The size and shape of SGI-UK; encounter, attraction and conversion; religious biographies; the members, their families and their friends; the social structure of SGI-UK; the values of the value creators; the involvement of the members; practising Nichiren Buddhism; what chanting achieved. Appendices: the 1990-1991 schism of Nichiren Shoshu and Soka Gakkai; the questionnaire; the interview schedule.
Co-written by Bryan Wilson, the world's leading sociologist of religion
Bryan Wilson, the world's leading sociologist of religion, has held
visiting Professorships or Fellowships at the universities of
Louvain, Toronto, Melbourne, Queensland, and California (Santa
Barbara). He was presented with an honorary doctorate by Soka
University, Japan in 1985 and was a Fellow of the American Council
of Learned Societies. In the UK, he studied at Leicester and the
London School of Economics (where he gained his Ph.D.) and taught
at the
University of Leeds (1955-62). He has lived and taught in Oxford
since 1962. Karel Dobbelaere lives and works in Belgium, but he was
a visiting fellow at All Souls College, Oxford in 1977 and 1990-1
and at the
London School of Economics in 1987. He has held visiting posts
around the world: in the US, at Union Graduate School, Kent State
University, Marquette, Akron, Minnesota, and Loyola; in Sweden, at
Lund and Uppsala; in Japan, at the Nanzan Institute for Religion
and Culture, Tokyo, Sophia, and Soka; in The Netherlands,
(Tilburg); in Italy (Padova); Germany (Bielefeld); and in Zaire.
`Although the authors have clearly aimed this work primarily at an
academic readership, there is a great deal more material in it that
Buddhists of any persuasion are likely to find stimulating as well
as providing food for thought ... The book is well-researched,
gives a clear and unbiased view of the movement under scrutiny,
and, not least, is very readable.'
Golden Drum
`Valuable and lively for what it is: a useful look at Western
Buddhists ... and a convincing take on alternative religion from a
perspective pessimistic about mainline religion in contemporary
society.'
The Journal of Religion
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