Frank E. Reynolds

Civic Religion and National Community in Thailand

In recent years a number of historians, political scientists, and sociologists have been searching for a better way of approaching the study of the religious ideas, sentiments, and symbols associated with the life of modern national communities. It has become increasingly evident that the older procedure of making a clear distinction between specifically religious communities and religion on the one hand, and the state and politics on the other, then analyzing the interaction between the two, is no longer sufficient. However, no widely accepted alternative way of viewing the problem has emerged.

Teaching Buddhism in the Postmodern University: Understanding, Critique, Evaluation

A contemporary liberal education in the humanities and social sciences should introduce students to the serious exploration of various kinds of worlds that human beings articulate and within which they live. Teachers in Buddhist studies can make a significant contribution by offering courses that focus attention on distinctively Buddhist worlds that are directly relevant to postmodern interests and concerns. These courses should also be designed to empower students with the kind of interpretive skills that are needed in a postmodern environment to generate viable modes of sympathetic understanding, convincing forms of critical analysis, and the capacity to formulate and defend responsible personal and social judgments. This article is a revised version of the keynote lecture given at a McGill University conference on “Teaching Buddhism: The State of the Art,” October 8–10, 1999.

A Comparative History of Ideas . By Hajime Nakamura. 2nd ed. New York: K.P.I., 1986. xx, 572 pp.

Hajime Nakamura argues that particular intellectual and social developments can be traced in all great cultures; that each culture deals with its problems in about the same order. Discussing ideas from India, China, Japan and Europe, the author considers such inclusive notions as the concept of God.