Cox, Laurence (2016) European Buddhist Traditions. In: The Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Buddhism. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780199362387

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Abstract

This chapter covers those Buddhist traditions which are largely based in Europe, noting some of the specificities of this history as against the North American with which it is sometimes conflated. While the reception history of Buddhism in Europe stretches back to Alexander, Buddhist organization in Europe begins in the later nineteenth century, with the partial exception of indigenous Buddhisms in the Russian Empire. The chapter discusses Asian-oriented Buddhisms with a strong European base; European neo-traditionalisms founded by charismatic individuals; explicitly new beginnings; and the broader world of “fuzzy religion” with Buddhist components, including New Age, “night-stand Buddhists”, Christian creolizations, secular mindfulness and engaged Buddhism. In general terms European Buddhist traditions reproduce the wider decline of religious institutionalization and boundary formation that shapes much of European religion generally.

Item Type:	Book Section
Keywords:	Buddhism; Buddhist modernism; creolization; Europe; immigration; meditation; night-stand Buddhists; Western Buddhism;
Academic Unit:	Faculty of Social Sciences > Sociology
Item ID:	7517
Depositing User:	Dr. Laurence Cox
Date Deposited:	17 Oct 2016 10:13
Journal or Publication Title:	Oxford Handbook of Contemporary Buddhism
Publisher:	Oxford University Press
Refereed:	Yes
URI:	Publisher
Use Licence:	This item is available under a Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial Share Alike Licence (CC BY-NC-SA). Details of this licence are available here

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