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this an indispensable starting point for researchinto gender and evangelicalism.

Kathryn LoftonReed College

FAITHFUL GENERATIONS: RACE ANDNEW ASIAN AMERICAN CHURCHES. ByRussell Jeung. New Brunswick, NJ: RutgersUniversity Press, 2005. Cloth $62.00, ISBN0-8135-3502-6; paper $22.95, ISBN 0-8135-3503-4.

At a time when many ethnic-specificchurches are increasingly shifting to pan-ethnic models, Jeung offers an illuminatingexploration into the institutionalization of pan-ethnicity and the construction and recon-struction of racial identities in and throughindividuals’ participation in faith communities.The congregations in this study are establishingthemselves around a symbolic racial identity tocreate and recreate both individual and collec-tive racial identities. Focusing on churches inthe Bay Area in California, Jeung explores howministers create solidarity and communityaround their pan-Asian or pan-ethnic identitybased on denominational affiliation. He high-lights the differences between mainline andevangelical Christian constructions of AsianAmerican pan-ethnicity, namely, their differingnotions of purpose. While Jeung’s analysis ofthis phenomenon, conducted through inter-views with church ministers, allows for insightsinto the vision-casting and goal-setting pro-cesses of these faith communities, the voices ofchurch members are missing. The inclusion ofthese voices is crucial for a deeper understand-ing of how congregants themselves define andarticulate their racial and religious identities aswell as deal with the complex dynamics withincongregations. Overall, this book is a valuableresource for seminarians, church lay leadership,and Asian Americanists. Furthermore, it shouldnot be dismissed nor overlooked by scholars ofreligion (and even of race) as merely an “Asian-thing”—a text that is written by, about, and forAsian Americans. Rather, Jeung’s multifacetedanalysis is a significant contribution to the exis-tent literature on the intersections of race andreligion in the US.

Michelle SamuraUniversity of California, Santa Barbara

SHOPPING MALLS AND OTHERSACRED SPACES: PUTTING GOD INPLACE. By Jon Pahl. Grand Rapids, MI:Brazos, 2003. Pp. 288. $19.99, ISBN 1-58743-045-2.

Juggling metaphors, Pahl considers various“places” dear to America (shopping malls, Dis-ney World, and the suburban home) as “cloth-ing” for God. His critical analysis of themloosely follows a Girardian account of mimeticdesire and the violence it begets. These placesfunction politically by exploiting humandesires for happiness in service of the (ofteneconomic) interests of the few. They promise a

fulfillment they do not deliver, and they func-tion in ways that confine their pilgrims, denyour fragility before death, and engage us prin-cipally as consumers rather than as whole per-sons. Pahl then considers alternative clothingfor God in biblical metaphors: water, light,earth, trees, bodies, and cities. These resourcesand places reveal God to us in ways that orientus in gratitude and freedom toward relation-ships with others and creation. Pahl’s attentionto cities challenges St. Augustine’s juxtaposi-tion of the earthly city and the city of God,arguing that Augustine displaces a spiritualityof place with a theology of time, and that thisjuxtaposition contributes mightily to the dual-istic thinking that operates so powerfully in his-tory and culture. Pahl argues that human citiesoffer opportunities to forge unity in plurality,justice, and peace. The book is conversationalin tone and very often autobiographical; theargument unfolds less through conceptual pre-cision and careful analysis than anecdotalreflection. The book’s accessibility makes itsuitable for popular audiences and may appealto church discussion groups.

Darlene Fozard WeaverVillanova University

South AsiaJEJURI. By Arun Kolatkar. Introduction byAmit Chaudhuri. New York: Review Books,2005. Pp. xxvi + 57. $12.95, ISBN 1-59017-163-2.

