Religious tolerance in world religions

By Ed Neusner & Chilton, Templeton Foundation Press, £26.99
ISBN: 978-1-59947-136-5

This book consists of a variety of conference papers on this theme. Topics range from ancient Israel, the pre-Christian West, tolerance in the Early Church to a Roman Catholic view from Vatican II in the 1960s and a paper on Mormonism. There are other specialist papers on aspects of Judaism, Islam, Buddhism and Hinduism. Some of the chapters appeared too narrow and specialist for a volume covering a broad theme.

For this reviewer the most stimulating paper was on Sinhala Buddhist nationalism, which helped explain the background to the current conflict in Sri Lanka and contained information I had not come across in other sources.

Reviewer: Brian Talbot, minister of Broughty Ferry Baptist Church, Dundee