You can't judge a book by its cover, and neither do I.
I picked this one, and thought it to be interesting which it is "partially". However, this is one of those books where the writer has quoted extensively himself. I don't really mind it but this really got on my nerves when in a lot of instances it was only "like I mentioned in my other works". I was not really looking for a compendium or a cheat sheet of your work.
As far as the rest of things this doesn't offer anything new. In fact, I was surprised how it tried to low ball some of the casualties in the history. I never fall for numbers but the extent to which it tried to normalise the things was on a border of dehumanising a lot of historical incidents.
And yes, if you look closely you can find the bias in the whole narration. There were things about other religions like Buddhism, Hindu etc which were summarily rejected in a line. So much justification of missionary work, and there was a whole dissection of strategy why it didn't work in some countries/communities. Also, I was also surprised with how frequently the words barbarians and pagans were used in such a derogatory reference.
There is no theology in it (don't fall for the title), and there is definitely no place for rationality.
Peace!
No comments:
Post a Comment