Gurdjieff: A study of his teaching

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Short reviews and book notes

Kenneth Walker, Gurdjieff : A Study of His Teaching . George Allen & Unwin, 1979 . 216 pp . £2 .50 .

London,

Robert de Roth, Warrior's Way . London, George Allen & Unwin, 1980 . 405 pp . £6 .95 . Walker's book is very much a personal impression of the ideas of Gurdjieff and his chief interpreter R . D . Ouspensky . It was originally published by Jonathan Cape in 1957 . Gurdjieff's teaching aroused the intense devotion of small coteries in England, France and the USA . Something of the practical effect of this teaching in one man's life can be seen in Robert de Roth's autobiography, where the relationships and rivalries of Gurdjieff, Ouspensky and J . G . Bennett are vividly described . Stuart Mews University of Lancaster

Edith B . Schnapper, The Inward Odyssey . The Concept of 'The Way' in the Great Religions of the World, London, George Allen & Unwin, 2nd edition 1980 . 235 pp . All religions use the analogy of the Way or Path . In this second edition of The Inward Odyssey, the author has taken account of recent researches in the fields of symbolism, states of consciousness, yoga and religious experience to bring up-to-date her survey of the different manifestations of the journey image and related symbols such as the spiral, the wilderness, the labyrinth, the wheel and the rose . Stuart Mews University of Lancaster