Toward a Contemporary Understanding of Pure Land Buddhism: Creating a Shin Buddhist Theology in a Religiously Plural World

Toward a Contemporary Understanding of Pure Land Buddhism offers proposals for creatively reinterpreting the Pure Land path. Japanese Pure Land thought brought about a major development in Buddhist tradition by evolving a path to enlightenment that is pursued while carrying on life in society. It is rooted in the Mahayana ideal of compassion and in the bodhisattva or being of wisdom who vows to ferry all living things to the other shore of awakening. In this book, three Buddhist scholars utilize hermeneutic thought, process theology, and the mandala contemplation of Buddhism to address issues of modernity and religious values in the world today. Proceeding as a conversation with two prominent Christian theologians, the book also presents a new model of interreligious dialogue. Gordon D. Kaufman and John B. Cobb, Jr. reflect critically in different chapters on the Buddhist proposals, drawing on their long experience as religious philosophers facing questions of the present intelligibility and applicability of Christian thought.