Dear colleagues,
Some of you may be interested in the following title
which I have just published with Equinox:
Laurence Cox, Buddhism and
Ireland: from the Celts to the counter-culture and beyond
Sheffield, UK:
Equinox, 2013
ISBN 9781908049292 (hardback) / 9781908049308
(paperback)
426pp, 35 illustrations
Price $99.95 / $35; 25% discount
available for web orders via https://www.equinoxpub.com/equinox/books/showbook.asp?bkid=529
until the end of 2013 (use the code COX when ordering).
Ireland and
Buddhism have a long history. Shaped by colonialism, contested borders,
religious wars, empire and massive diasporas, Irish people have encountered
Asian Buddhism in many ways over fourteen centuries. From the thrill of
travellers’ tales in far-off lands to a religious alternative to Christianity,
from the potential of anti-colonial solidarity to fears of 'going native', and
from recent immigration to the secular spread of Buddhist meditation, Buddhism
has meant many different things to people in Ireland.
Knowledge of
Buddhist Asia reached Ireland by the seventh century, with the first personal
contact in the fourteenth - a tale remembered for five hundred years. The first
Irish Buddhists appeared in the political and cultural crisis of the nineteenth
century, in Dublin and the rural West, but also in Burma and Japan. Over the
next hundred years, Buddhism competed with esoteric movements to become the
alternative to mainstream religion. Since the 1960s, Buddhism has exploded to
become Ireland’s third-largest religion.
Buddhism and Ireland is the
first history of its subject, a rich and exciting story of extraordinary
individuals and the journey of ideas across Europe and
Asia.
Contents
1. Buddhism in Ireland: an introduction to the
problem
PART I: THINKING “BUDDHISM AND IRELAND” IN WORLD-SYSTEMS CONTEXT
(500 - 1850)
2. The Prologue to Buddhism in Ireland: awareness without
interest
PART II: BUDDHISTS AND THEOSOPHISTS, CAUGHT BETWEEN EMPIRES
(1850 - 1960)
3. The Two Empires: Ireland in Asia, Asia in Ireland
4.
Esotericism against Empire: Irish Theosophy
5. The First Irish Buddhists:
jumping ship and “going native”
PART III: BUDDHISM WITHIN IRELAND: FROM
COUNTER-CULTURE TO RESPECTABILITY (1960 - 2010)
6. The New “Catholic
Buddhists” and Post-colonial Social Movements
7. Buddhism through the Celtic
Tiger: choices for the future
Afterword
Reviews
"This is a
truly fascinating book on how Buddhism arrived and was localised in Ireland. It
shows how Ireland was never isolated from a global circuit of knowledge on
Buddhism and Asia mediated by empire building, nationalism, colonialism,
religion and ethnicity.”
Cristina Rocha, University of Western
Sydney
“With a cast of Buddhist characters you couldn’t invent, this
insightful and clearly written account of the extraordinary relationship between
Buddhism and Ireland deftly challenges conventional histories of Western
Buddhism.”
Brian Bocking, University College Cork
“Laurence Cox
reveals why the practice of Buddhism may flourish in Ireland - and why Irish
Buddhists have a longer history than we might suppose. Focus and perspicuity
inform this admirable work on conversion and seeking.”
Joseph Lennon,
Villanova University, USA
Further details are available at https://www.equinoxpub.com/equinox/books/showbook.asp?bkid=529
Brian
Bocking
Professor of the Study of Religions
Acting Head, School of
Asian Studies
University College Cork
Cork
Ireland [no
postcode]
Bocking@ucc.ie
Profile: http://publish.ucc.ie/researchprofiles/A040/bbocking
