Constructing Buddhism(s): Interreligious Dialogue and Religious Hybridity

Abstract

This paper presents data from interviews with senior Catholic and Buddhist nuns living in the United States who participated in an interreligious dialogue. We focus on how Catholic nuns devel op, appropriate, and adapt Buddhist forms and ideas in their daily religious practices and how Buddhist nuns respond. We describe and analyze three distinct discursive constructions of Buddhism that Catholic and Buddhist nuns draw upon, and discuss the significance of these constructions for mem bers of both traditions as they think about their groups' futures. This material contributes to research on religious syncretism, appropriation, and the hybrid nature of religious traditions in practice While some scholars conceive of religions as intact traditions with clear boundaries, distinct ideologies, and unique histories other scholars, primarily in sociology and religious studies, have long known that these conceptions fall apart under close scrutiny (Boyarin 2004; Butler 1990; Thai 2005). Religious traditions develop and exist, these others argue, in relation to one another. Religious con flicts and polemics reformulate and solidify boundaries between traditions. The movement of religious traditions into new contexts reshapes their borders and meanings, and contact and interaction in plural worlds often lead to religious hybridization and other kinds of incorporation (McGuire and Maduro 2005;

What Makes Muslim Women Entrepreneurs Successful? A Field Study Examining Religiosity and Social Capital in Tunisia

“…One explanation for the null finding is that Muslim women entrepreneurs individually decide how to adhere to their faith. Sociologists in the "lived religion" tradition argue that adherents adjust their interpretations of religious traditions to align with their life experiences (Bender & Cadge, 2006;Williams, 2010). As such, Muslim women may interpret Islamic doctrine and history in ways that are supportive of their entrepreneurial pursuits (Essers & Benschop, 2009;Tlaiss 2015).…”

Encounters at the Religious Edge: Variation in Religious Expression Across Interfaith Advocacy and Social Movement Settings

“…More than one out of five Americans now affiliate with a tradition other than Christianity or Judaism (Pew 2008). More frequent contact with religious others-both face and virtual-has resulted in new forms of conflict and cooperation (Bender and Cadge 2006;Wuthnow 2006). One of the most widespread forms of interreligious interaction occurs through the work of interfaith political coalitions.…”

“This Is a Head, Hearts, and Hands Enterprise”: Adult Learning in Interfaith Dialogue

“…It allows participants to suspend their own frame of reference in order to attempt to understand something from another’s point of view (DeTurk, 2006; Helskog, 2014b). This suspension and attempt to understand others can have the unanticipated outcome of an assimilation of beliefs from other traditions (Bender & Cadge, 2006), although not all scholars see this as a positive outcome of dialogue (Garber, 2015; Haug, 2014).…”