Converting American Buddhism Second-Generation Buddhist Americans, Orientalism, and the Politics of Family Religion

2020·43.3 MB·English

by  Drew Baker

Converting American
Buddhism
Second-Generation Buddhist
Americans, Orientalism, and the
Politics of Family Religion

Converting American
Buddhism
Second-Generation Buddhist
Americans, Orientalism, and the
Politics of Family Religion
Drew Baker
CLAREMONT STUDIES IN
INTERRELIGIOUS DIALOGUE 2
Converting American Buddhism
Second-Generation Buddhist Americans, Orientalism, and
the Politics of Family Religion
©2020 Claremont Press
1235 N. College Ave.
Claremont, CA 91711
ISBN 978-1-946230-40-9 (print)
978-1-946230-43-0 (ebook)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Converting American Buddhism: Second-Generation
Buddhist
Americans, Orientalism, and the Politics of Family
Religion
/ Drew Baker
XV + 394 pp. 22 x 15 cm. –(Claremont Studies in
Interreligious Dialogue 2)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-946230-40-9 (print)
978-1-946230-43-0 (ebook)
1. Children—Religious life. 2. Families—
United States. 3. Buddhism—United States.
BQ5430 .B35 2020
Cover: Image by อคั รวฒั น ์ใจเพ็ชร from Pixabay
https://pixabay.com/photos/thailand-asia-buddha-mandalay-
2630779/
v
For my father and my children—
one generation before me and one after
vi

Contents
Acknowledgements
xi
The Family Album Buried in the Closet
1
Rediscovering a Genealogy from Buddhist
American
Converts to Second-Generation Buddhist
Americans
When Two Means One
69
Retracing Scholarly Traditions on Buddhism
in the United States
The Mountain of Youth
123
Converting American Buddhism and the
Authority of the Monk-Convert Paradigm
From Master’s Tools to Child’s Toys
209
Remaking the Political as Personal
Child’s Mind, Parent’s Mind
289
viii
Nightlight Buddhists, Alternative Linages of
Authority, and (Dis)Placing the Buddhist
American Canon
Conclusion
343
Buddhism in the Made and the Creative
Possibilities of Tradition
Bibliography
369
Index
391
ix