Religious Studies Review • VOLUME 40 What Is Not Sacred is a fascinating discussion of African spirituality by one of Africa’s foremost theologians, Laurenti Magesa. In the first part of the book Magesa provides a phenomenological description of spirituality in the African context, demonstrating that it is an engagement with the sacred in all experiences and encounters that shape identity, human fulfillment, worship, health, aesthetics, life, death, as well the world views of the community. In Part 2, Magesa engages in a dialogue with others to demonstrate contributions African spirituality brings to different aspects of praxis such as language, interreligious dialogue, politics and governance, economics of sharing, reconciliation, the universe, missions in a global age, and the ongoing task of inculturation of Christianity in Africa. Readers familiar with Magesa’s work will find What Is Not Sacred a fascinating reflection and analysis of spirituality and sacredness in the everyday expressed in the local and on global issues in the African context. This book is highly recommended for courses on spirituality and spiritual direction. Elias K. Bongmba Rice University • NUMBER 1 • MARCH 2014 Indigenous religiosity, several of the contributors discuss the fundamental role of religiosity in negotiations of healing and survival, making it an appropriate, if not vital, text for an upper division or graduate level course on Indigenous religious traditions, particularly the works of George Hartley, Walter E. Little, David T. McKnab, Peter J. Garcia and Enrique A. Lamadrid, and Penelope Kelsey. Natalie Avalos Cisneros University of California, Santa Barbara The Americas: USA CHRISTIAN AMERICA? PERSPECTIVES ON OUR RELIGIOUS HERITAGE. Edited by Daryl C. Cornett. Nashville, TN: B & H Publishing Group, 2011. Pp. xxvi + 353. $14.99. Cornett has provided a valuable and balanced contribution to the acrimonious and polarized “culture war” debate over the nature, identity, and influence of America’s Christian heritage. The insightful foreword by George Marsden, plus the four major contributors, presents a continuum of superbly researched historical perspectives on the degree to which religious versus secular factors influenced the founding of the United States. The outlooks range from the impressively researched “Christian nation” hypothesis adroitly espoused by David Barton to the primarily “secular and eclectic” origin view skillfully advocated by Jonathan Sassi. In between the ends of this continuum are “essentially Christian” and “partly Christian” perspectives that add valuable balance. All of the contributors support their observations and conclusions with compelling historical evidence, appropriate levels of theological commentary, and relevant exegetical analysis, thereby producing a nuanced and complex range of perspectives. An especially attractive and unique aspect of this volume is that each chapter receives a detailed response from the other authors providing for a sharpened critique. The volume’s major weakness is the absence of a more robust sociological and cultural analysis on the influence of Christianity to support the governmental and political elements. A missed opportunity also exists in failing to provide an author’s rebuttal to the responses that might afford additional exchanges. In spite of these omissions, Christian America is a worthy contribution to this contentious culture war issue. Gary E. Roberts Regent University Robertson School of Government The Americas: Central and South America COMPARATIVE INDIGENEITIES OF THE AMÉRICAS: TOWARD A HEMISPHERIC APPROACH. Edited by M. Bianet Castellanos, Lourdes Gutierrez Najera, and Arturo J. Aldama. Tucson, AZ: University of Arizona Press, 2012. Pp. xv + 353. $37.95. This groundbreaking volume seeks to bridge the often separate discourses on Indigeneity in North and South America by highlighting the parallel and overlapping experiences of colonization, identity formation, and resistance among Indigenous peoples from Canada to Brazil. The editors “hope to provide scholars with new tools and alternative frameworks by which to analyze native communities” both transnationally and comparatively by assembling a diverse array of material from Native and non-Native scholars, whose research focuses on disparate regions in the Americas. Twenty-one contributions are arranged into four parts, each with its own theme: Re-envisioning Indigenisms, Decolonizing Mestizaje; Displaced Peoples, Reterritorializing Space; Practicing Autonomy, Autonomy as Practice; and Seductive Alliances, Healing Stories. These themes re-position the fundamental concerns of Native peoples north and south of the U.S. border, troubling the perceived dissimilarity among them and revealing shared aesthetics and struggles, such as migration, cultural integrity, and sovereignty. There is an effort, however, to articulate the distinct experiences between the two regions, for instance, by comparing national claims to indigenismo and mestizaje in Latin America with North American rhetoric around anti-miscegenation. Although not explicitly focused on MOSES, JESUS, AND THE TRICKSTER IN THE EVANGELICAL SOUTH. By Paul Harvey. Athens: The University of Georgia Press, 2012. Pp. xi + 182; plates, maps. Cloth, $28.95; paper, $19.95. In this well-documented book, originally delivered as the Mercer University Lamar Lectures, Paul Harvey evaluates Bible stories and their transmission in the history of the 54 Copyright of Religious Studies Review is the property of Wiley-Blackwell and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use.