The Guardians of War

This is the last in a series of monographs on the warrior ethos and its spiritual, religious and mystico-magical implications. In this third monograph, I try to sum up military history and the connections between disparate disciplines."Books that explore uncharted or seldom explored territory are rare. The purpose of the author is to deal with the link between military prowess, spiritual, moral, and ethical devlopment, and sport in its broadest sense."Simmons covers East and West, religious and military history, leaders and even fiction such as Perelandra, Watership Down by Richard Adams and the writings of J.R.R.Tolkien. The author ranges from Zen archery and Japanese samurai to the Knights of St. John and Zizka, the legendary Czech hero. (It's) strength lies in its detailed treatment of th spiritual, ethical, and moral aspects of the fighting man and shows clearly that the auhor is equally comfortable with Eastern as well as Western philosophies."Common to all the retrospective and contemporary philosophies are discipline, faith, dedication and motivation. Simmons, above all, ephasizes that both body and mind should be strong.Jack Halligan