A sensitive and balanced examination of the life and teachings of the founder of True Pure Land Buddhism which also probes their implications for the interreligious, intercultural world in which we find ourselves today. The author shows how the ongoing drama of salvation through the grace of Amida (Amitabha Buddha) - a mutual engagement of form and the formless, of ignorant humans and the awakened Buddha - can be read as a message of hope by Buddhists and Christians alike.
Shinran Shonin (1173-1262) is not only a central figure in the great reforms of Kamakura Buddhism but one of the greatest Japanese religious figures of all times. Throughout the centuries, the anguished story of his ascent to faith in Amida has lost none of its power to inspire and challenge.
"Understanding Shinran is a truly "strong" book, an engaged and sustained hermeneutical effort at understanding, that never loses itself in irrelevent details. It probes deeply into the main points that appear to separate Shinran's thinking from Christian thinking, and honestly challenges the respective doctrines when the light emanating form the other seems to warrant it." Jan Van Bragt
Shinran Shonin (1173-1262) is not only a central figure in the great reforms of Kamakura Buddhism but one of the greatest religious teachers of all times. Throughout the centuries, the anguished story of his ascent to faith in Amida has lost none of its power to inspire and challenge. Understanding Shinran offers a sensitive and balanced examination of the life and teachings of the founder of True Pure Land Buddhism and probes their implication for the interreligious, intercultural world in which we find ourselves today. The author shows how the ongoing drama of salvation through the grace of Amida - a mutual engagement of form and the formless, of ignorant humans and the awakened Buddha - can be read as a message of hope by Buddhists and Christians alike.
