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Reviews the book "Offering Smoke: The Sacred Pipe and Native American Religion," by Jordan Paper.

ABSTRACT Among most historians of Africa, and others in the humanities concerned with Africa, it has been almost axiomatic that writing and reading arrived in Africa and spread with the coming of European colonialism, especially through the agency of Christian missionaries. Although missionaries did indeed establish schools and introduce various kinds of literacy, there is a much longer history of the book in various parts of the continent. This essay looks at some of the recent work that focuses on the use of the Arabic script in Africa. Although the field of 'Islam in Africa' has framed this work, it is necessary to see the uses of this literacy within the frame of the history of the book and related fields. The works discussed are rich in content and analysis and provide the opening for new initiatives on the content of the literacy and the methods of teaching and reading, but also the materiality of the book and the formation of the archive. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article reviews the book "Economics and Religion (The International Library of Critical Writings in Economics)," Volumes I and II, edited by Paul Oslington.

Reviews the book "Current Studies on Rituals: Perspectives for the Psychology of Religion," edited by Hans-Günter Heimbrock and H. Barbara Boudewijnse.

Reviews the book "The Gospel of Philip: Jesus, Mary Magdalene, and the Gnosis of Sacred Union," by Jean-Yves Leloup, translated by Joseph Rowe.

Reviews the book "Living Banaras: Hindu Religion in Cultural Context," edited by Bradley R. Hertel and Cynthia Ann Humes.

The focus of this book is the nature and proper constitution of the economic order in the United States. The subject is approached in ten essays divided among three perspectives, all focusing on the nature and relationship of Christianity and capitalism. Two historical essays, by John Pawlikowski and David Krueger, offer valuable grounding in (respectively) Catholic and Protestant approaches to ethical analysis of economic issues. Contemporary Christian Ethics is represented in essays by Franklin Gamwell, Robert Benne, Cornel West, Douglas Sturm, and Widick Schroeder, while perspectives from economics, social theory, and anthropology are provided in essays by Daniel Finn, Bruce Grelle, and Kay Warren. In many ways the key piece in this anthology is Gamwell's paper, which poses the broad question of the interrelation between liberal political thought, religious ethics, and the economic order and argues that an ongoing dispute within liberalism itself is a major obstacle to consensus on the proper shape of the economic sphere. With the reawakened interest in application of religious ethical analysis to defining social justice in the economy, however, all the component essays of this volume are useful, and varied, sources of thoughtful reflection. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reviews the book "Roman Catholicism and the American Way of Life," edited by Thomas T. McAvoy.

Reviews the book "Anabaptist-Mennonite Identities in Ferment," edited by Leo Driedger and Leland Harder.

Reviews the book "Experiences of Place," edited by Mary N. MacDonald.

Reviews the book "Contesting Sacrifice: Religion, Nationalism, and Social Thought in France," by Ivan Strenski.

Reviews the book "Introducción a la Historia de las Religiones," by Francisco Diez de Velasco.

Reviews the book "Economics and Religion," edited by Paul Oslington.