ENGLISH

Constituting Communities: Theravada Buddhism and the Religious Cultures of South and Southeast Asia

By John Clifford Holt , Jacob N. Kinnard , Jonathan S. Walters

Book information

Publisher
State University of New York Press
Year
2003
ISBN
0791456919, 9780791456910, 9781417531240
LCC
BQ4570.S6 C66 2003
Language
english
Format
PDF
Filesize
2 MB (2378935 bytes)
Series
SUNY Series in Buddhist Studies
Pages
256\233
Topic
Education
Time added
2011-06-04 13:46:07

Description

Constituting Communities explores how community functions within Theravada Buddhist culture. Although the dominant focus of Buddhist studies for the past century has been on doctrinal and philosophical issues, this volume concentrates on discourses that produced them, and why and how these discourses and practices shaped Theravada communities in South and Southeast Asia. From a variety of perspectives, including historical, literary, doctrinal and philosophical, and social and anthropological, the contributors explore the issues that have proven important and definitive for identifying what it has meant, individually and socially, to be Buddhist in this particular region. The book focuses on textual discourse, how communities are formed and maintained within pluralistic contexts, and the formation of community both within and between the monastic and lay settings.

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