book reviews 137 © 2008 The Authors Journal compilation © 2008 Association for the Journal of Religious History the limitations of formality and led the renewal programmes after Vatican II. To some extent this discussion is balanced by an acknowledgement of the sisters’ own affirmation of community support, humour, and charity. In investigating the motives for entering, perhaps more credibility could be given to a simple desire to follow Christ. In the concluding section O’Brien gives a realistic picture of the position of women in the Christian churches and sees hope in the activity of women outside the formal church structures. This work is a useful overview and suggests many areas where in- depth research would be valuable. Marilyn Kelleher Independent Scholar, Sydney Geoffrey A. Oddie: Imagined Hinduism: British Protestant Missionary Constructions of Hinduism, 1793–1900. London: Sage Publications, 2006. Many recent studies have sought to critically re-examine the place of missionaries during recent centuries. These have often challenged the assumption that missionaries were simple advocates of imperial policy, and have traced many of the complex inter-relationships between missionary and secular thinking. Within this whole debate, Oddie has consistently been one of the most sophisticated revealers of missionary attitudes. Here, Oddie turns to another angle of this debate, the theological work of missionaries picturing and describing Hinduism. This rather neglected subject, has nevertheless, also been the subject of some recent studies (such as, K. Cracknell, Justice, Courtesy and Love: Theologians and Missionaries Encountering World Religions, 1846–1914 [London: Epworth Press, 1995], and Paul Hedges, Preparation and Fulfilment: A History and Study of Fulfilment Theology in Modern British Thought in the Indian Context [Bern: Peter Lang, 2001]). Positioning himself against much of this debate, Oddie adds a new facet in this field. The work begins with a very useful introduction which summarises and comments upon much previous missiological research and provides some useful guides. One such is a discussion of the way missionary and imperial agendas entwined, and he provides three ways this happens (21–24): 1) missionaries were influenced by the writings of officials; 2) imperial and Colonial policy often dictated what aspects of Hinduism were highlighted — though, as Oddie argues, it was often what was allowed or condoned by the East India Company that created a context for missionary reaction against this; and, 3) the presence of other Europeans and missionary associations with them helped enforce an “us” and “them” mentality, which was further bolstered by a sense of superiority in Western ability, both from the fact of imperial control as well as from science and technology. He also gives a useful summary of what might be, across the ages, certain key presuppositions of the missionary. These he categorises as four points, though he adds a fifth that affected some missionaries. The first is aversion to idolatry (24 –26), the second an antithesis to sexuality (26–28), the third a belief in reason and science (28 –30), and the fourth being the principle of inner religion (30), the fifth, belief in democracy and republicanism, as noted affected a few missionaries (30 –32). Part I of the book includes three chapters on how Hinduism was imagined within India in the period 1600–1800. However, the heart of the book is Part II. Here he looks at the way the dominant thinking on Hinduism developed, envisaging a brahmanical tradition with a debased popular form alongside it (chapters 5 and 6). This part is a useful original contribution, important not just for missionary studies, but to many within