functions and per-
sonal needs.
Religious communication is the sending
of messages to supernatural entities, pre-
supposing a “sender” and a “receiver,” in
the expectation that the receiver will react
to the information and become a sender in
turn. Nida classifies supernatural receivers in
“personal” and “impersonal” powers, and he
characterizes communication with the
former as “religion” and with the latter as
“magic.” Apart from those, in some religions
man also communicates with sub-human
entities: animals, plants, and objects. In
those instances, these entities may become
part of the supernatural world: in Hinduism
the sacred cow is almost divine (p. 29).
Based on this model, Nida compares re-
ligious communication systems in Hinduism,
Buddhism, Islam, and Christianity. In Hin-
duism, the Brahmin caste is the indispensible
“channel” of communication. In Buddhism,
this channel is eliminated and replaced by
self-discipline. In Islam, the channel is sub-
mission, while in Christianity the mech-
anisms of religious communication have
been different at different times, varying
according to political and cultural circum-
stances. The ideal Christian communication
is via the channel of love.
Nida’s idea of using the communication
model on a comparative level could have
been very productive, but he does not take
full advantage of its possibilities. His criteria
of comparison are seemingly arbitrary, in
any case they are not fully explained. As a
result, the scientific language appears in-
appropriate to the topic at hand, as if the
author were intent upon giving religion and
mission work a scientific veneer.
Yet, it is an encouraging sign that the-
ology and anthropology are now beginning
to take notice of each other’s principles and
findings. Both disciplines will enhance their
understanding of religion through such co-
operation.
Religion in Africa. GEOFFREY PARRIN-
DER. New York & London: Praeger,