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for us and make common understanding possible.' Her book, she admits`reflects an eclectic and critical judgment' but no apology is necessary ; itdisplays a boldness of approach and freshness of treatment which are toorarely to be found in such textbooks .

S.P.M .

PARRINDER, E. G ., A Dictionary of Non-Christian Religions, HultonEducational Publications, 1971, pp . 320 .

This dictionary contains approximately 2,790 entries with 242 excellentline drawings and 94 photographs . The bulk of the space has been givento Hinduism, Buddhism and Islam but the Far East, the classical cultures,Celtic, Teutonic, Scandinavian, ancient American and African traditionsalso have their place .

Inevitably the question will arise, how does it compare with the otherdictionary recently produced : S . G . F . Brandon, A Dictionary of ComparativeReligion (Weidenfeld and Nicolson, 197o) ? In fact the two books do notcompete. The similar titles mask very different roles . Brandon's dictionaryis an invaluable bibliographical source, the articles concentrate on largertopics, and it was the result of a team effort . The advantages are obvious,but it has its weaknesses-uneven quality of contribution and style and it isnot the sort of work one turns to when reading a book in an area in whichone is not a specialist, does not know the technical terms and cannot under-stand what the author is saying because of that . The Oxford Dictionary is,of course, rarely any help and previously one floundered or sank in the faceof strange and esoteric words . It is here that Professor Parrinder's dictionarycomes into his own . I have no doubt that I shall fly to it on many occasionsand with it many books on my shelves will now become much moreintelligible .

Of course a book of this size contains errors . Probably any specialist willbe able to work through it and note mistakes in his own field . I notedinaccurate descriptions under the heading `Fire Temples' and regrettablythe item on 'Mithraism' perpetuates the error that the taurobolium waspractised in Mithraism . This sort of error probably would not have occuredif a team of specialists had been employed, but then the pleasing unity ofthe book would have been destroyed and it would have taken decades toedit .

J.R.H .

DUPRE, LOUIS, The Other Dimension : a search for the meaning of religiousattitudes . New York : Doubleday and Co . pp. 565. Price $1o .oo .

This book is mainly a philosophical exercise ; but some aspects of it are ofinterest to the scientific and historical treatment of religion . In theopening chapter, Dupre expresses a version of the fashionable belief inmodern man's changed religious consciousness ; at the same time the

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empirical b sis of this view may be placed in doubt since Dupre believesthat the objective study of religion is not strictly possible . Phenomenologymust grow its own ontology . Here Dupre leans on existentialism andphilosophical phenomenology. All this introduces a worthwhile critiqueof projection themes, from Feuerbach through Freud to Fromm . In thelast chapter of this long book Dupre explores, quite perceptively, themeaning of mysticism, relating Western traditions to those of India . Thisinterest in part derives from the author's Catholicism . The major queryone is left with : How far can one sensibly explore the meaning of religiousattitudes from a philosophical standpoint? The book is somehow pre-Copernican from this angle .

N.S .

MATICS, MARION L . Entering the Path of Enlightenment. The Bodhicary-dvatdra of the Buddhist Poet Santideva . Translation with Guide . London, GeorgeAllen and Unwin Ltd ., 1972, 318 pp . &-50 -

The translation of this famous Mahayana text itself covers less than loopages, and in 8o pages of appendices ('Part Three') one might havehoped for an index. The lengthy, introductory `Guide' begins with a`Tribute' and ends with a kind of doxology, but the somewhat enthusiastictone here will no doubt be overlooked by the history of religions studentin need of a readable translation of the text with an unoppressive butscholarly apparatus .

M. P .

CASTELLI, E., La Critique de la Demythisation : Ambiguite et foi . Translatedfrom the Italian by E. Valenziani Aubier, Editions Montaigne, Paris,1 973 n .p .From 1961 to 1972 the question of demythologizing was discussed in aseries of colloquia held in Rome, organized by Professor Enrico Castelli .The themes selected and the variety of participants took the topic furtherafield than the German discussion of the 195os . Each year the papers ofthe preceding conference were published in French by the InternationalCentre for Human Studies and the Rome Institute of PhilosophicalStudies. Professor Castelli has now published in the same series a collectionof his own essays relating to the conference topics . The first section,entitled Kerygme et Histoire contains five essays, and the second, onHermeneutique et Temoignage, nine. There are four appendices . Theseessays bring a penetrating philosophical mind to bear on the issues of faithand history, theology of history, language, hermeneutics, tradition andrevelation. All the issues are left open-we are not even allowed a defini-tion of myth-but in following these intelligent reflections readers willenjoy the stimulus of some unfamiliar viewpoints .Department of Religious StudiesUniversity of Lancaster

Robert Morgan