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International Review for the History of Religions INTERNATIONAL REVIEW FOR THE HISTORY OF RELIGIONS EDITED ON BEHALF OF THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE HISTORY OF RELIGIONS by H. G. KIPPENBERG and E.T. LAWSON VOLUME XL A?GID83 /63 ' '/6 8 LEIDEN E.J. BRILL 1993 CONTENTS E d ito rial ................................................................. 1 Articles Manfred HUTTER, Manichaeism in the Early Sasanian Empire 2 Allan A. ANDREWS, Lay and Monastic Forms of Pure Land Devotionalism: Typology and History ....................... 16 Narasingha P. SIL, Vivekananda's Ramakrsna: An Untold Story of Mythmaking and Propaganda ...................... 38 Paul L. SWANSON, "Zen is Not Buddhism": RecentJapanese Critiques of Buddha-Nature .................................... 115 M.F.C. BOURDILLON, Anthropological Approaches to the Study of African Religions ...................................... 217 Jacob K. OLUPQNA, The Study of Yoruba Religious Tradi- tion in Historical Perspective ................................... 240 Robert M. BAUM, Shrines, Medicines, and the Strenght of the Head: The Way of the Warrior among the Diola of Senegambia ................................................ 274 Michael LAMBERT,Ancient Greek and Zulu Sacrificial Ritual. A Comparative Analysis ........................................ 293 Inaugural lecture Jan N. BREMMER, Prophets, Seers, and Politics in Greece, Israel, and Early Modern Europe ............................. 150 Conferences Christian JOCHIM, A Report on the "International Academic Conference on Religion", Beijing, April 6-10, 1992 ..... 63 Jacob K. OLUPONA and Rosalind I.J. HACKETT, Report on the Conference "The Study of Religions in Africa", Harare, September 1992 ........................................ 319 Survey article M.M. SHAKHNOVICH, The Study of Religion in the Soviet Union ........................................ ........ 67 VI CONTENTS Review article TUBINGEN WORK GROUP, Priesthoods in Mediterranean Religions ........................................ ....... 82 Edward A. YONAN, Religion Confronts the Social Sciences. On Robert A. Segal's Religion and the Social Sciences ....... 184 Jan G. PLATVOET, Programmatic Statements from Africa, 1982-1992 ................................. .............. 322 Martin PROZESKY, A Response to Jan Platvoet ............... 343 Book reviews William E. Paden, Interpretingthe Sacred. Ways of Viewing Religion (Donald WIEBE) ......................................... 95 Hans Waldenfels, Begegnungder Religionen (Ursula KING) ... 97 John B Henderson, Scripture, Canon, and Commentary. A Comparison of Confucian and Western Exegesis (Rudolf G. WAGNER) ........................................ ...... 99 Bruce Lincoln, Death, War, and Sacrifice. Studies in Ideologyand Practice (Jorg RUPKE) ............................................. 102 Lauri Honko (Ed.), Religion, Myth, and Folklorein the World's Epics. The Kalevala and its Predecessors(J.G. OOSTEN)...... 103 Stefanie E. Jamison, The Ravenous Hyenas and the Wounded Sun. Myth and Ritual in Ancient India (L.P. VAN DEN BOSCH) 106 Kurt Rudolph, Geschichteund Problemeder Religionswissenschaft (Jacques WAARDENBURG) ........................................ 188 E.T. Lawson and R.N. McCauley, Rethinking Religion. ConnectingCognition and Culture (J.G. PLATVOET)........... 189 Frank Reynolds and David Tracy (Eds.), Discourse and Practice (Donald WIEBE) .......................................... 192 Eliot Deutsch (Ed.), Culture and Modernity. East-West Perspectives (Shlomo BIDERMAN) ................................. 194 Martin E. Marty and R. Scott Appleby (Eds.), Fundamen- talisms Observed (Hans G. KIPPENBERG) ....................... 195 W.A.R. Shadid and P.S. van Koningsveld (Eds.), Islam in Dutch Society. Current Developments and Future Prospects (L.P. VAN DEN BOSCH) ........................................... 196 David S. Potter, Prophecy and History in the Crisis of the Roman Empire. A Historical Commentaryon the Thirteenth Sibylline Oracle (P.W. VAN DER HORST) ....................... 198 CONTENTS VII Bernard McGinn, The Presenceof God. A History of Western Christian Mysticism (Gedaliahu G. STROUMSA) ............... 199 Patrick J. Geary, Furta Sacra. Thefts of Relics in the Central Middle Ages (Kevin TRAINOR) ................................... 202 Wilhelm Halbfass, Tradition and Reflection. Explorations in Indian Thought (L.P. VAN DEN BOSCH) ........................ 204 Andre Padoux, Vdc. The Concept of the Word in Selected Hindu Tantras (Kees BOLLE) ..................................... 205 Deba Brata SenSharma, The Philosophy of Sddhana, with Special Reference to the Trika Philosophy of Kashmir (H. ISAACSON) ........................................ ......... 