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 • Book Reviews 497

all are historically and contextually situated. Non-­Christians will still find
much of value in these texts (particularly Yong’s and Yun’s, given their broader
topic), but they will find that value more in the narrower analyses than in the
broader theoretical claims.
Recognizing this limitation, it is important to note that all three texts are
fairly technical and dense, since their authors valuably strive to analyze various
topics both within and outside Christianity with care, sensitivity, and nuance.
While this means that none of the texts would probably be suitable for under-
graduate classes, all three would be potentially useful in graduate seminars on
pneumatology, comparative theology, and Christian theology more broadly.
Beyond the classroom, they serve as a valuable intervention in a discipline that
has long pushed Pentecostal theology to the margins.
If anything, Neumann is overly generous when he argues that Pentecostal
theology had to mature to be able to provide something of value to Christian
theology; if anything, as an outsider, I would argue it is the other way around—
i.e., over the past few decades, Christian theology as a field has had to mature to
find the humility and grace to welcome Pentecostal theology within its midst.
These authors often have to understate their case, given the reality that many in
their field still consider Pentecostal theology with some skepticism. In many
ways, the welcoming process is still an ongoing struggle in many sectors, so the
value of all three texts in furthering theological conversations on ecumenism,
religious diversity, pneumatology, and many other topics from a distinctly Pen-
tecostal or Charismatic perspective is immeasurable.

Drew Baker, Claremont School of Theology, Claremont, CA

Buddhism and Religious Diversity. Edited by Perry Schmidt-­Leukel. Critical

Concepts in Religious Studies, vol. 1: Eastern Religions (402 pp.); vol.
2, Christianity (330 pp.); vol. 3, Islam and Judaism (361 pp.); vol. 4, Religious
Pluralism (344 pp.). London and New York: Routledge, 2013. The 4-­vol. set
costs $1,430.

As Tomoko Masuzawa and other critics of the category of religion have

noted, most of the discussions of issues surrounding religious diversity in the
modern academy have been broadly confined historically to Christian and sec-
ular authors. Of course, religious diversity is not a topic that has been limited to

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 498 Journal of Ecumenical Studies • 50:3

modern academia, and the only thing that surpasses the cultural and religious
diversity throughout human history is the sheer number of cross-­religious and
cross-­cultural encounters throughout that history. Given this discrepancy be-
tween the dearth of scholarship in the academy (on the topic of diversity, no
less) and the breadth and depth of the reality, the recent growth in works on
non-­Christian perspectives on religious diversity is quite refreshing, and
Schmidt-­Leukel’s work is certainly a valuable contribution to this new wave.
This four-­volume set covers Eastern religions, the Abrahamic religions, and
religious pluralism broadly conceived. These Buddhist volumes deal with their
perspectives on other religious traditions; those looking for texts on other reli-
gious traditions’ perspectives on Buddhism should look elsewhere. This set is
primarily a collection of articles and excerpts from previously published works,
and it does not contain much novel content. However, as any scholar in the field
of Buddhism and religious diversity will tell you, the value of simply gathering
many of these texts together for the first time is immense, as many were difficult
to acquire. While it does include some translations of older works, the set gen-
erally includes just modern scholarly secondary sources on earlier periods, in
addition to primary and secondary sources on Buddhism and religious diver-
sity in the twentieth and twenty-­fi rst centuries. Many important topics are sim-
ply not considered—­Schmidt-­Leukel laments, for instance, the lack of recent
literature on Buddhist perspectives on Jainism (one could certainly add Sikh-
ism and non-­A sian indigenous religions as well). There are several articles that
discuss Buddhist perspectives on diversity within Buddhism, but most focus
on Buddhist perspectives of religious diversity outside of the tradition, how-
ever broadly conceived.
Topics that are included are considered quite extensively; readers will dis-
cover that nearly all of the important authors and modern texts on Buddhist
perspectives on Eastern religions, Abrahamic religions, and religious pluralism
are included, such as excerpts from Arthur Wright’s classic study on Buddhism
and Chinese culture and Masao Abe’s famous reflection on kenosis. Unfortu-
nately, there are no introductions for the texts, which would have been very
helpful to contextualize many of the pieces. The reader is left to the often-­
difficult work of placing the texts historically, which can conceal many of the
weaknesses and issues in older texts (such as Wright’s). More editorial discus-
sion of the historical trends in the modern evolution in scholarship on Buddhist
thought on these topics would have been helpful. This limitation makes this set
a good first-­consult resource, but in many cases further exploration for wider

JES_50.3_TX.indd 498 8/28/15 10:59 AM

 • Book Reviews 499

contextualization will be necessary. In this way, Buddhism and Religious Diver-

sity is a quintessential reference work.
Refreshingly, while primarily designed for an academic audience by the se-
lection of texts from practitioners and religious leaders (from the fourteenth
Dalai Lama to Anagarika Dharmapala), as well as more traditional academics,
the set provides a wide complexity of Buddhist perspectives on religious diver-
sity that are often not brought into conversation with each other. It also in-
cludes many Buddhist voices (from Nichiren to Pure Land) that are generally
pushed to the periphery. Schmidt-­Leukel does a wonderful job of including the
wide range of Buddhist perspectives on religious diversity. His introductions
and editorial selections do not romanticize or essentialize Buddhism in any
way; he presents the full breadth of Buddhist perspectives, including many
texts that openly contradict each other. Many selections also challenge the
popular stereotypes that Buddhism is more tolerant and less violent than other
religious traditions. If there is a central argument to Schmidt-­Leukel’s selection
process, it is that Buddhism—­as all other religious traditions—­is inherently
diverse, even in terms of Buddhists’ perspectives on the question of diversity
itself.
While the prohibitive pricing makes classroom use of this collection diffi-
cult, this set is an authoritative addition to any reference section on religion and
includes valuable features that make it an easy-­to-­consult reference work. The
first volume provides a general introduction that helps orient the reader within
the fairly large scope of the set; each volume also contains its own helpful intro-
duction. The fourth volume contains an extensive index for the entire set. Given
that the text passes only briefly over the historical question of shifting Buddhist
views on religious diversity, the chronological table containing the dates and
original sources for all of the articles and excerpts is immensely useful for pro-
viding context and aiding in further discovery. While many individual articles
have reference sections, there is no collective bibliography for the entire set. A
comprehensive subject-­d ivided bibliography would have strengthened it sig-
nificantly as a reference work. Despite this limitation, both academics and prac-
titioners with interests related to Buddhism, religious diversity, and the many
various relationships between the two will find Buddhism and Religious Diver-
sity a very helpful reference resource.

Drew Baker, Claremont School of Theology, Claremont, CA

JES_50.3_TX.indd 499 8/28/15 10:59 AM