Faith and Knowledge in Early Buddhism. Jan T. Ergardt. E. J. Brill, Leiden 1977. xii + 182 pp. Gld 48.00.

Discarding the term’s heavy tint of Christian theology, soteriology is a basic conceptual exercise and a practical concern in virtually all post-Vedic Indian thinking, Buddhism being no exception. That salvation is to be sought or should be sought is axiomatic with all major Indian philosophical systems; problematic are the entity involved, the efficient cause, the method or practice, and the type of attainment, all of which and more evoke a host of questions of a philosophical and speculative nature.

Discarding the term’s heavy tint of Christian theology, soteriology is a basic conceptual exercise and a practical concern in virtually all post-Vedic Indian thinking, Buddhism being no exception. That salvation is to be sought or should be sought is axiomatic with all major Indian philosophical systems; problematic are the entity involved, the efficient cause, the method or practice, and the type of attainment, all of which and more evoke a host of questions of a philosophical and speculative nature.