Thursday, 25 May 2023 / Published in Religious Studies Assignment

Sample Religious Studies Paper on Annotated Bibliography over Buddhism

Rajapakse, R. (1986). Buddhism as religion and philosophy. Religion, 16(1), 51-55.

This paper concentrates upon one of the problems confronting a student of Buddhism, namely whether Buddhism is a religion or a philosophy. In this article, Kalasiruya defines Buddhism as a complete religion that has distinctively different goals from other religions. The simple religion of Buddhism is embedded in ancient Indian thinking, which is conceptualized. He denies the ideas of other scholars like Kalupahan and Jaytilleke saying that Buddhism is a philosophy. Buddha, according to Kaplahana, does not speak about the ten metaphysical questions, which are interpreted as lack of empiricism and the inability to describe the transcendental reality. The doctrine of Buddha, according to this paper, is based on affirming casualty. David otherwise rejects this opinion by arguing that casualty is either a fiction or an invention and hence could not be used to mirror the validity of Buddhism. He quoted the word of Buddha “He who understands causation understands the doctrine, and he who understands the doctrine understands causation.”

Jones, C. B. (1999). Buddhism in Taiwan: Religion and the state, 1660-1990. University of Hawaii Press.

The ethnography of practical Buddhism in Sri Lanka shows that theistic-type definitions and conceptions of religion are inadequate, as Durkheim argued. It is futile to follow Durkheim in seeking a better definition, as all such definitions must fail because religion is a polythetic class, a fact that is considered to be of positive significance: it gives a suggestion of religion having a compounded with different elements which are diverse. It should, therefore, be the strife to understand the compounding of religion. The Buddhist religion is therefore justified since the compounding takes the unusual form that is included in its culture. It is otherwise argued that Buddhism, though non-theistic, resembles other religions depending on mystical notions; this act shows how this contributes to understanding the social functions of religions. Buddhism is, therefore, a religion with basic teaching concerning the principles of human cultures. The author points out that dependence on mystical notions may not be fundamental for explaining religious behavior.

Pyysiäinen, I. (2003). Buddhism, Religion, and the Concept of” God”. Numen, 50(2), 147-171.

According to the author of this article, the presentation of Pascal shows the Buddhas to take the position of gods by fulfilling the counter-intuitive agents. It has been argued that Buddha and the Buddhas have not been regarded as gods by the Buddhists, which are exposed to transparently fulfill the criteria. He explains that this concept has brought the understanding of religion to be just a human thought or just a mere human action. It may go higher to the experience, which has the involvement of counter-intuitive representation. He points out that the definition of religion should not be based on the cat of a specific group but given a general consideration and understanding. In that concept, therefore, he points out that the problem of defining religion should not be related to Buddhism as being the global point of focus in the concept of religion. Buddha is not considered as a god by the Buddhist, and this opens the floor for relevant consideration in religious matters and understanding.

Turner, A. (2014). Saving Buddhism: The impermanence of religion in colonial Burma. University of Hawaii Press.

In this article, Saving Buddhism explores the dissonance between the goals of the colonial state and the Buddhist worldview that animated Burmese Buddhism at the turn of the twentieth century. Burmese Buddhists interpreted the political and social changes between 1890 and 1920 as signs that the Buddha’s sāsana was deteriorating. The decline brought the wave’s activities, and participation focused on preventing the loss of the teachings of Buddha. Author Alicia Turner has examined thousands of rarely used sources that are rich in the information concerning Buddhism. From his studies, he traced the three discourses set in motion by the colonial encounter: the evolving understanding of sāsana as an orienting framework for change, the adaptive modes of identity made possible in the moral community, and the ongoing definition of religion as a site of conflict and negotiation of autonomy. He says that Saving Buddhism also intervenes in the theoretical work revolving around religion on the categories of secular and religious. It concentrates on the building of colonialism, nation, identity, as well as engaging the millennialism building Buddhism nature.

Muramoto, S. (2003). Buddhism, religion and psychotherapy in the world today. In Awakening and Insight (pp. 25-38). Routledge.

The author opens the floor of the article by mentioning that the talk about Buddhism and psychotherapy has been taken for granted that Buddhism is one of the representative religions of the East, while psychotherapy is a technique for healing mental diseases based upon modern psychology as one of the sciences developed in the West. In the article, otherwise, he seeks to answer some questions which make the basis of his argument to disqualify other scholars’ opinions on Buddhism. He first justifies that Buddhism is of the West. According to him, Buddhism originated from India and was then transmitted from the West to Japan. He again clarifies the conclusion from his discussion of the origin of Buddhism and says that there is no self-evidence to show that Buddhism and psychotherapy are from the West or East. He disseminates the complication by elaborating that Buddhism began from the West during psychotherapy from the east.

