RETALIATION OF THE CURSED

A search for the common origins of various cultures’ faiths.

In this densely packed work, Martin initially offers a roughly chronological survey of organized religions through the ages, including those of the ancient Egyptians, the early Mesopotamians, and the Chinese, where the roots of faith run deep. In these and all other cases, Martin seeks to trace the common, key theological concepts that run through them all. For example, he quotes from ancient Egyptian Scripture and concludes that Egyptians of the time “understood that man has a sinful nature, but God has a forgiving nature,” just as in Christianity and other faiths. Likewise, he examines the nature of divine proscriptions in conjunction with observable history. “It is clear that crimes like murder were [seen as] intrinsically wrong and did not just become wrong once there was a law against it,” he writes, with an eye toward the commandments featured in the Old Testament. “The law came after the sin to illuminate the presence of the sin.” The analytical tenor of many of Martin’s theological sources is clearly reflected in his own text, and some of the analysis is heavily inferential, as when he notes that “Sumer had developed a culture of beer drinking and leisure, which kept the people occupied and dependent on the lifestyle.”

In part due to his research’s extremely wide ambit, Martin sometimes slips into error or excessive enthusiasm—although, to be fair, in a work with this much detail, such moments could hardly be avoided. Some of the pronouncements here do seem to be strangely ignorant of history, though, as when the author writes that “karma” is atheistic in origin or that “Polytheism…has always weakened nations, while monotheism, in contrast, has united nations.” In the latter case, many of the longest-lasting cultures in history have been largely polytheistic, and two of the most powerful Western nations to be ripped apart by civil war, America and England, are mostly monotheistic. In addition, Martin’s reliance on reference works such as Eerdmans’ Handbook to the World’s Religions seems to introduce a tone of literary criticism into his theological discussions, as when he writes, “In the Bible, God appears to create mankind purely because He is maximally good, and it is more fully good to share existence than to keep it all to oneself.” (The Book of Genesis does not state God’s motivation for Creation.) That said, the author’s historical insights are usually quite sharp, and he expertly marshals his sources to make his points. His thoughts on the symbology of the serpent and the egg in modern Hinduism, for example, are intriguing, and some of his summaries are thought-provoking, as when he notes that “the Christian practice of communion is one area that has historically shown how the priesthood became a priestcraft.” The breadth of his research does have the effect of blurring his stated focus on modern Hinduism, but it also results in a great deal of engaging content.

An often challenging and wide-ranging inquiry into organized religions.