Why read The Making of Buddhist Modernism?

Book cover of The Making of Buddhist Modernism

Book description

In this book, David McMahan offers the first comprehensive attempt to chart the development of "modern Buddhism." His position is critical but empathetic: while he presents modern Buddhism as a construction of numerous parties with varying interests, he does not reduce it to a mistake, a misrepresentation, or a fabrication.…

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Asian history

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Why read it?

1 author picked The Making of Buddhist Modernism as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Patrick Ussher

Author

McMahon’s book was a real opener for me as a practising Buddhist in my early 20s.

I’d always naturally assumed that the Buddhism I practised was essentially the same as the Buddhism of any other time and place. McMahon’s penetrating analysis of the differences between ancient and ‘Western’ Buddhism shattered that illusion, showing me that the Buddhism I followed was mainly the product of Buddhism’s encounter with the modern, Western world.

I deeply valued the doors McMahon opened for me: suddenly, I could take a much larger view of the Buddhist tradition, and I also came to realize how the…

From Patrick's list on modern-day adaptations of Buddhism and Stoicism.