WORLD OF THE SPIRITS
A Christian Perspective on Traditional and Folk Religions
By David Burnett. Monarch Books. 287 pages. £9.99
ISBN 1 85424 499 X
This is a revised version of the author's book Unearthly Powers (1988). He is Director of Studies at All Nations Christian College, Ware, Herts. His present aims are to build respect for all societies, to assess their beliefs in the light of the Christian faith without being judgmental, and to show how folk religion is evolving in a dynamic world.
As an experienced missionary and anthropologist, Dr. Burnett is able to introduce clearly to the trainee missionary and to the general reader the complexity of belief and practice outside the major religions in traditional societies. Using familiar categories like 'Gods and Spirits' and 'Ghosts and ancestors', he also reviews the attempts by anthropologists to analyse the meaning of such practices as taboo, sorcery and divination.