First published in Bombay in 1974, and keptin print in India since then by a small poetrypress, the late A. Kolatkar’s Jejuri is one of theclassics of post-Independence English lan-guage poetry. This, its first publication in theUS, accompanied by a lengthy contextualizingintroduction by the novelist A. Chaudhuri, is awelcome event. In a sequence of thirty-oneshort poems, Kolatkar recounts a visit to thepilgrimage shrine of the god Khandoba atJejuri, near Pune. Notes provided by AndyMcCord explain some of the more localizedcultural references. Kolatkar was a sophisti-cated, highly educated resident of Bombay, andan active participant in its cosmopolitan artsscene. He brings an urbane sense of irony to hisresponses to the shrine and to its religious cul-ture from which his social location has dis-tanced him. At the same time, he evinces a deeprespect for the inhabitants (human, divine, ani-mal) of Jejuri. This complex combination ofinsider and outsider perspectives would makeJejuri an excellent book for teaching aboutpilgrimage in contemporary India, especiallyif combined with related material such as I.Karve’s essay “On the Road,” D. B. Mokashi’snovel Palkhi: An Indian Pilgrimage, and thescholarship of G.-D. Sontheimer, A. Feldhaus,J. Stanley, and other scholars of Maharashtrianreligion. Jejuri also stands on its own as excel-

lent poetry, and so should be on the bookshelfof all lovers of language.

John E. CortDenison University

TANTRIC TREASURES: THREE COL-LECTONS OF MYSTICAL VERSE FROMBUDDHIST INDIA. Introduced, translated,and annotated by Roger. R. Jackson. NewYork: Oxford University Press, 2004. Pp. 168.$19.95, ISBN 0-19-516641-8.

This introduction and translation of thepoetry of the late first millennium CE IndianBuddhist perfected beings (mah5siddhas),Saraha, Ka ha and Tilopa, will find a widereadership. The poems are in the form of cou-plets (doh5) written in Apabhra ra, a lateMiddle-Indic dialect that postdated Pali andvarious Prakrit languages and preceded modernIndo-Aryan languages, such as Hindi, Bengali,and Marathi. Jackson does us a great service insupplying the Apabhra ra text, which he hascarefully edited (giving the Tibetan translationswhen the Apabhra ra is missing). This is notan easy task, as Apabhra ra is rarely studied,and Jackson has done a fine job. My only regretis that Jackson did not provide grammaticaland phonological notes to the text, as it is orga-nized in a manner in which this could haveeasily been done. The translations are of veryhigh quality and, by themselves, would beinsightful into the nature of Buddhist mysti-cism in northeastern India at the end of the firstmillennium. However, Jackson’s introductionheightens this much more. He sheds con-siderable light on the poets, the poetry, andtheir philosophical and religious background.Among the noteworthy features of this pithyand indispensable introduction are discussionsof the kinds of yogic experience the poets hadthrough the prism of Vajray5na ma ala prac-tice and the lineages of the poets. It is strikingthat all three of them had female mentorswith whom they likely practiced tantric unionand about whom they all write, if somewhatobscurely. This eminently accessible exposi-tion of Buddhist poetry, mysticism, emptiness,and fullness would be an excellent addition toa number of courses on Buddhism and cross-cultural religious experience.

Frederick M. SmithUniversity of Iowa

East AsiaPOWER OF THE WORDS: CHEN PROPH-ECY IN CHINESE POLITICS A.D. 265-618. By Zongli Lu. Oxford: Peter Lang, 2003.Pp. 349. $50.95, ISBN 3-90676-956-9.

This is the first English language study ded-icated to the chenwei “Confucian apocrypha”texts, which provided early imperial Confu-cianism with its theological basis. It examinesthe nature, role, and political import of chen,

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“prophetic words,” which are “verified revela-tions of Heaven’s will through human lan-guage.” Unlike Judeo-Christian revelations,chen could be uttered by anyone—their author-ity stemmed from public acceptance, notbecause a prophet spoke them. The book’s firstpart disputes the assumption that chenwei textslost their importance because governmentsrepeatedly banned them. Rulers did worry thatusurpers would use chen to claim the throne;hence, they forbade their use. Nevertheless,because rulers could utilize the propheciesto buttress their rule, the bans hardly everextended to scholars. Moreover, most emperorsheartily believed and employed chen tolegitimate their accession to the throne.Consequently, the prescriptions were largelyineffective. The book’s second part examinestypes of prophetic words and how they worked.The prophecies were often coded or subject toalternate readings; their meaning only usuallybecame apparent when a savant decoded them.The public then had to accept that interpretationto be valid for the prophetic words to be “true.”Chen came in many forms: songs, reign titles,poems, children’s ditties, and folk rhymes.Negatively, Lu furnishes more examples thannecessary to illustrate his points and underesti-mates the extent to which historians fabricatedprophecies to enhance their narratives. Thispioneering study will primarily interest schol-ars who are interested in the history of proph-ecy, early medieval China, and popularConfucianism.

