Bearing in mind this book’s evangelical publisher and the similarity of the title to John Hick’s short collection of essays, God Has Many Names (1980), one could be forgiven for assuming that this is a conservative discussion of Christian theology and religious plurality, the principal aim of which is to anathematize pluralist philosophies. The main title, however, is a little misleading, the subtitle being far more indicative of the book’s content. Although the book is a discussion of the ‘story of attempts to understand, interpret and explain the reality of religious plurality’ (p. 13), it is not primarily a history of specifically ‘Christian theological’ attempts to do this. It rather traces the history of the modern study of religions from the nineteenth century to (almost) the present day. This is something that most students of theology and religious studies are likely to find both interesting and beneficial. Certainly I would argue that a grasp of the issues raised and discussed by Dr Hughes, a former Religious Studies lecturer at the University of Glamorgan and now theological adviser to TEAR Fund, is necessary for an informed understanding of the discipline.

This remarkably comprehensive survey is divided into three parts. The first part is an introduction to ‘the intellectual foundations of Religious Studies’. The second part moves into the twentieth century and considers ‘various approaches to religion that are still current, and which have been built on the foundations [discussed in Part One]’. The third part is a critical discussion of ‘a number of basic issues’, of which the principal ones are (a) the question of authority in religion, (b) mysticism, and (c) the idea that there is a single Absolute worshipped by the world’s religions. Within this overall framework, there are sections discussing the ideas of Kant, Schleiermacher, Hegel, Müller, Otto, Comte, Darwin, Frazer, Freud, Durkheim, William James, E.O. James, Marett, Weber, W.C. Smith, van der Leeuw, McKenzie, Ninian Smart, Levi-Strauss, Leach, Marx, Campolo, Berger, Jung, Eliade, Aldous Huxley and Hick. Along with these there are more general discussions of anthropology, religious experience and the nature of religion.

The book’s comprehensiveness and accessibility are among its most obvious strengths. For the ‘interested layperson’ and theology/religious studies student it is a well-structured introduction to thinkers, movements, concepts and issues in the history of religious studies. Terms and difficult concepts are carefully explained by a scholar who clearly knows his subject well. Apart from Eric Sharpe’s now rather dated classic, Comparative Religion: A History (1975), I cannot think of a comparable volume that will serve the student as well as Dr Hughes’s does. As such it is to be commended for filling a gap in introductions to the discipline.

However, unlike Sharpe’s book, some discussions are perhaps a little too brief. When one considers that within 31 pages (pp. 24–55) he manages to discuss the sometimes rather complex thought of Kant, Schleiermacher, Hegel, Müller, Otto, Comte, Darwin and the anthropologists, Frazer, Freud, Durkheim, and the functionalist school of social anthropology, it is surprising that he produces as much useful material as he does. Although there are fuller discussions in the book, his treatments of Wilfred Cantwell Smith (pp. 81–95) and Mircea Eliade (pp. 155–71) being particularly notable, the more advanced reader may find the speed at which he races through important thinkers, movements and issues a little frustrating.

Having said that, this is principally an ‘introductory’ volume with the needs of students in mind. As such, and as one who would have greatly valued it as an undergraduate, I warmly commend it—although it is a pity that the publishers did not have its increasingly hard-up readership in mind when they decided on the price.

---