Handy Compendium

An Encyclopedia of Religion.
by Vergilius Ferm.
The Philosophical Library, New York, 1945. 844 pp. $10.00.

The Philosophical Library first came to this reviewer’s attention with the publication of what is undoubtedly one of the worst attempts at classics-popularization ever undertaken—Auerbach’s translation-distortion of selections from the Babylonian Talmud. The present volume partially restores our faith in the firm, for the editor did call upon competent Jewish scholars for most of the Judaica articles. Professors Louis Finkelstein, Boaz Cohen, Shalom Spiegel, Simon Greenberg and Nelson Glueck are represented, as well as Dr. Ben Zion Bokser, Professors Sheldon Blank, Samuel S. Cohon, Moses Hadas and Julian Morgenstern. And Louis Lipsky, veteran Zionist leader, has contributed a lengthy discussion of the movement.

In spite of the necessary brevity of the individual articles, the Encyclopedia, which for the most part strives successfully for objective presentation, is a handy compendium of information on the humanities generally. The layman will find it almost adequate for itself for most reference purposes. And the professional will find it useful for quick reference, particularly in fields other than his own immediate one.

But granting that the inclusion of all the significant religions of the world necessitates briefness, yet the balance is not too good: Rashi, for example, garners all of four lines, with thirty for Maimonides and twenty for Saadia—while the Red Cross rates three columns. And editor Ferm has maintained quite a margin of error. The same unwarranted deductions that lessened the value of Roland Emerson Wolfe’s book on Amos and Hosea mar his article on these prophets. Coincidentally enough, random reading produced another glaringly inaccurate generalization by the same writer: he casually describes the Israelite conception of God, from Moses up through the Exile, as henotheistic (belief in a supreme God and lesser Gods) despite the contrary evidence which Professor W. F. Albright has adduced in support of the traditional Jewish claim to monotheism as a characteristic of Jewish theology from almost the dawn of its history.