As I read the reviews below I was reminded of the writings of philosopher Maria Lugones¹ and her use of the metaphor of ‘worldtravelling’. She describes how by travelling to the ‘worlds’ of others we can begin to understand what it is to be them and what it is to be ourselves in their eyes. There is a reflexivity in the way the term ‘world-travelling’ can be understood. It may be a way of navigating our own identity/ies, working out how we live in a world that is not our own, but it has to work both ways, as we try to see ourselves in our worlds and others as they must be in their worlds. Lugones describes the process of travelling to each other’s worlds as moving from ‘arrogant’ to ‘loving perception’ (p. 17). In the subject of the first review the author, James Fergusson, chose to travel to the world of the Muslim community to deepen his understanding of the experience of fasting for Ramadan. In the subject of the second review Muslim writer Navid Kermani travels with humility, curiosity and sometimes humour, bringing the perspectives of a Muslim to the complex and often confusing world of Christian art.
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