Practically Religious: Worldly Benefits and the Common Religion of JapanPraying for practical benefits (genze riyaku) is a common religious activity in Japan. Despite its widespread nature and the vast numbers of people who pray and purchase amulets and talismans for everything from traffic safety and education success to business prosperity and protection from disease, the practice has been virtually ignored in academic studies or relegated to the margins as a uh_product of superstition or an aberration from the true dynamics of religion. Basing their work on a fusion of textual, ethnographic, historical, and contemporary studies, the authors of this volume demonstrate the fallacy of such views, showing that, far from being marginal, the concepts and practices surrounding genze riyaku lie at the very heart of the Japanese religious world. They thrive not only as popular religious expression but are supported by the doctrinal structures of most Buddhist sects, are ordained in religious scriptures, and are promoted by monastic training centers, shrines, and temples. |
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... example , Nakamura Kokyō attacked the new religion Ŏmotokyō as “ a frightful superstition unparalleled in the country . " 5 Scholars too have joined in criticizing the new religions . In their book Shinkō shūkyō , Samoto Akio and Kotake ...
... example , Miyake Hitoshi discusses this - worldly benefits , rituals , spirit posses- sion , festivals , asceticism , taboos , and the relationship of Buddhism with folk customs . Doctrines and creedal teachings , by contrast , are ...
... example of the expediency of a religion whose primary focus was on monastic celibacy , withdrawal from the world , and the affirma- tion of impermanence - in marked contrast to the notion of ances- torhood and its belief in a permanent ...
... example , Eamon Duffy has noted that " no substantial gulf existed be- tween the religion of the clergy and the educated elite on the one hand and that of the people on the other . " 59 In stating that " the liturgy was the principal ...
... example , at the gate of Matsunoodera in northern Kyoto prefecture , the twenty - ninth temple on the Saikoku pilgrim- age , and on one of the paths leading to Shiromineji , the eighty - first site on the Shikoku pilgrimage . The ...
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Practically Religious: Worldly Benefits and the Common Religion of Japan Ian Reader,George J. Tanabe No preview available - 1998 |