This autobiography vividly describes the author's loss and rediscovery of his cultural and religious heritage. Burkina Faso was still a French colony when SomÇ was born in 1956. At the age of four he was taken from his village by the local Jesuit missionary, who had persuaded his father that he should study for the priesthood. SomÇ begins his account with a description of his early years in the village and his relationship with his grandfather, a powerful elder and medicine man. In the middle section, he deals with the painful years at school and junior seminary. He and his companions were forbidden all reference to their native language and customs, including use of their tribal names, and were victimized by incidents of sadistic cruelty inflicted by the priests and their native assistants. When he was 20 SomÇ was involved in a fight with a priest, after which he fled the seminary and returned to his village. There the elders decided that he should undergo the men's initiation ceremony, normally carried out at puberty. The book's final third describes this extraordinary six-week experience, a dramatic encounter with the psyche that involved, among other things, being buried alive. (Several young men apparently died during the ceremony.) Afterwards the village elders divined that SomÇ should return to offer whites the wisdom and healing they need. To read this book is to be immersed in a fascinating world of spirits, symbolism, and magic, yet the author leaves some unresolved contradictions. His claim, for example, that the Jesuits ``kidnapped'' him is not borne out by his text, and he does not seem to have really lived the harsh village life that he eulogizes. Nor does SomÇ address the crucial question of whether and how traditional ways can flourish in anything but the tribal context. Rservations aside, a beautifully written and personal story that grapples with questions of identity and tradition that affect us all.
Pub Date: May 10, 1994
ISBN: 0-87477-762-3
Page Count: 320
Publisher: TarcherPerigee
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: April 1, 1994
From Pope Gregory the Great in the fifth century to the death of Richard of St. Victor in 1173, the author of The Anti-Christ (p. 1339) continues his highly acclaimed history of Western mystics and their world. For McGinn (Divinity/Univ. of Chicago) mysticism is ``primarily (but not solely) an ecclesial tradition of prayer and practice nourished by scripture and liturgy in order to foster awareness of whatever direct forms of divine presence may be available in this life.'' True to this holistic vision, he offers us a diet rich in quotations from the mystics themselves in analysis of their concepts and in discussion of recent studies. He gives context in his introduction, which offers a concise account of how the western Roman Empire evolved into Christendom. Then we encounter the massive intellect of the ninth-century Irishman John Scottus Eriugena, who spanned Celtic, Latin, and Greek cultures and made available for Charlemagne's West the writings of such eastern Christians as Dionysius, Gregory of Nyssa, and Maximos Confessor. McGinn guides us through Eriugena's immense vision of Nature as dialectically proceeding from, and returning to, God. He provides a masterly treatment of Pope Gregory's understanding of the roles of contemplative and active life as applied to Christianity, going on to cover the genius and influence of St. Benedict. The high point of this volume is McGinn's study of Bernard of Clairvaux, which illuminates Bernard's doctrine of the image of God in the human person and his teachings on experience, the spiritual (or inner) senses, and the essentially spousal love between Christ and the soul. The author also explicates the writings of the early Carthusians and St. Aelred's mystical concept of friendship. He concludes with a survey of French Victorine authors with ``scholastic'' propensities. McGinn's clear and beautiful style aptly expresses his serene command of this highly varied material.
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1995
ISBN: 0-8245-1450-5
Page Count: 560
Publisher: N/A
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
This excellent collection of essays probes the responses of one Native American tribe to the forces of Christianity. In this posthumously published anthology of essays, McLoughlin (History and Religion/Brown; After the Trail of Tears, 1993, etc.) returns once again to the Cherokees about whom he often wrote. These pieces are so interrelated and have such a directed flow that they actually form a comprehensive study of the struggles of the Cherokees (often among themselves) over the issues of conversion to Christianity and acculturation and assimilation into the dominant Euro-American culture. The first section of the work reflects on the history of missionaries among the Cherokees and their efforts to break down traditional religion. These efforts, most successful among mixed bloods, only succeeded, according to the author, as the traditional cultures and societies that supported the indigenous religion were also broken down, thus making individualistic Christianity (as opposed to the Indians' more communal attitudes) a viable response. Part Two deals with accommodations reached by the Cherokee as they balanced old ways with the new faith. Of particular interest is ``Christianity and Racism,'' an essay on the early debate over the origin of Indian peoples: Were they one of the lost tribes of Israel or the result of a separate genesis in the Americas? Also noteworthy is McLoughlin's review of how the oral tradition became fractured with old stories incorporating elements of the Jewish-Christian tradition. Apocalyptic Ghost Dance movements among the Cherokee are examined, as are political struggles within the tribe. Though the volume could have benefited from further editing (and some ethnocentric bias is evident in the use of generic, non- tribal specific terms like 'Great Spirit' and 'conjurer'), the book is nonetheless a major contribution to the study of Native American history and religious studies.
Pub Date: Jan. 3, 1995
ISBN: 0-8203-1639-3
Page Count: 364
Publisher: Univ. of Georgia
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 1, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
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