Short Reviews and Book Notes 1 8 1

Lamaism never did more than re-arrange and re-name the primary religious con-ceptions of nature and the ancestors .

CAROLINE HUMPHREYKing's College, Cambridge

Roy C. Amore and Larry D . Shinn, Lustful Maidens and Ascetic Kings :Buddhist and Hindu Stories of Life, New York, Oxford University Press 1981 .98 pp. £9.95 .

In itself this is an entertaining and informative little book which in simple style conveysthe flavour of the Indian instructional narrative . Moreover, the stories frequentlyillustrate the contrast between Buddhist and Hindu standpoints on various issues . TheBuddhists, for example, place the precept of ahimsa (non-harming) over the warrior'scode of protecting the kingdom by might whilst the orthodox Hindu emphasises aparticular dharma (duty, law) for each social group which supersedes more universalprinciples like ahimsa . Issues dealt with in the stories cover the main areas of social,ethical and religious teaching-Family Roles, Social Roles, Lay Values and MonasticValues. Within this general framework more particular themes such as Courage,Asceticism and Generosity are illustrated .

Despite its title this work should prove useful to many teachers in schools . Of course,some of the `lustful maiden' stories such as `How a Youth Lost His Virtue' may bejudged inappropriate for the classroom but the majority are quite suitable for youngerteenagers. One of its positive qualities, as far as the teacher is concerned, is that itassumes little or no knowledge of Indian religion and culture . The whole work isprefaced by an introduction on `Storytelling in India' which explains why stories wereand are one of the most common and useful didactic devices in Indian education, andeach section, as well as each individual story, commences with a relevant commentaryby the editors . Another boon, for the teacher intending to use this work, is the relativesimplicity of the language . Most of the stories could be read direct to the majority ofsecondary school classes, and the arrangement under thematic headings facilitates thespeedy selection of appropriate material .

On the negative side two points are worthy of mention . First, for the teacher whowishes to investigate a story or issue in more depth, the source references may well proveinadequate. For example, if one wished to examine a complete translation of 'Savatriand the God of Death' where would one look? The editors give the source asMahábhärata 3.291-299 . Does this refer to a sanskrit edition or an English translation?If the former, which edition? If the latter, whose translation? In J .A.B. Van Buitenen'srendering (which follows the Poona critical edition) this story is located at 3 .277-283,whilst the Ganguli/Roy translation has it at 3 .291-297, which although closer to theeditor's location can be difficult to find because of the lack of critical apparatus in thiswork. Thus, a little more information about publishing details at the source level wouldbe most useful to many interested teachers .

The other point I would like to raise concerns the binding . Whilst the paper and clothcover are of reasonable quality the spine consists of merely glued-in pages. This isunacceptable in a quality book and if O .U .P. wanted to produce a sturdy library editionthey should have ensured that the work had sewn-in signatures . For £9 .95 I would have

1 82 Short Reviews and Book Notes

expected something better and therefore advise perspective purchasers to examine thepaperback edition before committing themselves .

PETER CONNOLLYWest Sussex Institute of Higher Education, Chichester

Baruch M . Bokser, History of Judaism : The Next Ten Years, Brown JudaicStudies, vol . 21, Chico, California, Scholars Press 1980 . xxvii+ 147 pp . $10 .50 .

This book contains, under this rather curious title, a collection of papers presented atthe Fifth Max Richter Conversation on the History of Judaism at Brown University,June 23-24, 1980. The seven papers chart seven different directions that the study of theHistory of Judaism could take in the near future . `The papers are programmatic andprovide models of methodologies available to the historian in the 1980's' (editor'sintroduction . p . xiv) . The collection is divided into three parts : part one contains threepapers under the title 'Judaism in Ancient Times' ; part two, 'Judaism in MedievalTimes', has two papers, and likewise part three, 'Judaism in Modern Times' .

No volume of collected essays on Judaism emanating from Brown University wouldbe complete without a contribution from Jacob Neusner, since his is the creativeimpulse and energy behind the Brown Judaic Studies Series and most of the scholarswhose work is published in this series were once his students . His paper is entitled `Storyas History in Ancient Judaism', a powerful and instructive reading of two rabbinicstories-Honi the Circle-Maker, and Yohanan ben Zakkai and Vespasian . Neusnerdemonstrates the futility of a historicist reading of these stories and the ultimatebanality of a purely structuralist reading. He argues convincingly that the only kind ofhistory such stories reveal is a `history of ideas and of religion' (p . 24) . In the secondpaper, `Towards the Rehabilitation of Talmudic History', David Goodblatt provides awelcome correction to some unnecessarily pessimistic remarks by Neusner in his Methodand Meaning in Ancient Judaism, First Series (1979), on the impossibility of writing`talmudic history' . Chapter three, `A New Approach to Early Jewish Prayer', by TzveeZahavy, seeks to `demonstrate how some rabbinic statements on the subject of prayingand prayers make subtle, symbolic and significant metaphysical statements' (p . 55) .

Part Two begins with a paper by Aviezer Ravitzky entitled `Some Remarks on theStudy ofJewish Philosophy in the Middle Ages' which stresses the importance of usinghitherto unutilized manuscript material for studying the impact on the Jewishcommunity of the philosophies of Maimondes and of Hasdai Crescas . Ravitzky firmlyadheres to the view that Jewish Philosophy arises from external stimuli, asuniversalizing philosophies confront Jewish particularism. In chapter five, `OnStudying Philosophic Mysticism', David Blumenthal argues convincingly that `themodern tradition of the study of Jewish philosophy has failed in two respects : it hasfailed to analyse the spiritual dimension that lies behind (and, indeed, motivates) thephilosophic issues of Jewish philosophy, and consequently it has also failed to cast itsintellectual net widely enough to encompass other forms of Jewish intellectuality,equally as respectable and as pressing' (p . 84f.), fbr example, the theosophy of the Zoharand the Kabbalah . There has also been an exactly corresponding failure on the part ofthe modern tradition of the study of Jewish mysticism to take seriously the mysticaldimension ofJewish philosophy .

In the final part of the collection Hillel Levine, `The History ofJudaism in Poland in