Description
Book SynopsisIn this book, David McMahan offers the first comprehensive attempt to chart the development of modern Buddhism. His position is critical but empathetic: while he presents modern Buddhism as a construction of numerous parties with varying interests, he does not reduce it to a mistake, a misrepresentation, or a fabrication. Rather, he presents modern Buddhism 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.
Trade ReviewMcMahan's investigation is a valuable and welcome addition to studies of Victorian-era Buddhism, Buddhism and colonialism, Engaged Buddhism, and Buddhism in America. * Anne M. Blackburn, Journal of the American Academy of Religion *
David McMahan has developed a creative and richly suggestive historical synthesis. ... McMahan's investigation is a valuable and welcome addition to studies of Victorian-era Buddhism, Buddhism and colonialism, Engaged Buddhism, and Buddhism in America. * Anne M. Blackburn, Journal of the American Academy of Religion *
Table of Contents1. Introduction: Buddhism and Modernity ; 2. The Spectrum of Tradition and Modernism ; 3. Buddhism and the Discourses of Modernity ; 4. Modernity and the Discourse of Scientific Buddhism ; 5 ; 6. A Brief History of Interdependence ; 7. Meditation and Modernity ; 8. Mindfulness, Literature, and the Affirmation of the World ; 9. From Modern to Postmodern?
