Description
Australian native May (ecumenics, Trinity College, Dublin) analyzes the encounter between the two world religions and the native religions of Papua New Guinea, where he did ecumenical work between 1983 and 1987. His goal is to identify core characteristics of each religion, and assess the comparative suitability of monotheistic and polytheistic religions as a force for world peace. Annotation (c) Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
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The first two parts of this book present four detailed historical studies, filled with Geertzian "thick description," of the encounters of Christianity and Buddhism (universal religions with a high quotient of "transcendence") with various primal religious traditions ("biocosmic" or "immanentist") of the Asian-Pacific region, namely, Aboriginal Australia and Melanesia (Christianity) and Sri Lanka and Japan (Buddhism). In each case, the encounters represented a failure of the "great" traditions. In the third, constructive and theological part of the book, the author shows how an acknowledgment of these failures may provide a back door to dialogue.
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