intent. Overall, however, the book provides some helpfulinsights for the church on how to read and perform scripturebetter.

Stephen J. WellumThe Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

INDIA AND THE INDIANNESS OF CHRISTIANITY:ESSAYS ON UNDERSTANDING—HISTORICAL,THEOLOGICAL, AND BIBLIOGRAPHICAL—INHONOR OF ROBERT ERIC FRYKENBERG. Edited byRichard Fox Young. Studies in the History of Christian Mis-sions. Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans PublishingCompany, 2009. Pp. xi + 283. $45.00.

To the experienced reader of South Asia studies thisFestschrift is a fitting honor for veteran scholar, R. E. Fryken-berg; for those new to this area of study it is a helpful intro-duction to the work of an important South Asian scholar ofthe last fifty years. From his groundbreaking dissertation,Guntur District, 1788-1849: A History of Local Influence andCentral Authority in South India (Oxford, 1965) to therecently published Christianity in India: From Beginnings tothe Present (Oxford, 2008), Frykenberg has emphasized theactive roles that the people of India have exercised bothpolitically and religiously in regards to British rule andwestern mission agencies. It is this “history from below”approach that characterized his work and the approach ofmost of the essays in this Festschrift. After the editor’stwelve-page introductory tribute to Frykenberg and athirteen-page bibliography of Frykenberg’s published writ-ings, twelve essays follow written by university and semi-nary academicians from Australia, Denmark, Germany,Great Britain, India, Sweden, and the United States. The lasttwo chapters discuss archival sources of missions history inGreat Britain and North America and provide a helpful list ofthose sources. Taken together, these essays contribute bothto the legacy of Frykenberg and, more importantly, to thestudy of South Asian Christianity.

Malcolm R. BrubakerValley Forge Christian College

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EthicsTHE SEAMLESS GARMENT: WRITINGS ON THECONSISTENT ETHIC OF LIFE. By Cardinal Joseph L.Bernardin. Edited by Thomas A. Nairn. Maryknoll, NY:Orbis, 2008. Pp. v + 305. $30.00.

From December 1983, until shortly before his death in1996, Bernardin gave a series of thirty-five lectures intendedto shape cultural values in civil society on war and peace,abortion, the death penalty, health care, and euthanasia.This collection opens with the Gannon lecture given atFordham soon after the Catholic bishops had issued theirCold War pastoral, The Challenge of Peace. It concludes witha substantive address on religion and politics delivered atGeorgetown University in which he says of his impending

death: “I am not anxious, but rather reconfirmed in my con-viction about the wonder of human life, a gift that flows fromthe very being of God and is entrusted to each of us.”Working in collaboration with specialists, he carefully delin-eates the boundaries between religion’s legitimate voice inshaping the public order within civil society and the politi-cian’s exercise of prudential judgments about a given publicpolicy. While he argues for the reversal of both Roe v. Wadeand the arms race, Bernardin admits that policy judgmentsare complex and can be flawed. He states that while somemay focus on specific issues, Catholic teaching is opposed tosingle-issue politics and accepts the need for compromise.Bernardin’s transparency in the face of personal struggleswith a false accusation and his impending death from cancergive testimony to his convictions. These subtle argumentsfor a wise exercise of the religious voice should receive awide audience in universities and wherever public policiesare debated.

Rosemarie E. GormanFairfield University

MEDICINE, RELIGION, AND THE BODY. Edited byElizabeth Burns Coleman and Kevin White. Leiden, the Neth-erlands and Boston, MA: Brill, 2010. Pp. xii + 297. Hardback,$154.00.

The fourteen articles in this wide-ranging edited volumeon the meaning of the body in religious thought, ethics, andcultural traditions in a changing world are penned almostentirely by Australian scholars. Thus the volume has fre-quent references to Australian hospitals, conferences, andspiritual or religious communities. This itself should be ofinterest to the Anglophone world. Among the issuesaddressed are the ethics of the commodification of thehuman body, including organ transplants and human eggs,changing beliefs about death, and the care of the body,including the growing problem of obesity viewed from theprism of the sins of sloth and gluttony. Perhaps the mostnoteworthy article is by B. Turner (“Piety, Prolongevity andPerpetuity: The Consequences of Living Forever”), whichdiscusses the extent to which Christian notions of the after-life lead to a concern for the care of the body and the extentto which prolonged or, indeed, eternal, earthly life affectsreligious culture, which is to say the threat of prolongation.Among other bodily issues addressed in the book is thequestion of how Christian salvation encompasses contempo-rary notions of thinness and the modern gymnasium. Someof the articles are decidedly basic and contribute little newknowledge, such as an article on the body in Buddhism andseveral articles on spiritual healing and the relationshipbetween grace and medicine. The editing is sometimes care-less, which is especially problematic given the price of thebook. Some of the articles will be useful to graduate studentsand researchers. It is therefore advised for library purchase.

