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  • A Time to Chant: The Soka Gakkai Buddhists in Britain

    A Time to Chant by Wilson, Bryan; Dobbelaere, Karel;

    The Soka Gakkai Buddhists in Britain

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      • Publisher's listprice GBP 42.99
      • The price is estimated because at the time of ordering we do not know what conversion rates will apply to HUF / product currency when the book arrives. In case HUF is weaker, the price increases slightly, in case HUF is stronger, the price goes lower slightly.

        19 409 Ft (18 485 Ft + 5% VAT)
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    19 409 Ft

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    Product details:

    • Publisher Clarendon Press
    • Date of Publication 20 January 1994

    • ISBN 9780198279150
    • Binding Hardback
    • No. of pages278 pages
    • Size 225x145x20 mm
    • Weight 476 g
    • Language English
    • Illustrations tables
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    Categories

    Short description:

    Soka Gakkai Buddhism is one of the world's most rapidly expanding religious movements with members in virtually every country in Europe, the Americas, and Australasia, most of Asia, and Africa. Based on a thorough survey of members of Soka Gakkai in the UK, this book analyses the reasons for its increasing popularity. The authors back up their analysis with liberal quotes from their questionnaire survey and from interviews. Soka Gakkai has not received much attention from western academics as yet, so this book will fill a gap in the academic literature. However, since it raises issues about changing values in western society and the decline in traditional religious institutions, it will appeal to a much wider readership.

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    Long description:

    Fifty years ago Soka Gakkai was an organization of a few hundred people, all of them in Japan. Today it is one of the world's most rapidly expanding religious movements with members in virtually every country in Europe, the Americas, and Australasia, in most of Asia, and in several parts of Africa. It is also increasingly well publicized, sponsoring and promoting a variety of cultural and educational causes and establishing a high profile for itself in world affairs.

    All of this has created a movement which is a significant social phenomenon; yet to date Soka Gakkai has received little attention from Western academics. Bryan Wilson and Karel Dobbelaere have undertaken a thorough survey of the UK membership to try to trace the source of the movement's attraction and analyse its potential. In addition to a questionnaire survey they carried out some thirty interviews with members, who were encouraged to tell their story in their own way. These interviews and the questionnaire responses are liberally quoted throughout the book and add illuminating detail to its analysis.

    The decline in belief in an anthropomorphic deity; the sense that traditional religious institutions have become hollow; the emphasis on the private nature of belief and on personal autonomy are all characteristic features of contemporary western values. The authors suggest that Soka Gakkai has found a ready resonance with these changing currents of thought in contemporary society and conclude that Soka Gakkai's appeal to young people in particular makes it a faith whose time may have come.

    `Although the authors have clearly aimed this work primarily at an academic readership, there is a great deal more material in it that Buddhists of any persuasion are likely to find stimulating as well as providing food for thought ... The book is well-researched, gives a clear and unbiased view of the movement under scrutiny, and, not least, is very readable.'
    Golden Drum

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