A Time to Chant: The Sōka Gakkai Buddhists in Britain

ISBN-13: 9780198279150 / Angielski / Twarda / 1994 / 280 str.

Bryan R. Wilson; Karel Dobbelaere; Bryan Wilson

Opis

Soka Gakkai--a movement of Japanese Buddhism--is one of the world's most rapidly expanding religious movements, especially in the West. The movement sponsors a variety of cultural and educational causes, and is active in promoting world peace and preservation of the environment; as such it has established a high profile in world affairs. Soka Gakkai is also a significant social phenomenon in its own right. This study documents this in its thorough survey of the United Kingdom membership that traces the sources of the movement's appeal to its socially diverse constituency. The combination of a questionnaire survey and personal interviews bring illuminating detail to this sociological analysis. The authors suggest that Soka Gakkai is consistent with modern thought that places a growing emphasis on the essentially private nature of belief and on personal autonomy, and less emphasis on traditional religious institutions. It is for these reasons that Soka Gakkai is a faith in tune with the times and has widening appeal to young people.

Recenzje

Valuable and lively for what it is: a useful look at Western Buddhists ... and a convincing take on alternative religion from a perspective pessimistic about mainline religion in contemporary society.

O autorze

Bryan Wilson, the world's leading sociologist of religion, has held visiting Professorships or Fellowships at the universities of Louvain, Toronto, Melbourne, Queensland, and California (Santa Barbara). He was presented with an honorary doctorate by Soka University, Japan in 1985 and was a Fellow of the American Council of Learned Societies. In the UK, he studied at Leicester and the London School of Economics (where he gained his Ph.D.) and taught at the University of Leeds (1955-62). He has lived and taught in Oxford since 1962. Karel Dobbelaere lives and works in Belgium, but he was a visiting fellow at All Souls College, Oxford in 1977 and 1990-1 and at the London School of Economics in 1987. He has held visiting posts around the world: in the US, at Union Graduate School, Kent State University, Marquette, Akron, Minnesota, and Loyola; in Sweden, at Lund and Uppsala; in Japan, at the Nanzan Institute for Religion and Culture, Tokyo, Sophia, and Soka; in The Netherlands, (Tilburg); in Italy (Padova); Germany (Bielefeld); and in Zaire.