| Popis: |
Review: The relation between religion and ecology has become a big subject nowadays, but this extremely mature work represents the well-considered gist of studies which have taken place over many years. The author combines the training of a natural scientist with experience of socially engaged work with the World Council of Churches and, thirdly, a trained perspective in the comparative study of religions which has been enriched by social-scientific field study in Thailand and frequent interactions with Southeast Asia, India and adjacent countries such as Ladakh and Bhutan. All of this comes together in an immensely readable book, full of factual information and anecdotal illustration. There is even an appendix on medicinal plants identified in Thailand and an another with an impressively long list of Indian NGO's concerned with environmental questions. Much care is taken to make sure that those unsure of particular political developments in particularly relevant periods or of basic reference points in the major religous traditions considered, Hinduism and Buddhism, are not left floundering. This is an extremely useful and manageable textbook for use in a wide variety of university and college courses. Yet it is so much more than a textbook. The work is based throughout on factual material which is not otherwise easily accessible, though more may be found in David Gosling's own publications as listed in the bibliography. |
