Critical Buddhism: Engaging with Modern Japanese Buddhist Thought

by James Mark Shields

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the relative calm world of Japanese Buddhist scholarship was thrown into chaos with the publication of several works by Buddhist scholars Hakamaya Noriaki and Matsumoto Shiro, dedicated to the promotion of something they called Critical Buddhism (hihan bukkyo). In their quest to re-establish a "true" - rational, ethical and humanist - form of East Asian Buddhism, the Critical Buddhists undertook a radical deconstruction of historical and contemporary East Asian Buddhism, particularly Zen. While their controversial work has received some attention in English-language scholarship, this is the first book-length treatment of Critical Buddhism as both a philosophical and religious movement, where the lines between scholarship and practice blur. Providing a critical and constructive analysis of Critical Buddhism, particularly the epistemological categories of critica and topica, this book examines contemporary theories of knowledge and ethics in order to situate Critical Buddhism within modern Japanese and Buddhist thought as well as in relation to current trends in contemporary Western thought.

Genres: Buddhism, Philosophy, Japan

216 pages, Paperback

First published February 28, 2011

Reviews

[Kamakana · Rating 4 out of 5]

110417: this is a fascinating critique of zen- if you like academic work. i came first to Buddhism through 'beat' zen as it is offered by DT Suzuki, as it is promoted, defined, erratically given in certain works of mostly us authors from midcentury (already history by that time). this is a more learned philosophical zen as interpreted by Japanese Buddhists. though i have read a lot of zen and Buddhism, i do not know if i can truly engage with his arguments, some alluding to previous critiques (support for fascist nationalism implicit in 'japanism'), some technical (emptiness of emptiness... ) but the thing that is most resonant, though i have never argued or disputed but simply accepted, is the current of 'anti-intellectualism' that seems in zen everywhere from koans to emptiness to 'non-discrimination' of ethical choices, suggesting that what 'critical buddhism' could offer is something like a 'linguistic turn'... though that is a 'western' move and i do not necessarily agree with thesis of meaning inextricably inhabiting the real through language... or something like that...

[Alex Arcos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very interesting work: extremely well-researched, clearly written, impartial and quite successful in synthesizing and systematizing insights from many different philosophers and social critics.

The first two chapters are amazing and deserve 5 stars. The first one offers a historical contextualization of the role Zen has played in Japanese culture (and of how Buddhism might have been altered by said culture) particularly after the Meiji Revolution. The second one studies the problems Critical Buddhists found in certain Buddhist concepts, clarifying misunderstandings and suggesting reorientations.

The rest of the book gradually loses interest for me because of three reasons: i) Mr. Shields is sometimes unable to translate the esoteric and intrincate philosophies of the Kyoto School and Continental thinkers he decides to discuss to a language the non-specialist dilettante can understand, ii) the purpose or relevance of chapters 4 and 5 is not evident, iii) and the passages devoted to Gadamer, Levinas and Rorty (who has to be one of the least philosophical minds among those who have pretended to do philosophy) seem completely out of place and counterproductive to advance Buddhist critique and evolution.