The White Buddhist: The Asian Odyssey of Henry Steel Olcott (Religion in North America) [Hardcover]

Stephen Prothero (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1996 | Series: Religion in North America

Denounced by the New York Times as an "unmitigated rascal" while simultaneously being lauded as a reincarnation of Gautama Buddha himself, Henry Steel Olcott (1832–1907) was friend to Madame Blavatsky, co-founder of the Theosophical Society, and an indefatigable reformer and culture broker between East and West. Olcott helped bring about a new spiritual creation, Protestant Buddhism, a creative creolization of American Protestantism, traditional Theravada Buddhism, and other influences. Stephen Prothero's portrait of Olcott is an engaging study of spiritual quest and cross-cultural encounters.

--This text refers to the Paperback edition.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Largely forgotten in his own country, the first American convert to Buddhism, Henry Steel Olcott, is still revered as a religious hero in Sri Lanka. Having played a key role in the revival of Buddhism there, he also championed Hinduism, Islam, and Zoroastrianism in India and was co-founder of the influential Theosophical Society. In an insightful portrait of the man and his mission, religion scholar Stephen Prothero proposes the concept of religious "creolization" in regard to Olcott's unconscious merging of Indian spirituality with American Protestant methodology.

Review

"An important study of a remarkable 19th-century American." —Choice

(Choice )

"Prothero has succeeded in creating a portrait of Olcott that will shape future scholarship.... Engaging and succinct." —Gnosis Magazine

(Gnosis Magazine )

"A meticulous story of a very colorful subject. In the process, [Prothero] assists the understanding of religious pluralism in our current age." —Church History

(Church History )

"The first scholarly biographical study of [this] influential figure; its use of "creolization" theory adds to ongoing conversations about how to understand contact, colonialism, and conversion." —Religious Studies Review

(Religious Studies Review )

"Prothero's study should interest not only scholars in the field but students of Asian religions and American religious history generally." —Journal of American History

(Journal of American History ) --This text refers to the Paperback edition.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 242 pages
• Publisher: Indiana University Press (April 1996)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0253330149
• ISBN-13: 978-0253330147
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.4 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,126,120 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Stephen Prothero is the New York Times bestselling author of Religious Literacy and chair of the religion department at Boston University. His work has been featured on the cover of Time magazine, Oprah, The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, National Public Radio, and other top national media outlets. He writes and reviews for The New York Times Magazine, Wall Street Journal, Boston Globe, Washington Post, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, Salon, and other publications. He holds degrees in American Religion from Harvard and Yale.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

23 of 23 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A rare american export, January 22, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: The White Buddhist: The Asian Odyssey of Henry Steel Olcott (Religion in North America) (Hardcover)

Henry Steel Olcott was an incongruent, eccentric character who on careful analysis was one of the most able and radical free thinkers that the USA produced, responsible for uplifting the cultures of Sri Lanka and India under the yoke of British imperialism. This book tells his story.

American books speaking of Buddhism start with Vietnam, the Beat Generation, Hippies and Ajhan Chah as a brief history of the religion in the USA. Actually, this history should be extended all the way back to the 1860s and specifically to Olcott, one of the first converts to Buddhism. The 1880s were very significant.

He established the Theosphical society with Helena Blavatsky and moved from Spiritualism to Egyptian religions before settling on a lifelong affair with Oriental religions after a vision he had.

Having moved to India, he established and bolstered movements battling against missionaries, swamping the native cultures and generated an anti missionary toolbox based on their own methods. These succeeded. He also established strings of Buddhist schools in Sri Lanka and empowered Hinduism and native Indian religions including Islam through his Theosophical journals which actually turned a profit. He also attempted to unify the Buddhist world by harbouring links with Japan. What is surprising is that so much of what he put his efforts into bore fruit.

This book exposes this little known American hero (to some)and the creolised religious response he initiated. The book is highly critical and well researched.

At a time when the USA is exporting Christian Evangelism, Olcott was the exception who exported something else and influenced the European Theosophical movement and seekers in ancient systems of knowledge.

An invaluable and rare reference of a little known indomitable figure.