Religion

RELIGION 539 Livre genereux et passionne, Le Deft ecologiste est aussi emouvant et humain par les lettres qu'il insere ala fin de chacun de ses chapitres. Elles sont adressees ases ami(e)s comme ases ennemi(e)s, ases enfants ou ases collegues et revelent des etats d'Ame d'une grande sensiblite. A sa fac,;on Michel Jurdant pose aussi Ie probleme de la survie du Quebec, mais dans une dimension ecosystemique ou l'energie se trouve placee au CCEur de la crise ecologique. On est aux antipodes de 'l'energie du Nord' proposee par Robert Bourassa et la classe politique traditionnelle. Religion H.-MARTIN RUMSCHEIDT The 'religious experience' of humankind is beyond categorization, or, if one focuses only on the public, liturgical expressions of religious communities, never wholly inside the limits within which our sciences carry out induction and deduction. The scholarly approaches to this subject which found expression in publication in Canada have long given testimony to this perception. Indeed, the articles on 'religion' in 'Letters in Canada' over the years not only record the actuality of the perception butalso documentthe positive mutualityofthe religiousimaginationalive in this country and the scholarship dealing with it. In the articles contributed by this reviewer during the past two years there were both joy and frustration about the diversity which I passeth understanding,' that is, about the impossibility of providing a clear, generalizable summation of the religious imagination documented by publications on 'religion' in Canada. There is joy again this year in seeing that, given the financial burdens of publishing books on religion (and not only on religion!) at all, the quest for quality publication, based on competent research, continues with appreciable success. The volume alone of book-publication has not diminished in comparison to recent years. There is frustration again this year in having to decide what in the variety of discussion available is particularly expressive of our country's preoccupation with the phenomenon ofreligion and, accordingly, having to deal with it extensively here. Sheer etiquette alone requires that, however briefly, reference be made to the works sent for review. Such reference also serves to illustrate the cited and rejoiced-in diversity of publication. Impinging on the dimension of religion at the'philosophical' point of the spectrum are four works: Robert E. Carter, Dimensions ofMoral Education, with a foreword by Lawrence Kohlberg (University ofToronto Press, 242, $27.50, $10.00 paper); Leonard Angel, The Silence oftheMystic (Philosophy in Canada 7, Canadian Association for Publishing in Philosophy, 102, 540 LETTERS IN CANADA 1984 $3.00); Theodore F. Geraets, ed, Hegel: L'Esprit absolulThe Absolute Spirit (Philosophica 26, Editions de l'Universite d'Ottawa, 181, $15.00), a collection of papers, responses, and discussions from a conference com- . memorating the 150th anniversary of Hegel's death in 1831; and Roberto Miguelez, Science, valeurs et rationalite (Sciences Sociales 8, Editions de l'Universite d'Ottawa, 95, $12.00). The detailed study by Judith Nagata, The Reflowering ofMalaysian Islam; Modern Religious Radicals and Their Roots (University of British Columbia Press, 307, $32.00) is a contribution in the area of 'history of religion.' Two scholars who for many years stimulated not only scholarship in Canada but also the imagination of academe here were honoured with Festschriften: Peter Richardson andJohn Hurd, eds, From Jesus to Paul; Studies in Honour ofFrancis Wright Beare (Wilfrid Laurier University Press, xxx+233, $12.95 paper), expresses gratitude to an internationally renowned Neutestamentler. Eugene Combs, ed, Modernity and Responsibility; Essaysfor GeorgeGrant (University ofToronto Press, 139, $20.00), signals appreciation to a thinker who, rarely in comfortable ways, called people into that arena of modernity which truly ought to have our equal, if not even greater, devotion, namely action in responsibility next to the arena we have honoured long and well, namely intellectual integrity. The fine series Les Cahiers de recherches en sciences de la religion, prepared by Le groupe de recherches en sciences humaines de la religion, was continued by the publication of the presentations to the 1982 Colloque international sur les mouvements religieux aujourd'hui: JeanPaul Rouleau et Jacques Zylberberg, eds, Les Mouvements religieux aujourd'hui: theories et pratiques (vol 5 in the series, Bellarmin, 382, $18.00 paper...