Buddhism and Modernity

Lionel Obadia is professor in the Department of Anthropology, University ofLyon 2 (France), and director of the Centre d'Etudes et de Recherches Anthropologiques (CREA). He has published five popular books (Bouddhisme et Occident, Paris : L'Harmattan, 1999, La Religion and La Sorcellerie, Paris: Le Cavalier Bleu, 2004 and 2005 respectively, Le bouddhisme en Occident and Anthropologie des religions, both published in 2007, Paris : La Decouverte, collection "Reperes"). He also has an English-language manuscript under consideration: Western Buddhism: body, space and community.

Introduction: Buddhism and Modernity, between fashion and science.1. Buddhism, Religions and Modernities: A View from the West.The issue.Buddhism and History: a "tradition facing modernity"?.Buddhism and "Multiple modernities".2. Buddhism and cultural modernity: Western encounters.Buddhism in a "modern world".The construction of Buddhism as a "Modern" Religion.Buddhisms, modernisms and traditionalisms.Buddhism as a modern "spirituality": ideals and facts.Conclusion: A methodological issue.3. Buddhism on the positivistic edge: the Rationalist Fabric of Buddhism as Science.Buddhism as philosophy.Buddhism as science.Buddhism as psychology.4. The encounter of Buddhism and Political Modernity: East and West.Western-styled political "modernities".Buddhism, Human Rights and modern violence.Global politics: Buddhism a the modern transnational Ethics.5. Capitalism, Modernity and the "religious economy".Buddhism and Economy.Religion and the Market economy The controversial commodification of Buddhism.Beyond economic modernity. Is Buddhism "capitalism"?.6. Buddhist responses to modernity: anti-modernism, traditionalism and universalism.Modernism, postmodernism and a changing world: contemporary resonances of Buddhist messages.Postcolonialism and responses to Western Modernity.Global Warnings, Ecology, and the Hazards of Modernity.Modern values, global virtues: Buddhism, Universalism and the paradoxes of culture.7. Buddhism on the electronic frontier: ICTs, "Cybersangha" and "HyperDharma".Buddhism and Information technologies: early affairs.Buddhism in the "Information Age": economies of diffusion and new "territories" for the dharma.Spiritual virtuality? "Cybersangha" and "HyperDharma".ICTs: A challenge for Buddhism?.8. The "Modern" transformations of Buddhism: evidences and paradoxes.Is there something like a "modernization" of Buddhism?.Asian-Buddhist styles of modernity: Buddhist modernisms.Modernism: Neo-Buddhism.9. Conclusion: rethinking Buddhism, tradition and modernity.