The Pilgrimage of Buddhism and a Buddhist Pilgrimage

James Bissett Pratt

ITALIAN differs from British Christianity, German from French, as a German from a Frenchman. More-over, nineteenth-century differs from sixteenth-cen-tury Christianity and that again from the Christianity of the fifth or the second century. The same is true of Buddhism.

The well-equipped Professor of Philosophy in Williams College presents a detailed and synthetic view of Buddhism as a whole, ancient and modern, Southern and North-ern. It is the first time that this has been done. The whole Hinayana and Mahayana, from the earliest times to to-day, has been reasonably well covered in order to trace the development of new aspects of Buddhism and its continuity as a whole in its long pilgrimage. The point of view taken is not the linguistic but that of the Psychology of Religion and of Philosophy. Particular attention is given to the Maha-yana, to which very few books read in the West pay serious and detailed attention. In addition, an account is given together with a fresh interpretation of the original teachings of the Founder based upon the sources.

For all its authoritativeness, it is written in the same style and manner as his "The Religious Consciousness. which appealed so strongly to the general reader.

Buddhism

1928

MacMillan and Company

English