The Sikhs by John Clark Archer (review)

BOOK REVIEWS109 ciation, the Purification and the Assumption are replete with Scriptural applications of the texts of the Old and New Testaments; with accommodation of biblical personages; and with metaphorical figures of speech taken especially from the Canticle of Canticles. He compares Mary to Eve, Judith, Esther, Jahel, and the Mother of Solomon. He calls Mary the morning star, the root of Jesse, a silvery moon in the fulness of its nocturnal glory; the splendor, the purity, the whiteness, and, through the Holy Spirit, the ardor of the sun; She is like the dew on a desert rock; like a gentle shower fruitifying the arid soil; like a refreshing breeze on a hot summer day; she is a lily in the fields, an olive from which the rarest oil is pressed, the perfume of the cedars of Libanon, the glory of the rainbow, etc. All these Anthonian and Biblical figures of speech formed the subjects of fifteen radio talks delivered by the author on the Canadian Radio Station CKAC during the years 1944-1946. (A third series is in progress). These talks are beautifully done and must have instilled into the hearts of the hearers especially the sick and shut-in a greater love for Mary, the Immaculate Mother of God and in their minds and greater esteem for the Evangelical Doctor. While congratulating Father Coiteux on his excellent radio talks, and the publication thereof, we earnestly hope that in the future he will find both the time and the opportunity to develop St. Anthony 's doctrines on the Holy Name of Jesus and on His Sacred Heart; on Mary's Maternity and Assumption; on Peter's Primacy and Infallibility as outlined especially by that great exponent of Anthonian theology, Rev. Diomede Scaramuzzi, O.F.M. in his La Figura lntelletuale di San Antonio di Padova, which was considered of such importance as to have been incorporated into the official Acts of the Process of the declaration of St. Anthony as a Doctor of the Church by the Sacred Congregation of Rites. None of the Fathers of the Church, among whom St. Anthony now takes his place, has developed the themes mentioned more forcibly, more beautifully . His course is secure because founded on such illustrious predecessors of his as St. Bernard, St. Gregory the Great, and especially St. Augustine. In fact because he was so well versed with the Sacred Scriptures he has rightly been called by Pope Gregory IX the "Ark of the Testament" and by the author of the Legenda Prima the "pen of the Holy Spirit" — calamus ille sancti Spiritus lingua ipsius. (Chapter VIII, no. 7). Raphael M. Huber, O.F.M. Conv. St. Bonaventure Convent, Washington, D.C. The Sikhs. By John Clark Archer. Princeton, N.J.: The Princeton University Press, 1946. Pp. xi+353. $3.75. This well-made book bears the sub-title "A Study in Comparative Religion". The main religions compared with sikhism are Hinduism, Mohammedanism and Christianity in general. The author was a professor in several colleges in India and acquired by long residence and research the knowledge of languages and original sources necessary for a work like the present. There is no bibliography attached to the volume, but to judge from the numerous notes, it seems to be the first study on this special HOBOOK REVIEWS subject published. The author himself gives a descriptive outline of the contents of the book in the preface. The first and second chapters describe the Sikhs of Northern Iridia and point out some influential facts contributing to the origin of their particular religion. The third and including the fifth chapter continue with chapter VII to Chapter XI, the history of the movement. Chapter VI contains the religious teaching of Nanak the founder in the form of a psalm. The last chapter constitutes a view of the future rôle the sikhs may play in the reconstruction of India. Twelve pictures accompany the text which is followed by an indispensable Glossary and a good topical Index. Five hundred years after the invasion of India by the Mohammedans, Nanak a Hindu, felt the urge (around 1500) to reconcile Hinduism with Mohammedanism in order to reduce the enimity...