Buddhist Religions: A Historical Introduction

by Richard H. Robinson, Willard L. Johnson, Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu

This historical introduction to Buddhism presents readers with an engaging exploration of the diversity of thoughts and practices of a wide segment of followers of the Buddha. It covers five main aspects of ritual, devotionalism, doctrine, meditation, practice, and institutional history.

Genres: Buddhism, History, Philosophy, Religion, Spirituality, Nonfiction

384 pages, Paperback

First published October 31, 2003

Reviews

[Andy McLellan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really like this book! It seems to be an undergraduate level text looking at the development of Buddhism from its origins with the historical Buddha through early developments of different schools, the formation of the Mahayana tradition and sutras, and the spread of the dharma into new countries where it took root and developed new traditions.

Given the size of the book there is only so much depth that can be gone into on each different school and geographical area but I finished it feeling that there were few areas that were ignored and it filled in a lot of gaps for me, being particularly complementary reading with Paul Williams' Mahayana Buddhism book which goes into more detail about different Mahayana schools, sutras and philosophy without telling the story of the pattern of development.

I am a Buddhist practitioner rather than scholar but either way if you want a one-stop read on the history of Buddhism and its development right into the present day across Asia and into the west, this is a very reliable and informative book. For those who know a fair bit about Buddhism already, it will fill in the gaps in your knowledge. As a complete introduction, it will require a little more work.

[Alia · Rating 2 out of 5]

Brings up the different schools of thought in Buddhist religion, although the title is a bit misleading.

[Tom]

Read earlier (3d) edition.