Martin Palmer

Kuan Yin is the most important, best-loved deity in the Chinese world. She is the living expression of compassion and the center of devotion in most Chinese homes and workplaces. Yet she is barely known in the West. The authors of The Kuan Yin Chronicles introduce Kuan Yin to Western readers, and reveal that Kuan Yin is the mystery and power of the divine feminine, who transcends all doctrines, creeds, and traditions.

The book is divided into three sections:

1. The origins and evolution of Kuan Yin in early China, Buddhism, Taoism, and shamanism.

2. The myths and stories about Kuan Yin.

3. Fresh translations of 100 Kuan Yin poems, which function as both literature and tools for divination and prophecy.… (mehr)

Faith is for fools, and Faith in conservation. New approaches to religions and the environment is an extremely naive publication. The book consists of two parts. Part 1 consists of five chapters describing world efforts in environmental protection and the religious dimension in views on the environment. Part 2 consists of 12 short chapters, an introduction followed by 11 chapters each devoted to one of the major religions. For each of these religions, the authors point out what the basic views of each of these religions is on the world and the environment. However, this is all very theoretical. The authors suggest that almost all religions are very positive about protecting nature and the environment, but they seem to forget that this has not helped very much during the past 1000 years, or so. Besides, the overall worldwide trend is one of secularisation, which means that religious groups have less influence than before. Since the book apparently in meant to show similarities between religions, the structure of the 11 chapters in Part 2 is similar, making the book boring and repetitive. Many sections in each of these chapters are very short, half a page or less. The five chapters in Part 1 are simple, while a lot of interesting material is spread out over the introductions to each of the 11 chapters of Part 2.… (mehr)