Kiblinger, K. B. (2017). Buddhist Inclusivism: Attitudes Towards Religious Others. Taylor & Francis.

The author first introduces the basic understanding of the inclusivism of Buddhism regarding the books in the library of Dalai Lama, which is full of materials of Buddhists. More theoretical aspects of Christian inclusivism in Buddhism are discussed by the scholars, increasingly putting attention on Christian inclusivism as well as other religions with Buddhism. It puts clear that all religions must recognize the presence of other religious communities reckoning the fact that its religious community is just but one of such cultures. Each religion must understand and acknowledge the pluralism without exclusivity at any time. The article explains the three aspects that can be applied to explain the meaning of inclusivity. The article ends by giving different possible means of brining and maintaining inclusivity, such as by way of reinterpretation of foreign information as common, relegation. In his work, he also clarifies that Buddha was neither a god nor a divine consoler who could help people.

Robinson, R. H. (1970). The Buddhist religion: A historical introduction.

This article is written to give the basic introduction of Buddhism according to the information recorded by history. In it, the author portrays the thoughts and actions of the large segment of followers of the Buddha. According to this article, Buddhism takes different forms depending on the context of concentration, which is, as a result of progressive changes with time. There are five main aspects of Buddhism, including ritual-which talks about the practices of the followers of Buddha distinct them from other people in other religions, making Buddhism just culture in the community like other religions. Devotionalism- demonstrates the commitment of the ancient western scholars to the understanding and following the concepts of Buddha. Doctrine- here talks about the different principles that guide Buddhism, which make it different from the others and the confidence of the Buddhists. Meditation-is the extent of Buddhists taking time to review and justify their religion by impact measure. Practice and institutional aspects both show concern on the practice and spread of Buddhist religion globally as a constitution and by registration.

Kiyota, M. I. N. O. R. U. (2017). Meiji Buddhism: religion and patriotism. Asian Studies Journal, (2), 49-58.

According to the author of this article, Meiji Buddhism was brought with combined forces and efforts which operated with one slogan of Restoration of· Imperial Rule which, was invented by the students of the Hirata School of Shintoism. The Shinto ideology influenced the character of the Meiji government greatly and spearheaded the need for nationalism. This resulted in different groups combining together to bring restoration in the west advocating the introduction of Buddhism in Meiji. This movement was otherwise opposed by the anti-Buddhist who operated in two distinct patterns: that executed under the influence of the Hirata school of Shintoism and that of the Mito school of Confucianism. The anti-Buddhist movement was evident between 1868 and 1871, the transitional period of the political aspects. Battle rose between the Buddhists and the Christians, according to the author, and they exchanged words as a result of doctrine differences as well as political ones. Different reforms were tested out, and finally, the coming of the Buddhism religion in Meiji.

Keown, D. (2016). The nature of Buddhist ethics. Springer.

In this article, Buddhism is paged out to be a response to a fundamental ethical problem – the perennial problem considered to be of the best kind of men to lead. Siddhattha Gotama is considered to have taken time to find the solution to such a critical problem and fortunately solved them in his last exercise after doing just many of them. He then invited his followers for a higher life. He says that Buddhism has not attained autonomy because the ethical problem had been solved already, bringing ethics and discipline in philosophy. The article as well gives different literature that has been done about the ethics of Buddhism and the impact they have created. It gives the instances and explanations of the simple descriptive ethics as well as beyond the simple descriptive ethics. It discusses the role of asking the right questions concerning Buddhism, tye soteriological structure, and gives the theories that explain the nature of Buddhist ethics.

Weinstein, S. (2018). Imperial Patronage in the Formation of T’ang Buddhism. In Critical Readings on Tang China (pp. 1622-1662). Brill.

This article gives a detailed account of the invasion of Buddhism in chine as its progress in the Táng. In T’áng, Buddhism is considered as an apogee or golden age in the history of chines Buddhism in the church-state. Buddhism suffered the harshest persecution during the Hui-chang period of (841-47). This permanently affected Buddhism spread in China. The early Táng rulers had a lukewarm attitude towards the Buddhist religion. The author explains how the interaction of political leadership, social concern, and the economic dimensions was a stumbling block to the penetration of the Buddhist religion. It addresses the caution s that were put to ensure the growth of Buddhism. The denouncing of the many Buddhist monks is exposed in the hands of Túang. As it comes to an end, it talks about the controversies which existed of whether the monks should recognize their social obligations by paying homage to their parents and their emperors as was opened in 662.

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