Author Information California State University, Los Angeles
WILD GEESE: BUDDHISM IN CANADA . Edited by John S. Harding, Victor Sōgen Hori, and Alexander Soucy . Montreal : McGill-Queen's University Press , 2010 . Pp . xx + 460 . Cloth, $95; paper, $29.95 .
摘要
The editors have assembled not only unquestionably the best survey of Buddhism in Canada, but arguably the new standard for books on Buddhism in all of North America. It seems also the thickest, comprising fifteen chapters by sixteen authors. Those chapters span the length of Buddhism's presence in Canada, from 1905 to the present, and from British Columbia to Nova Scotia. Notably, the book satisfyingly covers both of the “two Buddhisms” (Asian/ethnic/traditional and Western/convert/modernist) while determinedly attempting to move beyond that flawed dichotomy. Perhaps what stands out most in this collection is the way it problematizes assumptions. Hori's chapter one dissects the “two Buddhisms.” Soucy devalidates “Canadian” (and “American”) Buddhism. Then the many contributors take their turns debunking stereotypes, complexifying histories, revealing hybridities, and questioning trends. Naturally, not all chapters possess the historical and theoretical depth of Harding's examination of Jodo Shinshu in rural Alberta or the psychological nuance of P. Campbell's and S. Haynes's inquiries into Zen and Tibetan practice, respectively, but their general quality is high. This book answers fewer questions than it asks and, despite its length, will leave the reader wanting more, but that is in the nature of a thoughtful survey of a fresh field of inquiry. Scholars of religion in North America will be usefully provoked by this book. Scholars of Buddhism in the West simply must read it.
