REVKJEWS - Siamese Heritage Protection Program

REVIEWS 175
need not .... suppose that the Western peoples borrowed from the older civilization of
the Orient the conception of the Dying and Reviving God, together with solemn ritual,
in which that conception was dramatically set forth before the eyes of the worshippers.
More probably the resemblance which may be traced in this respect between the religions
of the East and West is no more than what we commonly, though incorrectly, call a
fortuitous coincidence, the effect of similar causes acting alike on the similar constitution
of the human mind in different countries and under different skies."
Thus, Professor Amore, as a religious diffusionist, visualizes "Two Masters,
One Message"; Campbell, Frazer, Jung, as exponents of mythic and psychic parellelism,
visualize "The Hero With a Thousand Faces", the title of Campbell's brilliant, though
controversial, treatise.
Professor Amore's well reasoned, succinct and challenging argument in this
work should provoke readers to begin their own historical journey and exploration to
seek the truth as to linkages, or their absence, in the great religious traditions of
Buddhism and Christianity.
Chulalongkorn University
William J. Klausner