Defining Buddhism(s) explores the multiple ways in which Buddhism has been defined and constructed by both Buddhists and scholars. In recent decades, scholars have become increasingly aware of their own role in the construction of how Buddhism is represented a process in which multiple representations of Buddhism compete with and complement one another. The reader brings together key essays by leading scholars to examine the central methods and concerns of Buddhism. The essays aim to illuminate the challenges involved in defining historical, social, and political contexts and reveal how definitions of Buddhism have always been contested.

Series: Critical Categories in the Study of Religion

Defining Buddhism(s) (Critical Categories in the Study of Religion), Karen Derris (Editor), Equinox, 2014, Paperback, 356 pages, $39.95

Karen Derris is an Associate Professor of Religion at the University of Redlands, California. Natalie Gummer is an Associate Professor in the Philosophy and Religious Studies Department at Beloit College, Wisconsin.

Acknowledgments
Introduction

Part I: Defining Buddhist Histories

1. Archaeology and Protestant Presuppositions in the Study of Indian Buddhism.
2. Suttas as History: Four Approaches to the Sermon on the Noble Quest (Ariyapariyesanasutta).
3. Historical Understanding: The Chan Buddhist Transmission Narratives and Modern Historiography.
4. Roads Taken and Not Taken in the Study of Therevada Buddhism.

Part II: Defining Buddhist Ideologies

5. The suppression of the Three Stages Sect: Apocrypha as a Political Issue.
6. Budda no fukuin: the Development of Paul Carus's Gospel of Budda in Meiji Japan.
7. Remembering the Dismembered Body of Tibet: Contemporary Tibetan Visionary Movements in the People's Republic of China.

Part III: Defining Buddhist Identities
8. The Image of an Orphan: Cambodian Narrative Sites for Buddhist Ethical Reflection.
9. Seeking Sakyamuni: Travel and Reconstruction of Japanese Buddhism.
10. One Plus One Makes Three: Buddhist Gender, Monasticism, and the Law of the Non-Excluded Middle.


Bibliography
Index of Names
Index of Subjects