66 Volume Three, Number 1

Book Reviews

Patterns of Faith in Australian the survey were able to be categorised. Churches Report from the Com­ Rather, this report examines only those bined Churches Survey for Faith people who met the stringent criteria for and Mission inclusion of the various scales. Though no actual numbers are given (it is indicated Philip J. Hughes and 'Tricia Blombery that 42% scored either higher or lower on Christian Research Association one of the scales) and there was obvious Hawthorn! Wollstonecraft, 1990 selectivity involved in the formation of pp. 158 Rpr $16 scales, this does not detract from the ac­ tual findings. Some decisions had to be This study is the last report from the made about the criteria in order to isolate Christian Research Association con­ groups. Otherwise the patterns noted in cerned with the Combined Churches Sur­ this report would have been diffused by vey which was conducted in 1987 among the majority of the responses, which it ap­ Anglicans, Baptists, Catholics, Pentecos­ pears cannot be categorised into one of tal, and Uniting churches. Seven other the four areas: Conversionism, Conven­ reports (including the preliminary report) tionalism, Devotionalism, and Principlism. have been produced. Like the preliminary One of the interesting areas in the report, this report provide~ an overview , report focused on the difference between and touches on manyateas which the conversionist and devotionalist groups on more specialised reports examine in one hand, and the other two, conven­ detail. It goes much further than the tionalist and principlist on the other. The preliminary report, because it ties report concludes that the first two are be­ together accumulated insights gained coming the dominant expression of faith. from the other reports and also examines Though it"may have a conservative edge, a number of areas in the context of a new conventionalism also has a conservative typology of religiosity. In many ways the base. Principlism, which is concerned report could have been entitled Develop­ with the ethics or principles, has a more ing Better Labels. radical edge to it. Perhaps, many of you Patterns ojFaith is a sociological would have already worked out that Bap­ study. It examines aspects of the Christian tists and Pentecostals are conversionist faith in the context of categories which and devotionalist, while Anglican, were developed from the questions on Catholic, and Uniting churches tend to faith asked in the survey. It should be centre on the waning patterns ( with some noted that not all people who completed significant differences). These denomina- Australian Religion Studies Review 67

tionallines, however, tend to be blurred future of the denominations lies with the across several groups. large church. I think there may be a move There are many interesting observa­ towards community oriented churches, tions in the individual chapters. In the which deliberately remain small. chapter on worship I was very interested This report is a very useful summary to note that the Uniting Church received and expansion of some of the key aspects the highest number of criticisms of its ser­ of the Combined Churches Survey. Like vices. This chapter also makes an impor­ the other reports, it is well produced, with tant point regarding church attendance an excellent table of contents, and useful figures. It is indicated that decreasing at­ summaries at the start of each chapter. tendance does not indicate a large loss in The report is also very easy to read faith, but a decline in the number of which, considering its content and sub­ people, particularly principlists, who at­ ject, is a credit to the authors. It success­ tended because the church was at the fully concludes the most significant wider centre of the life of community. The sec­ church study conducted in Australia. tion 'The Church' and Changing Com­ munity Patterns' is a very succinct Peter Bentley summary of volumes of writing on this Freelance Writer, Sydney topic. From 'The Core and the Fringe', I (This and other eRA reports are avail­ noted that there is less likelihood of some­ able from: one being a fringe church attender at a Philip Hughes, 8 Power Street, Haw­ Baptist or Pentecostal church. Obviously thorn 3122, or 'Tricia Blombery, 6 Balfour Street, stricter membership criteria prevent the Wollstonecraft 2065.) fringe dwellers who haunt many other denominations! An important point for those concerned in involving new people and those on the fringe is having those in Buddhism in Australia 1848-1988 the core of the church develop friendships with those who are not. Paul Croucher The chapter on women and men in the New South Wales University Press, Syd­ life of the church reflects the continuing ney. 1989 debate and change which is evident in the ix + 147 pp. Paper. ISBN 0-86840-195-1 wider community. The impact of 'working' women on church attendance The scope and intent of this book are figures is now beginning to consolidate. summed up in the Foreword (written by The chapter on different age groups il­ Khantipalo, who is also one of the book's lustrates again the different dimensions principal characters), as follows: and patterns which the Joint Church Cen­ 'This book represents the first attempt sus exposed. Pentecostal churches do at­ to chronicle the history of Buddhism in tract young people but not in the numbers Australia and its influence on our poetry, which are usually thrown around. art and religious life. It traces the threads The concluding chapter on issues and of interest in nineteenth century directions for the future raises a number Spiritualism and Theosophical Buddhism of critical points. I question whether the through the establishment of the first on- 68 Volume Three, Number 1