Keith N. KnappThe Citadel

HSIEH LIANG-TSO AND THE ANA-LECTS: HUMANE LEARNING AS ARELIGIOUS QUEST. By Thomas W. Selover.New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.Pp. xi + 183. $39.95, ISBN 0-19-515610-2.

Hsieh Liang-tso (c.1050-c.1120) was one ofthe most important disciples of the great Neo-

Confucian philosopher Ch’eng Hao (1032-85).From the fragments of his commentary onConfucius’ Analects, this well-crafted scholarlymonograph delineates Hsieh’s understanding ofthe key concept of jen (normally translated as“benevolence”). For Hsieh, jen meant an aware-ness or sensitivity to the fact that oneself is notseparate from other humans, or for that matter,from all phenomena. This awareness is experi-ential rather than intellectual; indeed, the bestway of knowing jen is reflecting on how onetreats his or her parents and elder siblings. TheCheng school and its spiritual successors, suchas Tan Sitong (1865-98), championed whatSelover calls jen-hsueh, “humane learning”—using the Analects to personally understand jen,which unites humans with each other andheaven. In other words, jen and the Analectsplayed a much larger part in the Neo-Confucianproject than hitherto acknowledged. Seloverfurther argues that Hsieh read the Analects asscripture: his commentary aims not so much atexplaining the text, but at guiding one’s practiceof jen. Ultimately, the author believes that jen-hsueh, like all other great theological traditions,promotes learning how to be human. To providethe reader with a sense of Hsieh’s ideas, theauthor has conveniently appended and trans-lated the first two chapters of his Analects com-mentary, complete with Chinese text. Althoughthis study sheds noteworthy light on Confucianreligiosity, the narrowness of its subject willlimit its audience to specialists.

Keith N. KnappThe Citadel

PRACTICAL PURSUITS: RELIGION,POLITICS, AND PERSONAL CULTIVA-TION IN NINETEENTH-CENTURYJAPAN. By Janine Tasca Sawada. Honolulu,HI: University of Hawaii Press, 2004. Pp. 432.$45.00, ISBN 978-0-8248-2752-6.

This is a fascinating study of Japanese pop-ular religion from the late Tokugawa period to

early Meiji. Rather than a panoramic history ofthe religious developments of the period usingthe overarching rubrics of Shinto and Bud-dhism, Sawada offers richly documented min-iatures “of the ideas of single agents and themodest communities they represented.” Chap-ters include studies on divination and moralpractice in Tôkyûjutsu, a movement founded in1834, “breathing as purification” in Tohokami,a Shinto-style new religion, “practical learningin the meditation hall,” and a study of RinzaiZen master Imakita Kôsen’s view of personalcultivation from the Buddhist perspective.What knits these chapters together is that theyshed light on movements and thinkers that areunderstudied because they are outside “themainstream religious and educational institu-tions of modern Japan.” Moreover, as Sawadacompellingly shows, these disparate groupsshared a common discourse of “practical learn-ing” ( jitsugaku), a term originally associatedwith Neo-Confucianism, that becomes identi-fied with specific disciplines and practices forself-improvement. Particularly fascinating ischapter 4, “Parameters of Learning,” which isabout how the new Western learning based onthe natural and human sciences displaced theolder models of practical learning in the Meijihigher educational system. This redefinition oflearning had momentous consequences for thenew religions such as Renmonkyô, a popularhealing movement that Sawada uses to illus-trate the new religious problematic. The groupwas systematically destroyed by the new Meijimass media in the 1890s because its model ofpractice did not fit the new nationalistic ortho-doxy of State Shinto. In sum, Sawada makesimportant contributions for understanding thehistory of bakumatsu and early Meiji popularreligion. It is essential reading for understand-ing the contested place of religion in Japantoday.

Mark MacWilliamsSt. Lawrence University