CCR has treated religion as both a constituent of civilization (in Weber’s sense of “civilization-religions”) and a comparative variable. The most sustained engagement is Joseph Drew’s editor’s note in v66 (“What is the Difference between Culture and Civilization?”), which follows David Ben Gurion’s parallel between Buddhism and Judaism: both founded by prophets (Moses, Buddha) of privileged background; both involving a “personal call” with the focus on doctrine rather than the founder’s person; both without eternal life or heaven-and-hell eschatology; both involving a “blowing out” of the self in the case of Buddhism and “dust to dust, ashes to ashes” in Judaism; both developed in clan/sib settings with cross-cultural fertilization; both pariah civilizations wandering from their homelands.

The Drew note in v66 follows Weber’s sociology of religion: Buddhism as the archetype of other-worldly mysticism, Judaism as inner-worldly and ascetic, with both having to be understood as “leagues with a common cult” rather than simply religions. Buddhism is treated as both heterodox “sect” (pre-Asoka Theravada) and “church” (post-Asoka Theravada and Mahayana), while Judaism similarly evolved from “church” to “sect” through the prophets and the post-Exilic period.

In v75, Mohini Mullick and Madhuri S. Sondhi (eds.), Classical Indian Thought and the English Language: Perspectives and Problems (Indian Council for Philosophical Research and DK Printworld, 2015) is reviewed by Michael Palencia-Roth; Madhuri Santanam Sondhi’s Intercivilizational Dialogue on Peace: Martin Buber and Basanta Kumar Mallik (Indian Council of Philosophical Research, 2008) is also reviewed.

Christopher Peet’s Practicing Transcendence: Axial Age Spiritualities for a World in Crisis (Palgrave Macmillan, 2019) is reviewed in v85 by Constance Wilkinson.

Source summaries:

  • v66 (Spring 2012) — Joseph Drew’s editor’s note uses Ben Gurion’s Buddhism-Judaism parallels as a Weberian exercise in civilizational comparison. (v66)
  • v75 (Fall 2016) — Reviews of Classical Indian Thought and the English Language and Sondhi’s Intercivilizational Dialogue on Peace. (v75)
  • v85 (Fall 2021) — Constance Wilkinson reviews Christopher Peet’s Practicing Transcendence. (v85)
  • v91 (Fall 2024) — Breton’s Arabia Felix is reviewed, with attention to the religious civilizations of pre-Islamic Arabia. (v91)