Customer Reviews

Religious Vegetarianism: From Hesiod to the Dalai Lama

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I've been looking forward to the publication of this book ever since I heard it was in the works two years ago. It was worth every bit of the wait. It's an excellent companion to Walters and Portmess Ethical Vegetarianism, but it's also a fine book by itself. It discusses religious justifications of vegetarianism from a number of religious traditions. I was especially intrigued by the discussions of Xtian and Jewish vegetarianism. I always thought that there was no spiritual support in these two traditions for vegetarianism, but now I see that this is plain wrong. In fact, Both Xtianity and Judaism have a long tradition of compassion for animals. You just have to do a little reading between the lines. If you're looking for a spiritual grounding for your vegetarianism, get this book. It's great!

This book is an eyeopener. For the vegetarian as well as the nonvegetarian. It gives a good account of how different religious faiths around the world and across time have preached a meatless diet. It's pretty well known that buddhists and hindus preach vegetarianism, but I was particularly interested to learn there is a strong tradition of vegetarianism in the Jewish and Christian traditions.

For those of us who think that killing animals for food is a violation of deep spiritual laws, this book is a Godsend. At this time, when war and destruction seems right around the corner, beginning to practice nonviolence in our daily lives seems like a good idea. This book helps us along the way. It's a very good partner to Portmess and Walter's earlier book, Ethical Vegetarianism.

This book is a breath of fresh air. All we hear about today when it comes to religions is how they breed intolerance and violence. That may be so for the most part, but Religious Vegetarianism shows the other side. All the major world traditions also have a core of peacefulness and love that extends to humans, animals, and the earth itself. This book shows one way that this core works itself out in practical terms--through what the authors call religious vegetarianism. I give it four starts instead of five because it doesn't discuss paganism, which is the most eco-sensitive of all the world's religions. But it's still a very good read.