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nealalex's review
3.0
A series of case studies of syncretism, ie assimilating heterodox religious beliefs and practices, in Judaism, Christianity and Islam. Reverence of saints is identified as a common way of integrating pre-monotheistic minor deities, and they can also cross over between religions. There are also chapters on Marranism (a kind of underground Judaism persisting after the Iberian expulsions), the Kabbala, and the idiosyncratic Divine Faith promulgated by the Mogul emperor Akbar.
The author tries to justify the lack of any conceptual framework first by saying it'd be wrong-headed to impose one on something which by its nature is ad hoc. On this basis it'd also be futile to theorize, let's say, engineering. Then at the end he says "There's nothing more frustrating than working with a concept that can include virtually everything" which would probably also make it impossible to write the book he did. So these justifications are clearly vacuous but the case studies are still insightful.
The author tries to justify the lack of any conceptual framework first by saying it'd be wrong-headed to impose one on something which by its nature is ad hoc. On this basis it'd also be futile to theorize, let's say, engineering. Then at the end he says "There's nothing more frustrating than working with a concept that can include virtually everything" which would probably also make it impossible to write the book he did. So these justifications are clearly vacuous but the case studies are still insightful.
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