The American Encounter with Buddhism, 1844-1912: Victorian Culture and the Limits of Dissent [Paperback]

Thomas A. Tweed (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 11, 2000

In this landmark work, Thomas Tweed examines nineteenth-century America's encounter with one of the world's major religions. Exploring the debates about Buddhism that followed upon its introduction in this country, Tweed shows what happened when the transplanted religious movement came into contact with America's established culture and fundamentally different Protestant tradition.

The book, first published in 1992, traces the efforts of various American interpreters to make sense of Buddhism in Western terms. Tweed demonstrates that while many of those interested in Buddhism considered themselves dissenters from American culture, they did not abandon some of the basic values they shared with their fellow Victorians. In the end, the Victorian understanding of Buddhism, even for its most enthusiastic proponents, was significantly shaped by the prevailing culture. Although Buddhism attracted much attention, it ultimately failed to build enduring institutions or gain significant numbers of adherents in the nineteenth century. Not until the following century did a cultural environment more conducive to Buddhism's taking root in America develop.

In a new preface, Tweed addresses Buddhism's growing influence in contemporary American culture.

Editorial Reviews

Review

Indispensable reading for anyone interested in the history of Buddhism in America. (Jan Nattier, Indiana University)

This book is an important contribution to the sometime rancorous debate about what American Buddhism ought to look like and how it can best be adapted to American culture in ways that will insure both its success in the future and its integrity. (Richard Hughes Seager, Hamilton College)

This is one of the finest books I have read in a long time. (William H. Swatos, Jr., Sociology of Religion

An important and original contribution to American intellectual and social history. (Robert S. Ellwood, (Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography)

From the Inside Flap

Originally published in 1992, this landmark study on "convert Buddism" in Victorian America is a fascinating cultural history that explores the ways Buddism was adopted and understood by a variety of Americans including intellectuals, travellers, and critics. This new edition has a preface that places the book in the context of Buddism's growing influence in American culture today.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 280 pages
• Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press; New edition edition (October 11, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0807849065
• ISBN-13: 978-0807849064
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.2 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #381,090 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An insightful study of Victorian American Buddhism, March 22, 2003

By 

Kim Boykin (New York, NY) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The American Encounter with Buddhism, 1844-1912: Victorian Culture and the Limits of Dissent (Paperback)

This historical and sociological study of Buddhism in the U.S. from 1844 to 1912 provides insight not only into American Buddhism but also into American culture in the Victorian period and the interactions between new religious movements and the values and beliefs of the dominant culture. The book is academic but not obtuse, and it's relatively engaging.

Tweed explores in detail the ways in which European-American converts to and sympathizers with Buddhism in the Victorian period both dissented from the dominant culture and also consented to it, and he observes that to be successful, a new or transplanted religious movement needs to be different but not too different from the dominant culture. Tweed argues that Buddhist adherents and sympathizers shared a number of basic Victorian American values and beliefs that Buddhism, as it was then understood, seemed to contradict: theism; individualism (a label that Tweed actually uses for two distinct things: the belief in a substantial and immortal self and an emphasis on self-reliance); optimism (a belief in the basic goodness and inevitable progress of individuals and history); and activism (an emphasis on moral action to uplift individuals and reform societies). In contrast, Buddhism was seen as atheistic, nihilistic, pessimistic, and passive. Although some Americans attracted to Buddhism were able to reject theism and the belief in a substantial self, very few were able to relinquish their commitments to optimism and activism, and they rejected interpretations of Buddhism as pessimistic and passive. Tweed finds that two major sources of Buddhism's appeal during the Victorian period were the perception that Buddhism was more compatible than Christianity with science and the perception that Buddhism was more tolerant than Christianity and Victorian culture toward religious and cultural outsiders.

Tweed also provides an interesting typology of Euro-American Buddhist adherents and sympathizers in Victorian America: the "esoteric," "rationalist," and "romantic" types.

Also recommended: "Buddhism in America" by Richard Hughes Seager.