The Saint of Kathmandu: and Other Tales of the Sacred in Distant Lands - Softcover

Levine, Sarah

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0807013137 ISBN 13: 9780807013137

Publisher: Beacon Press, 2009

Synopsis

With the deft evocations of a master storyteller and the exhaustive knowledge of a scholar, LeVine takes us on a quest to understand the role of religious belief in everyday life around the globe. She writes of uneasy relations between Islam and spirit possession in a Nigerian town; of a Nepalese teenager's flight from an arranged marriage to become a feminist Buddhist nun; of Mexican women taking the Virgin Mary as their role model; and of American Zen Buddhists struggling to maintain their community despite a deeply flawed teacher. These stories and more give a larger picture of religious faith, one that has little to do with doctrine or philosophical abstractions.

About this title

About the Author:

Sarah LeVine grew up in England. She was educated at Oxford, the University of Chicago, and Harvard, where she received her Ph.D. and is now an associate in the Department of Sanskrit and Indian Studies. Her most recent book, with David Gellner, is Rebuilding Buddhism. She lives in the Boston area.

From Publishers Weekly:

Anthropologist LeVine, who has observed family interactions in Asia, Latin America and Africa over the course of decades, recounts how faith and superstition influence the daily life of the vibrant people she has met. My focus is always on my characters' need for religious faith and the uses they make of it, she writes. With her observing eye and boundless curiosity, LeVine describes how witchcraft, Buddhism, spirit possession, charismatic Christianity and the Virgin Mary help people make sense of their lives and endure the hardships they encounter. Vivid descriptions and sympathetic portraits are this book's strengths, while the author's treatment of religion sometimes tends toward the superficial, addressing religion primarily as solace. LeVine (who coauthored Rebuilding Buddhism with David Gellner) is reticent about her reactions to the practices she witnesses and doesn't always reveal when the events occurred, thereby omitting vital clues about political and cultural contexts. Still, this is compelling ethnography, and much of the book serves as testimony to the vulnerability of women in developing countries. (June 18)
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About this edition

• Publisher: Beacon Press
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0807013137
• ISBN 13: 9780807013137
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 256