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in relation to Roman Catholic claims about the Church's faith, authority and practice . On the other hand, there was the parallel and rather later debate within Protestantism between what may roughly be described as the Anglican and Puritan elements . Each of these debates, and particularly the Eucharistic controversy, is illuminatingly surveyed . Over two-thirds of this volume, however, deals with worship in this period . Here we see how the theological debates came down to earth and affected the daily religious practices of ordinary believers . In a masterly way, Horton Davies outlines the effect of the Reformation on Roman Catholic worship, the nature and influence of the Anglican prayer-books, the structure and role of sermons, exegesis of the Bible, controversies about ex tempore praying and the forms of worship of the radical dissenters . He then considers how religion was both expressed in and influenced by religious art, architecture, music and spirituality . The volume has a few pleasant illustrations, a valuable bibliography, good indices and lively quotations . DAVID A . PAILIN

Faculty of Theology, University of Manchester BELLAH, ROBERT N ., Beyond Belief. New York : Harper & Row, 1970, xi + 291 PP . $7.95. No one in the contemporary United States of America has contributed more to the sociological interpretation of religion than Robert Bellah . He first made his name with Tokugawa Religion in 1957, and since then has produced a series of articles of the greatest importance . His interest in eastern religions and their relation to the social structure, especially in societies undergoing modernization, is well represented in this book through the inclusion of several essays dealing with Islam and Buddhism . Here also are to be found such major contributions as `Religious Evolution', `Civil Religion in America', and `Transcendence in Contemporary Piety' . One fascinating feature of the book is the account of the author's intellectual and spiritual development . From his writings, it has long been clear that he has been deeply influenced by Talcott Parsons and Paul Tillich, but the more recent essays illustrate just how far he has gone beyond his early mentors . With Tillich, he has for many years taken a deep interest in religious symbolization . With Parsons, he has shared a commitment to a cybernetic-evolutionary model of human society . But he seems to have moved on to a position which he describes as `symbolic realism', which is intended as a corrective to the reductionism practised by so many sociologists of religion . It is at this point that Bellah's interest in both sociology and religious studies has created a dilemma . For it is significant that many sociologists have abandoned the 'value-free' approach at precisely the time that such an approach has been gaining ground in the area of religious studies . At the beginning of the book,

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Bellah has indicated his increasing interest in the promise of a broadlybased study of religion, but it must be asked whether the position which he takes in the final essays would really be of assistance in such an enterprise. S .P.M . VERMASEREN, M . J., Mithriaca I : The Mithraeum at S .Maria Capua Vetere . E . J . Brill, Leiden, 1971, PP- 59, 5 figs, 28 plates, 2 plans, Gld . 64 . The uniqueness of this first book in a new series on Mithraism is that it incorporates 20 colour plates of the painted S .Maria Mithraeum, including the bench scenes, the main iconographic evidence of initiation practices . Two factors make such publication important : (i) the paintings are deteriorating ; (ii) it enables students to consider the Mithraic use of colour symbolism . The text of the book is important and helpful but at times open to question . This review concentrates on the plates, as I was fortunate in visiting the site, book in hand . Although the initiation scenes are given a pinkish background not in the originals, the plates are excellent and justify even this price. Some scenes are not included in the book (panels I, III, VI) . Although they are indistinct, in view of (i) above, this is regrettable, so too the publication of panel II in black and white (panel I rather than II in black and white would be better) . Worst of all, there is no detail of Mithras from the tauroctone . My queries include the following : p. 4, fig . i, there is a fourth air-hole in the roof; p . 7, is the snake really depicted as a `horrible monster'? ; p . 13, fruit may be portrayed between Cautopates' foot and the Earth Mother's head ; p . 43, is there a scorpion at the initiation? On pp . 20, 44 (panels III of walls and benches) the scenes are described with a detail not (now) apparent on the originals . Particularly useful are : p. 10 on the symbolic use of colours on the tauroctone, plate XI on Luna, indeed the whole series of initiation scenes . I believe this work to be essential for students with any interest in Mithraism . The next volume is to be on the Marino Mithraeum, it and further studies are eagerly awaited . J .R.H. SADDHATISSA, H . The Buddha's Way . Allen & Unwin, London, 1971, 1 39 PP £2 .75 ; paperback J i .5o . The author, a distinguished Sinhalese scholar-monk, declares his intention of writing a book `of a non-scholastic nature' `for the Western student who knows next to nothing on the subject' . This understates the value of a work which contains in its third section easily the best short account of Theravada Buddhist meditation in English . As a basic introduction it is eminently readable . The author's command of English is very much better than in earlier works and the whole is written in a lively and stimulating manner . The years he has spent in the