Journeys East: 20th Century Western Encounters with Eastern Religous Traditions (The Library of Perennial Philosophy)

Features

• Cover Type: Paperback with 528 pages
• Published by: World Wisdom June 25, 2004
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0941532577
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0941532570
• Book Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 1.2 inches
• Weighs: 1.7 pounds

Reader Reviews
The title of this book suggests that it is a history of 20th century Westerners studying or practicing Eastern religious traditions. Really, the first 330 pages of the book deliver just that, and they do so very well. I was pleased to get good biographical information about figures such as the Theosophists, Jung, Campbell, Eliade, Marco Pallis, D. T. Suzuki, Allen Ginsberg, Ram Dass, Alan Watts, Thomas Merton, Bede Griffiths, Ken Wilber and many others. In fact, I really would've enjoyed more of that: more extensive accounts of their lives, their thought and what influenced them. That section of the book gets five stars from me; even though the sections are way too short and shallow. Figures such as Jung, Merton and Watts, not to mention many others, deserve a richer coverage than this. Nevertheless, the breadth of the coverage is very nice. It is a fine introduction. I nearly deducted a star even in the first section because the author does not see his task to be one of history, but of evaluation according to Traditionalist criteria (elaborated especially by Schuon and Nasr). He is concerned to report about whether these figures fulfilled the Traditionalist ideal, which in my opinion is a distraction from the more interesting account of what they did, taught and what influenced them. In the last hundred pages or so, he slips into a defense of Traditionalism and an attack on methodological materialism. I've also recently read Huston Smith's Why Religion Matters, which had this project as its sole subject, and I think that's the better way to handle it. Essentially, the issue is how to study religion academically. Generally, practitioners and believers of religious traditions study in order to better understand the values and teachings of their tradition, rather than to understand mere historical or psychological contingencies. On the other side, many scholars want universities to be sites of skepticism and questioning rather than indoctrination; but that is inevitably a secular approach. The struggles between the two sides disturb the faculties of many religious studies departments. I was underwhelmed even by Smith, but Oldmeadow's discussion never rises above sermonizing. I think he anticipated having a sympathetic audience, because he did not address any of the reasons that people disagree with him. He presents ridiculously parodied visions of science and philosophy, casually blaming them for all the ills of industrialism and commercialism. It would be enough for me to say that I disagree with him; but I want to emphasize how unfairly he presented science and philosophy, and wonder why. Quite often, in fact, he attacks evolution not only as a cultural or spiritual theory (where it is very questionable), but in biology itself. He claims to have no quarrel with the actual findings of science, merely with the way they are interpreted. That seems to imply that we can search for interpretations of scientific facts to fit our nonscientific intuitions (moral and mystical, for instance). However, (p. 358): "[I]t is preferable to believe that God created the world in six days and that heaven lies in the blue skies above the flat surface of the earth than it is to know precisely the distance from one nebula to another whilst forgetting the truth embodied in this symbolism, namely that all phenomena depend on a higher Reality which determines us and gives our human existence meaning and purpose. A materially inaccurate but symbolically rich view is always preferable to the regime of brute fact." That is a fascinating admission, and ultimately this is why I will remember this book (although I will happily return to its better parts for reference). Is it not better, I would ask, to know the brute facts and face them honestly, and then to discover and elaborate their rich symbolic, spiritual potential? I would answer affirmatively without hesitation, and look for inspiration to examples such as Chet Raymo, Loyal Rue, Ursula Goodenough, Carl Sagan or Ed Wilson, perhaps even Brian Swimme, not to mention stars like Einstein. That is on the scientific side of the question, with which I am well familiar. His portrait of philosophy was just as unfair; in order to do it he had to pass over figures as central as Wittgenstein and as relevant to the stated theme of the book as Jaspers. The greater part of this review has focused on content in the last 100 pages of this book. The first two-thirds of the book, when he generally stuck to the theme announced by the title and subtitle, were very interesting and deserve the customary five stars of Amazon reviews. But the final pages are not only irrelevant, but so poorly argued, if they were meant to be an argument rather than a sermon, that they deserve one star at best. So I compromise. I want to close by emphasizing again that the first 2/3 really are a good introduction to the subject, and if that's what you want you'll find it there. Comment | | (Report this)