I wonder really about conversion -- being wholly different from being raised in a particular system in a particular place, and also the idea of a return to the root of a religion as a modern person, and the problem of cutlrual accretions as so many burrs and wads of lint.

Religions change so much in response to the other religions, folk beliefs, and philosophies in the *nations* where they spread. buddhism, christianity, was marked by encounter with philosophies. two porcupines rubbing together. is calvinism simply something logically resulting from catholicism rubbing up against a situation in geneva, etc.

it is a commonplace to dismiss "shopping for religions" and reviving and adapting folklores and beliefs long passed from active use into a completely different context