BUDDHISM

A Buddhist history tracing the line between academic rigor and inclusivity with a minimum of strain.

Lopez is an established figure of Buddhist academia both as a longtime professor of Buddhist and Tibetan studies at the University of Michigan and with his many books that bring the study of Buddhism into the public eye. As he acknowledges at the outset of his most recent work, an investigation of Buddhism in its transcontinental journey over 2.5-plus millennia is a problem of scale. Tomes might be dedicated to any one century or region of influence. For the reader brave enough to take on such a global religion, Lopez has arranged 30 stand-alone essays in which one can trace a path there and back in different parcels of space and time. Rather than chronologically or regionally, he organizes these alphabetically, addressing apocalypse, art, canon, council, disappearance, encounter, food, identity, immortality, incarnation, innovation, law, narrative, nation, ordination, orthodoxy, persecution, philosophy, pilgrimage, rule, schism, science, self, sex, society, war, women, wrath, and writing, with an opening essay on history pointing to his own endeavor. An extended introduction expands on a primer in Buddhism for anyone coming up to speed with the terms at play. Lopez also attempts to cover in a brief but meaningful way countries where Buddhism can be found over time. Even while brief, these explanations accumulate, suggesting the expansive if interconnected global scape Lopez is outlining. But even for these far-flung reaches of theoretical and academic inquiry, Lopez does tend to start and conclude each essay in territory that will be familiar to the reader, rooting his essays in tropes and experiences of the contemporary anglophone world. Aiming at a global view of Buddhism, Lopez keeps the reader circling back to the enormity of the scope, such that with one wary eye on the horizon, the other analyzes whatever academic soil in which Lopez is digging.

Puzzle pieces of a global Buddhist scape to be assembled, scrambled, and reassembled.