Document Type
Contribution to Book
Source Publication
Marxism, Religion, and Emancipatory Politics
Link to Published Version
https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-91642-8
Publication Date
Summer 8-25-2022
Editor
Graeme Kirkpatrick, Peter McMylor, and Simin Fadaee
Publisher
Palgrave Macmillan
City
London
ISBN
978-3-030-91642-8
First Page
81
Last Page
102
Department
Comparative Humanities
Description
Although it is only in recent decades that scholars have begun to reconsider and problematize Buddhist conceptions of “freedom” and “agency,” the various thought traditions of Asian Buddhism have for some centuries struggled with questions related to the issue of “liberation,” along with its fundamental ontological, epistemological and ethical—if not economic and political—implications. With the development of Marxist thought in the mid to late nineteenth century, a new paradigm for thinking about freedom in relation to economics, history, identity and socio-political transformation found its way to Asia, where it soon confronted traditional religious interpretations of freedom as well as competing Western ones. Over the past century, numerous attempts have been made—in India, southeast Asia, China and Japan—to bring together Marxist and Buddhist worldviews, with only moderate success (both at the level of theory and practice). In the context of an overview of this fraught history, this chapter analyzes the possibilities and problems of “Buddhist Marxism” by focusing on the links and disparities between Asian Buddhist conceptions of awakening and theories of “Enlightenment” and “liberation” developed within classical and contemporary Marxism. The analysis centers on the meaning and implications of terms such as “alienation” and “materialism”—and how, or whether, these might correspond to foundational Buddhist teachings. A secondary concern is the meaning of “religion”—denounced by Marx and most Marxists as irredeemably ideological—and whether this arguably “Western” term sufficiently captures the traditions of thought and practice related to the path of Dharma.
Recommended Citation
Shields, James Mark, "Buddhist Socialism in China, 1900–1930: A History and Appraisal" (2022). Faculty Contributions to Books. 270.
https://digitalcommons.bucknell.edu/fac_books/270
Included in
Asian History Commons, Buddhist Studies Commons, Chinese Studies Commons, Comparative Methodologies and Theories Commons, Ethics and Political Philosophy Commons, History of Religion Commons, History of Religions of Eastern Origins Commons, Political History Commons, Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion Commons