Secrecy: Silence, Power, and Religion. By Hugh Urban. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2021. 264 pages. $30.00 (paperback). ISBN: 978-0-226-74664-7. Hugh Urban’s book Secrecy: Silence, Power, and Religion examines the meanings of “secrecy” in six “esoteric movements” in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Engaging esoteric movements in the US and Europe, Urban analyzes the ways secrecy can be used to…
Tag: review
Review: Mind Cure
Mind Cure: How Meditation Became Medicine. By Wakoh Shannon Hickey. New York: Oxford University Press, 2019. 324 pages. $29.95 (hardcover). ISBN 978-0190864248. The primary concern of Mind Cure is the broad, diffuse Mindfulness movement that includes Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) developed by the microbiologist Jon Kabat-Zinn and “all the therapeutic derivatives of MBSR, collectively called MBIs [Mindfulness-Based Interventions]” (p. 8).…
Review: Women and Buddhist Philosophy
Women and Buddhist Philosophy: Engaging Zen Master Kim Iryop. By Jin Y. Park. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2017. 292 pages. $28.00 (paperback). ISBN 978-0-8248-7936-5. In Women and Buddhist Philosophy, Jin Y. Park focuses on Zen Master Kim Iryop (1896–1971), who grew up in a Christian family and eventually became a Buddhist nun. In light of the experiences of Iryop,…
Review: Pure Lands in Asian Texts and Contexts
Pure Lands in Asian Texts and Contexts: An Anthology. Edited by Georgios T. Halkias and Richard K. Payne. University of Hawaii Press, 2019. 808 pages. $85.00 (hardcover). ISBN 9780824873097. Edward Arnold Columbia University Pure Lands in Asian Texts and Contexts may be one of the few edited collections offering heterogeneity as its organizing principle, doubtless due to the well founded…
Review: Seeking Śākyamuni
Seeking Śākyamuni: South Asia in the Formation of Modern Japanese Buddhism. By Richard M. Jaffe. University of Chicago Press, 2019. 320 pages. $32.50 (paperback). ISBN 9780226391151. Hillary Langberg Bard College For readers familiar with the turmoil associated with the transition to modernity for both Japanese Buddhism and Japan as a nation-state, Richard Jaffe’s recent monograph provides a wealth of richly-detailed…
Review: Ethical Principles and Economic Transformation
Ethical Principles and Economic Transformation: A Buddhist Approach. Edited by László Zsolnai. London & New York: Springer, 2011. vii + 213 pages. Includes general bibliography, “about the authors,” and index. $159.99 (hardcover and softcover), $119.00 (eBook). ISBN 97848193103. Richard K. Payne Institute of Buddhist Studies This is a collection of ten essays: an introduction and conclusion by the editor, and…
Review: The Fifth Corner of Four
The Fifth Corner of Four: An Essay on Buddhist Metaphysics and the Catuṣkoṭi. By Graham Priest. New York: Oxford University Press, 2018. 208 pages. $60.00 (hardcover). ISBN 9780198758716. Matthew T. Kapstein École Pratique des Hautes Études, Paris, and the University of Chicago The author of The Fifth Corner of Four, Graham Priest, is well known to contemporary students of logic,…
Review: Guardians of the Buddha’s Home
Guardians of the Buddha’s Home. By Jessica Starling. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press, 2019. 200 pages. $62.00 (hardcover), ISBN 9780824866921. Matthew Hayes University of California, Los Angeles In Guardians of the Buddha’s Home, Jessica Starling decenters our view of modern Jōdo Shinshū practice by calling into question the primacy of “orthodox” roles, physical spaces, and relationships, often occupied and defined…