This study deals with the seeming paradox of why an "other-worldly" Taiwanese immigrant Buddhist temple is more publicly engaged in American society than an "inner-worldly" Taiwanese immigrant Christian church. Based upon an ethnographic study of a Taiwanese immigrant Buddhist temple and an evangelical Christian church, this article shows how a combination of religious ideals, outreach strategies, and representations of racial and religious difference shape their respective types of public engagement. The temple's inner-worldly orientation of Buddhist practice leads it to public interaction through charity while the church's evangelical ideal of exclusive salvation leads it to engagement through personal evangelism. Because of the linguistic and cultural obstacles that immigrants face when evangelizing to those outside their own ethnic community, Buddhist outreach strategies of charity are more culturally transferable to the wider society than evangelical Christian strategies. Furthermore, Buddhists are construed as religious foreigners and face pressures to prove their "American-ness" and engage in acts of public relations that the immigrant Christians do not.
目次
RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS AND THE NEW POST-1965 IMMIGRATION 217 METHODS AND SETTING 221 GRACE TAIWANESE CHURCH: SAVING THE WORLD THROUGH EVANGELISM 223 Theological Orientation: A Mission to Evangelize 223 Institutionalizing a Strategy of Personal Evangelism 224 Consequences of Evangelistic Theology and Strategy 225 DHARMA LIGHT TEMPLE: CHARITABLE ENGAGEMENT 227 Theological Orientation: A Mission of Charity 227 Cultivation a Culture of Charity 229 Interreligious dialogue and cooperation 230 Consequences of Theological Orientation and Strategies 230 GETTING ON THE INSIDE BY BEING ON THE OUTSIDE: CHRISTIANS AS RELIGIOUS INSIDERS AND BUDDHISTS AS RELIGIOUS OUTSIDERS 231 CONCLUSION 234 REFERENCES 235
