ASIAN 3367 - Buddhism and its Religious Others in South and Southeast Asia

(crosslisted) RELST 3367
(GB) (CA-AS)

Fall. 4 credits.

E. White.

This course examines how Buddhist identities, communities and self-understandings are constituted in part through moments of encounter with non-Buddhists. How do Buddhists respond to the challenge of incommensurable religious diversity? What social forces restrict or expand the horizons of intelligibility, tolerance and accommodation? Focusing on the modern era, we will explore missionary work and conversion, ritual and doctrinal borrowing, hybrid communities of religious belonging, interfaith and ecumenical dialogue, and politicized or violent inter-religious conflict. We will analyze how different Buddhist actors and institutions employ diverse strategies of boundary definition and negotiation in relation to various forms of religious distinction and difference. The goal is to understand how the communal, historical and religious self-understandings of Buddhists in contemporary South and Southeast Asia have been shaped by their complicated interactions with Christian, Hindu, Muslim, animist and other religious communities. (RL)