Defining Buddhism(s) : a reader / edited by Karen Derris and Natalie Gummer.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Derris, Karen.

Gummer, Natalie.

Series:

Critical categories in the study of religion

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Buddhism.

Buddhism--Historiography.

Buddhism--Doctrines--History.

Buddhism--Doctrines.

History.

Identity (Psychology)--Religious aspects--Buddhism.

Identity (Psychology).

Physical Description:

ix, 342 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm.

Other Title:

Defining Buddhisms

Place of Publication:

London ; Oakville, CT : Equinox Pub., 2007.

Summary:

Defining Buddhism(s): A Reader explores the multiple ways in which Buddhisms have been defined and constructed by Buddhists and scholars. In recent decades, scholars have become increasingly aware of their own role in the process of constructing the Buddhist communities that they represent - a process in which multiple representations of "Buddhism" (hence "Buddhisms") compete with and complement one another. The essays in this reader, written by leaders in the field of Buddhist studies, consider a broad range of inquiries and concerns, methods and approaches that contribute to understanding and learning from constructions of Buddhisms, illuminating the challenges and dilemmas involved in defining historical, social, and political contexts. These different perspectives also demonstrate that definitions of "Buddhism" have always been contested.

As an anthology, this volume also participates in the process of construction, developing a framework in which recent scholarship on Buddhisms can be productively related and interpreted. By creating a new context for these essays, this volume enables a new conversation to emerge, as the investigations and debates raised in each piece are considered in relation to one another.

The volume and section introductions highlight the ways in which the essays included represent the contested aspects of constructed Buddhisms: historical contexts are never singular and there is never a solitary agent engaged in shaping them. These diverse reconstructions of "Buddhism" derive from the recognition that we have much to learn from, as well as about, Buddhists.

Contents:

Archaeology and Protestant presuppositions in the study of Indian Buddhism / Gregory Schopen

Suttas as history : four approaches to the Sermon on the Noble Quest (Ariyapariyesanasutta) / Jonathan S. Walters

Historical understanding : the Chan Buddhist transmission narratives and modern historiography / Dale S. Wright

Roads taken and not taken in the study of Theravāda Buddhism / Charles Hallisey

The suppression of the Three Stages Sect : apocrypha as a political issue / Mark Edward Lewis

Budda no fukuin : the deployment of Paul Carus's Gospel of Buddha in Meiji Japan / Judith Snodgrass

Re-membering the dismembered body of Tibet : contemporary Tibetan visionary movements in the People's Republic of China / David Germano

The image of an orphan : Cambodian narrative sites for Buddhist ethical reflection / Anne Hansen

Seeking Śākyamuni : travel and the reconstruction of Japanese Buddhism / Richard M. Jaffe

One plus one makes three : Buddhist gender, monasticism, and the law of the non-excluded middle / Janet Gyatso.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [306]-327) and indexes.

ISBN:

1845532317

9781845532314

1845530551

9781845530556

OCLC:

70839763