Contemporary Buddhism

Mark M. Rowe, Series Editor

Buddhism has become a conspicuous part of the religious landscape worldwide. Its diverse forms and expressions, from the severest levels of ascetic practice to images used in media and advertising, are recognizably Buddhist even in their immense variation. Nirvana, karma, mindfulness, and Zen are everyday terms; meditation is commonplace; the Dalai Lama is an international celebrity. Buddhism is undoubtedly a contemporary global phenomenon.

The series Contemporary Buddhism—like its predecessor, Topics in Contemporary Buddhism—examines Buddhist traditions through the perspectives of multiple disciplines, from the philosophical to the ethnographic. Spanning the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, it considers Buddhism in its global and localized forms and seeks to address how different Buddhisms are produced and negotiated in scholarly, political, economic, and social practices. Though focused primarily on the contemporary period, books in the series attend to the diverse strands of modernity that have given rise to current varieties of Buddhism.

Contemporary Buddhism seeks the finest narratives and analyses of doctrine, institutions, personalities, ritual, gender, politics, economics, performance, and art in any cultural area of the contemporary world. It welcomes innovative approaches that satisfy the aims of the series and attract a broad readership.

Interested scholars may submit queries and proposals to:
Mark M. Rowe
Religious Studies
McMaster University
University Hall, Room 126
1280 Main Street West
Hamilton, Ontario L8S 4K1
e-mail: [email protected]

Mark M. Rowe is associate professor of religious studies at McMaster University. He is the author of  Bonds of the Dead: Temples, Burial, and the Transformation of Contemporary Japanese Buddhism.