208 Lee Siegel, Net of Magic. Wonders and Deceptions in India (Kirin NARAYAN) ................................................. 211 M.C. Jedrej and Rosalind Shaw (Eds.), Dreaming, Religion and Society in Africa (Jan G. PLATVOET) ....................... 348 Richard Gray, Black Christiansand White Missionaries (Jan G. PLATVOET) ................................................. 350 Obituary (Joseph Mitsuo Kitagawa) .............................. 109 Publications received.............................................. 1 213 NVMEN ISSN 0029-5973 ? Copyright1993 by E.J. Brill, Leiden, The Netherlands All rightsreserved. No part of this bookmay be reproducedor translatedin anyform, by print, photoprint, microfilm, microfiche or any othermeans without written permission from the publisher PRINTED IN THE NETHERLANDS NUMEN Vol. 40 (1993) EDITORIAL The editors of NUMEN are pleased to announce that the publisher BRILL has accepted their proposal to heighten NUMEN's presence in the international academic community by increasing the number of issues published each year. Commencing with the first issue in 1993 NUMEN will be published three times a year instead of twice yearly and its size will increase from 288 to 336 pages. The three fascicles will be issued in January, May and September. Increasing the number of issues per year is an indication of a heightened interest among scholars throughout the world in grasp- ing the opportunity that NUMEN provides as an international forum for analysing and discussing the major religious issues facing the contemporary scholarly study of religion. BRILL's decision to support the editor's recommendation fosters their aim to encourage this development. HANS G. KIPPENBERG/ E. THOMAS LAWSON NUMEN Vol. 40 (1993) MANICHAEISM IN THE EARLY SASANIAN EMPIRE MANFRED HUTTER Summary It is well-known that Mani knew Christian Gnosticism, Zoroastrianismand also a little of Buddhism and used different items from these religions. As we can see from the Sabuhragan, the central themes of Mani's teachings at the Sasanian court were the "two principles" and the "three times", but he reworkedthem and brought them close to Zurwanism, because King Sabuhr did not favour 'orthodox' Zoroastrianism but 'heretical' Zurwanism. Thus Manichaeism could flourish for thirty years within the Sasanian empire. After Sabuhr's death the Zoroastrian priest Kirdir gained influence at the court, thus Manichaeism -and Zurwanism-met restrictions which finally led to Mani's death. In consequence Manichaeism and Zurwanism, which always favoured universalism, were put aside in order to establish Zoroastrianism as a nationalistic religion in Iran. 1. Mani-the interpreterof religion It is a well-known fact that the Manichaean religion depends on many different roots:' Mani himself was born into an Iranian family, but at the age of four his father took him to the religious community of the Elchasaites as has become apparent from the publication of the famous Manichaean Codex from Cologne. The location of the Elchasaites in South Mesopotamia bears its influence on Mani because South Mesopotamia was at that time the crossroads of religious thought between the West and the East. On the other hand when Mani had grown up he went to north west India where he encountered Buddhism. Therefore Mani knew Christian Gnosticism, Zoroastrianism and also a little of Buddhism which enabled him to use different items from these religions for his preaching and his interpretation of the former religions. A Manichaean text puts it thus: 2 "Great noble Maitreya, messenger of the gods, grea[test] 3 among the interpreters of Religion, Jesus- Maiden of Light, Mar Mani, have mercy on me." The epitheta given to Mani in this text clearly relate to Buddhism (cf. mytr:), Zoroastrianism (cf. yzd'n), and Syrian Christianity (cf. yysw ). The apostle of light, Mani, is the interpreter of the former religions (dyn Cypysyng'n) and he himself brings the best religion to the world, Manichaeismin the EarlySasanian Empire 3 because "the former religions (existed) as long as they had the pure leaders, but when the leaders had been led upwards (i.e. had died), then their religions fell into disorder and became negligent in com- mandments and works. ... This revelation of mine of the two prin- ciples and my living books, my wisdom and knowledge are above and better than those of the previous religions."4 So Mani finally brought to perfection what all other religious leaders before him had started; the teachings of Zarathustra, Buddha, Jesus, and the other prophets were in imperfect order, but they all had some kernels of truth. This topic of sending former prophets to various peoples in various times and languages can be found very often in Manichaean scriptures. Only recently a new text of this kind became known through the publication of the Coptic texts from Dublin showing
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