Frederick M. SmithUniversity of Iowa

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RELIGION AND POLITICS IN THE INTERNA-TIONAL SYSTEM TODAY. By Eric O. Hanson. New York:Cambridge University Press, 2006. Pp. ix + 329. Cloth,$86.00.

This book presents a nuanced and informed analysis ofthe way religion can and does impact today’s internationalpolitical, economic, military, and communication systems. Itargues for both the importance of taking into account reli-gion when making policy decisions, and for appreciating thefunctional role religion can have in shaping social identityand morality. The work is divided into two sections. The firstsection proposes a “post-cold war paradigm” that provides asuccinct overview of globalization theories. It describes theway the four primary international systems interact toproduce a dynamic and often imperiled world. Moreover,this section details how religions have been instrumental inconstructing political responses based on the level of inter-action between religion and politics at local, national, andinternational levels. In addition, the reader learns how dif-ferent elements of religions—spirituality, ritual, scripture,prophecy, doctrine, law, and morality—influence politics. Thesecond section of the book is devoted to case studies thatapply the previously outlined theoretical paradigm. Specifi-cally, the author discusses how religions in the West, SouthAsia, South and Central Asia, the Middle East and NorthAfrica, and Latin America have been key drivers in the for-mation of political cultures, nation building, resistancemovements, elections and economic development. The bookis suitable for college seniors and graduate students in addi-tion to academics, diplomats, and public policy professionalswho seek to better understand the influence of religion intoday’s international system.

Lauren BurnettLos Angeles, CA

THE CONSISTENT ETHIC OF LIFE: ASSESSING ITSRECEPTION AND RELEVANCE. Edited by Thomas A.Nairn. Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 2008. Pp. v + 208. $25.00.

Shortly before Cardinal Joseph Bernardin’s death, Chi-cago’s Catholic Theological Union spoke to him about theirplan to establish a center that would carry forward his effortsto seek the common good through a consistent ethic of life.This text is the work of ten scholars who met over threeyears to further explore the evolving interpretation of theconcept itself and its relevance for contemporary issues suchas genetics, health care, and ecology. Each incisive essayopens new theological insights into areas of inquiry. Authorsask whether the concept is best understood as reflective of amoral stance, an attitude, a virtue that generates its ownprinciples, or the principle itself that guides the publicdebate. Shannon suggests in a provocative final essay that inlight of the breakthroughs in scientific knowledge about theembryo and others, including the Human Genome Project, asingle principle approach should be rejected in favor of amethodology that examines “the context of the question andhow that context affects the common good.” Nothwehr

enlarges the ethical discussion to include ecology in light ofan eco-feminist virtue of mutuality. Jung argues that “advo-cates for a consistent ethic of life and Christian feministsboth affirm the sacredness of human life, uphold a sense offairness as necessary for such consistency, and recognizethe significance of the context in which decisions are made.”Feminists, however, point to “methodological inconsisten-cies” that must be addressed. Religious ethicists will appre-ciate this substantive collection.

Rosemarie E. GormanFairfield University

WAR, PEACE AND SOCIAL CONSCIENCE: GUY F.HERSHBERGER AND MENNONITE ETHICS. ByTheron F. Schlabach. Studies in Anabaptist and MennoniteHistory, 45. Scottsdale, PA: Herald Press, 2009. Pp. 725.$39.99.

In the United States, between World War I and World WarII, Mennonite thought on the nature of war and peace under-went seismic shifts. During the 1920s and 1930s, Mennonitessought to articulate how they could be both Mennonite andAmerican. Further, in the light of their experiences withconscription during the First World War, how could theycontinue to function as both Christians and as public citizens?In the telling of that story, Hershberger appears as one of thekey shapers of future generations of Mennonites. Forexample, he exercised a strong influence on J. H. Yoder. Inthis much-needed biography, Schlabach provides historicalcontext for Hershberger’s contributions not only during theinterwar period, but during the next forty years as a memberof the Mennonite Central Committee and as a public speakerand author. Exploring Hershberger’s contributions to theareas of labor relations, nonviolence, education, and Menno-nite polity, Schlabach gives a wide-ranging, though at timestedious, account of Hershberger’s scholarship. To understandthe shifts within American Christian thought on war andpeace is to recognize the pivotal role Hershberger playedwithin that story. This volume is well suited for historians ofpeace movements and both undergraduate and graduate stu-dents who are interested in Mennonite ethics.

Myles WerntzBaylor University

rsr_1445 221..263Arts, Literature, Cultureand ReligionTHE CONTINUUM COMPANION TO RELIGIONAND FILM. Edited by William L. Blizek. Continuum Com-panions. London: Continuum, 2009. Pp. x + 426. Cloth,$160.00.

Blizek, Professor of Philosophy and Religion and Chairof Religious Studies at the University of Nebraska—Omaha,and Journal of Religion and Film editor, stresses the legiti-macy of film as a significant academic subject, as art, and asa means of learning about popular culture and religion. The

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