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VOYAGE TO THE FAR EAST by Helmut Thielieke

VOYAGE TO THE FAR EAST

By

Publisher: Muhlenberg Press

In Dr. Thielieke, the noted German theologian, took a summer's vacation from his monumental series of volumes entitled Theological Ethics. His vacation consisted of a leisurely voyage on one of the ships of the Hamburg-American Line, and this book is very simply the journal he kept during the cruise. Beginning from Antwerp the route included Aden, Malaya, Hong Kong, Japan, Mainland China, and the Philippines Islands as ports of call. As he modestly states in his foreword, the average readers of travel books will not ""find anything particularly new....This is only the story of a voyage, the people who shared it...and what they talked about."" Its worth lies in its candid self portraiture and the author's very real interest in the lives of everyone around him. One of the most fascinating parts is a dialogue between Dr. Thielicke and the great Zen Buddhist master, Hosekel; but most memorable of all are the many unassuming conversations between this theologian and the sailors and other persons he encountered, and the truly astonishing amount of understanding he can show for them and their problems. A book to be valued by any thoughtful reader, regardless of religious persuasion.