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The history of Buddhism has been characterized by an ongoing tension between attempts to preserve traditional ideals and modes of practice and the need to adapt to changing cultural conditions. Many developments in Buddhist history, such as the infusion of esoteric rituals, the rise of devotionalism ...

The history of Buddhism has been characterized by an ongoing tension between attempts to preserve traditional ideals and modes of practice and the need to adapt to changing cultural conditions. Many developments in Buddhist history, such as the infusion of esoteric rituals, the rise of devotionalism and lay movements, and the assimilation of warrior practices, reflect the impact of widespread social changes on traditional religious structures. At the same time, Buddhism has been able to maintain its doctrinal purity to a remarkable degree. This volume explores how traditional Buddhist communities have responded to the challenges of modernity, such as science and technology, colonialism, and globalization. Editors Steven Heine and Charles S. Prebish have commissioned ten essays by leading scholars, each examining a particular traditional Buddhist school in its cultural context. The essays consider how the encounter with modernity has impacted the disciplinary, textual, ritual, devotional, practical, and socio-political traditions of Buddhist thought throughout Asia. Taken together, these essays reveal the diversity and vitality of contemporary Buddhism and offer a wide-ranging look at the way Buddhism interacts with the modern world.

In this book, Richard Gombrich shows how Theravada Buddism has affected and been afected by its social surroundings. He explains what the Buddha owed to his predecessors and what he was arguing against. Many issues are raised and discussed.The Buddha preached in north-east India in about the ...

In this book, Richard Gombrich shows how Theravada Buddism has affected and been afected by its social surroundings. He explains what the Buddha owed to his predecessors and what he was arguing against. Many issues are raised and discussed.The Buddha preached in north-east India in about the fifth-century BC. He claimed that human beings are responsible for their own salvation, and put foward a new ideal of the holy life, establishing a monastic Order to enable men and women to pursue that ideal. For most of its history the fortunes of Theravada, the most conservative form of Buddhism, have been identified with those of that Order. Under the great Indian emperor, Asoka, himself a Buddhist, Theravada reached Sri Lanka in about 250 BC. There it became the religion of the Sinhala state, and from ther it spread, much later, to Burma and Thailand.In this book, Richard Gombrich, a leading western authority on Buddhism, shows how Theravada Buddhism has affected and been afected by its social surroundings. He explains what the Buddha owed to his predecessors and what he was arguing against. Buddhism began as a largely urban religion, appealing to a new middle class, but in Sri Lanka it became the culture of the agricultural society. In the nineteenth century, British colonial rule, and especially contact with Protestant missions, initaited fundamental change. Now, as Gombrich shows, in independent Sri Lanka the rapid urbanization of an exploding population threatens to schange the religion beyond recognition.

Buddhism during the Kamakura era (1192-1333) has long been compared in the West to Christianity during the European Reformation. This popular view is reinforced by a retrospectivist historiography that regards all prior events as a prelude to the present. From this perspective, because today's ...

Buddhism during the Kamakura era (1192-1333) has long been compared in the West to Christianity during the European Reformation. This popular view is reinforced by a retrospectivist historiography that regards all prior events as a prelude to the present. From this perspective, because today's predominant forms of Japanese Buddhism (Zen, Pure Land, and Nichiren) were founded during the Kamakura, the only important events of the era are those directly related to the establishment of these three forms of Buddhism. Both the simplistic reading of the Kamakura as a Japanese Reformation and retrospectivist historiography obscure the complexity of the religious situation. While it is true that these new movements were established in the Kamakura era, it is also true that they were marginal to mainstream Buddhism during the period, gaining prominence only in the following Muromachi era (1335-1573). Despite a rhetoric of organic growth, it was hardly a foregone conclusion that these forms would even survive the era -- several similar movements of the time did not.

The essays in this collection are an interdisciplinary examination of various aspects of Buddhism during the Kamakura era, including religious practice, literature, and institutional history. They work toward a synchronic historiography and thus provide a broader understanding and appreciation of the complexity and richness of Buddhism during the Kamakura era and of Japanese Buddhism as a whole.