going Buddhist societies in the early monk was that of the Burmese U Thittila 1950s and beyond to the 'hippie trail' and in 1954. In fact, Croucher informs us, the Indochinese refugees. ' first such visit took place some four More precisely, this history of decades earlier. In 1915 the eminent Ger­ Australian Buddhism covers the period man scholar-monk Nyanatiloka, then from 1848, when the first Chinese coolie living in Ceylon, came here - but not of labourers - and therefore probably the his own free will. He was interned, fol­ first Buddhists - landed on Australian lowing the outbreak of World War I, and, soil, up to the bicentennial year, 1988. It along with four other less well known is a detailed and full account that is clear­ German monks, was brought to Australia ly based on very thorough research. The and held in the Holdsworthy Concentra­ book is generally well written; it is full of tion Camp at Liverpool near Sydney. interest and makes wonderfully entertain­ Nyanatiloka was subsequently permitted ing reading. to move to a beach-side hut, where he Of necessity the account presented is spent a year writing before moving on to largely a mosaic of biographies. The Hawaii. people who were most influential in the According to Croucher's findings, the development of Buddhism in Australia - first visit by a Buddhist monk may even David Maurice, Marie Byles, Natasha have occurred five years earlier again, in Jackson, Sister Dhammadinna, Charles 1910. The monk in question was an Knight, and others - are portrayed in live­ Englishman, calling himself U Sasana ly detail, warts and all. 'A large number of Dhaja and claiming to have been ordained less significant characters, including such in Bunna, who went about giving lectures unexpected Australian Buddhists as to packed houses from Perth to Sydney. former prime minister Alfred Deakin and But his monastic credentials are rendered actor Peter Finch, also make brief ap­ doubtful by the fact that he was pearances. 'subsidising his visit by selling alabaster Many of these characters appear to Buddha images, which he claimed were have been odd and colou:ifuI eccentrics, 700 years old," and because it seems "he which accounts in large part for the enter­ had several years previously made a lec­ tainment value of the book. Indeed, one ture tour of Australia under some other suspects that the author may perhaps be guise'. unduly highlighting idiosyncrasies at the Such fascinating snippets abound in expense of less amusing but more sig­ the book, and a good many of them are as­ nificant qualities and achievements. sociated with members - and pseudo­ Generally the characters and their exploits members - of the Sangha. For example, are allowed to speak for themselves; oc­ Croucher tells of how the elderly casionally Croucher adds his own inter­ American-born, Ceylon-trained nun pretative comments, which are always Dhammadinna (who lectured and taught insightful and thought-provoking. here in 1952-53) 'laid claim to extra-sen­ A few long-standing misconceptions sory powers and would let out a yell about the history of Australian Buddhism during meditations to let her students are corrected in this book. One such is the know that she was experiencing a often-repeated statement that the first visit 'realisation". In a different vein, he to Australia by an ordained Buddhist recounts how the Panchen Lama,while Australian Religion Studies Review 69

visiting Australia in 1986, made his first dency for the Vietnamese groups to be verbal contact with the Dalai Lama since isolated from the mainstream by the bar­ the latter's flight from Tibet in 1959. riers of language and cultural difference. Members of Melbourne's Tibetan Infor­ In his last two paragraphs Croucher mation SelVice, who were entertaining lapses into a mildly proselytising mode of the party, managed to keep the Panchen discourse - incongruously, because with Lama's Chinese minders so well plied this small exception the entire historical with wine that he was enabled to slip out account is presented with what comes and take a pre-arranged phone call to across as admirable detachment and even­ Bonn, where the Dalai Lama was at the handedness. time. Buddhism in Australia is a great piece Much equally entertaining information of work on a previously neglected aspect is given regarding the activities of the of religion in this country. And one various lay people who figured prominent­ doesn't have to have a special interest in ly in Australia's Buddhist history. There Buddhism, or in Australian religious his­ are inspiring stories of great dedication, tory, to find it a really good read. such as that of the scholar-translator F.L. Woodward. And there are unedifying ac­ Roderick S. Bucknell counts of self-selVing, power-seeking University of Queensland plots and intrigues. Reading Croucher's account of what went on in some of the A Dictionary of Religious Quota­ regional Buddhist societies, one is tions repeatedly baffled that these people could have devoted so much energy to the study Margaret Pepper (ed) of Buddhism, and so little to its practice. Andre Deutsch, London. 1989. Croucher supports his account with an 496pp. Cloth. $39.95 (available from impressive array of sources, ranging from Lothian Books) reports in obscure country newspapers of the early 1900s down to tape-recorded in­ In a half-page introduction the com­ telViews with contemporary figures. He piler presents this dictionary unpreten­ shows himself remarkably conversant tiously as a collection which grew out of with his subject matter. He also displays a personal collection of favourite great perceptivity, as he seeks to capture religious quotations. Without further ado the spirit of the periods he is dealing with, the remainder of the book presents an al­ and to identify what made those early phabetical arrangement of subjects (each Australian Buddhists 'tick'. in bold capitals) from 'abandonment', A small and perhaps forgivable defect 'abiding', and 'abortion' to 'yesterday', in the book is a marked unevenness in the 'youth', and 'zeal', followed by a subject account of ethnic Buddhism. The history index and an index of authors and major of the many large Vietnamese groups works. Each subject entry is followed by receives far less attention than that of the one or more quotations which are num­ much less numerous Sri Lankan, Bur­ bered on each page (there are over 4000 mese, and Thai/Lao centres. This is no in the volume). A lengthy entry may run doubt partly due to a problem that the over several pages; thus there are four author himself draws attention to: a ten- and a half pages selected as relevant to 70 Volume Three, Number 1

'heaven'. Sources of the quotations are lightenment. It might have been helpful if many and varied; apart from scriptural the compiler had been more forthcoming passages there are selections from writers about the parameters and rational for from ancient and modem times, repre­ choice of authors/sources. Also the sub­ senting many traditions as well as the ject index seems to be superfluous in a secular and the sacred. A few examples il­ collection in dictionary format (it adds lustrate the catholicity of the collection: nothing to the alphabetical subject listing, Bertholt Brecht, Emily Bronte, Rupert containing no cross references). Further Brooke, Albert Camus, Miguel de Cervan­ the numbering of main subject entries and tes, Jean Cocteau, Elizabeth the Queen then numbering quotations within each Mother, Erasmus, Euripides, Billy entry takes some getting used to. Graham, Franz Kafka, Horatio Nelson, The volume does have the advantage Ovid, the Qur' an, and Joseph Stalin. of being ecumenical! This collection contains a wealth of material for those who find anthologies LynGorman valuable as a source of inspiration or en- Charles Sturt University -Riverina.