A great deal of Buddhist literature and scholarly writing about
Buddhism of the past 150 years reflects, and indeed constructs, a
historically unique modern Buddhism, even while purporting to
represent ancient tradition, timeless teaching, or the "essentials" of
Buddhism. This literature, Asian as well as Western, weaves together
the strands of different traditions to create a novel hybrid that
brings Buddhism into alignment with many of the ideologies and
sensibilities of the post-Enlightenment West. In this book, David
McMahan charts the development of this "Buddhist modernism." McMahan
examines and analyzes a wide range of popular and scholarly writings
produced by Buddhists around the globe. He focuses on ideological and
imaginative encounters between Buddhism and modernity, for example in
the realms of science, mythology, literature, art, psychology, and
religious pluralism. He shows how certain themes cut across cultural
and geographical contexts, and how this form of Buddhism has been
created by multiple agents in a variety of times and places. His
position is critical but empathetic: while he presents Buddhist
modernism as a construction of numerous parties with varying
interests, he does not reduce it to a mistake, a misrepresentation, or
fabrication. Rather, he presents it as a complex historical process
constituted by a variety of responses -- sometimes trivial, often
profound -- to some of the most important concerns of the modern era.
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Produktdetaljer
ISBN
9780199884780
Publisert
2020
Utgiver
Vendor
Oxford University Press
Språk
Product language
Engelsk
Format
Product format
Digital bok
Forfatter