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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... means of technology that enable authors on different sides of the globe to write together . It owes even more to the supportive atmospheres in which we both live . Here we owe an im- mense debt to our respective families for their ...
... means of expressing underlying meanings that do not need affirmation in doctrinal forms . While we recognize the problems caused by the term “ religion , " we do not concur with such concerns . In this book we are talking about a non ...
... mean- ings to different people in different contexts , we should state where we stand on this issue . In this book we are using parameters similar to those found in much of contemporary Japanese scholarship : thus we use " religion " as ...
... means in Mahāyāna Bud- dhism is widely recognized . Explained in texts such as the Lotus Sutra , the concept asserts that Buddhism , in its drive toward universal truth and the establishment of the unchanging Buddhist law that can bring ...
... means through which those who wish to do so can legitimize the apparent accretions and assimilations from the folk tradition and therefore reaffirm many of the notions about high religion as opposed to popu- lar and folk religion ...
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Practically Religious: Worldly Benefits and the Common Religion of Japan Ian Reader,George J. Tanabe No preview available - 1998 |