The Unitarian-Universalist Buddhist Fellowship will hold its third Convocation in Oceanside, California from March 27-29. The featured presenter will be Shinzen Young, talking on “The Science of Enlightenment.” Register by July 15th for just $60; by February 15 for $80; or regular rate at $100. More details, and the registration form, are [...]
This blog is on informal hiatus while summer research is being conducted. A significant part of that is ethnographic fieldwork at a number of American Buddhist groups. In sitting in on these meetings, it is hard not to notice the aspects of liberal religion that they embody. While each of the five groups currently under [...]
The first Theravada temple ever established in America was founded at All Souls Church, Unitarian in Washington D.C. The year was 1966. Since then many other Buddhist across the country have gotten their starts in Unitarian-Universalist churches. In some cases these are merely rental situations, while in others a deeper, longer-lasting relationship is established between [...]
Unitarian-Universalists have been important influences in the process of bringing Buddhism to the West. Beyond importing knowledge and often dabbling in its practice themselves, one way in which they have significantly contributed to Buddhism’s spread is through hosting Buddhist groups in their churches. When many communities would not allow Buddhists to meet in [...]
Readers who are attending the 2008 UUA General Assembly in Ft. Lauderdale this June will have the opportunity to hear and engage with a panel that is sure to be interesting. The Unitarian Universalist Buddhist Fellowship is holding a panel discussion entitled “My Minister is a Buddhist???” which will feature several self-identified Buddhist UU ministers. [...]
Transient and Permanent is a blog about liberal religion, from a somewhat academic standpoint. Much of the time the topic is Unitarian-Universalism, or the parent faiths of this denomination. However, liberal religion of all varieties is fair game for this blog. To that end, a new category has been added: Buddhism.
Buddhism has already been discussed [...]
There’s been a lot of buzz lately about the new Pew Religion and Life Study, both here and at other blogs. In liberal religious circles, the matter of the discrepancy between reported UUs and those on the books at actual UU congregations has been the main topic of conversation.
The Pew study, like all studies, [...]
UU blogger CK asked some good questions about the last post. Here is a partial response to her issues.
We do see the emergence of phenomena that we could term “Buddhist fundamentalism,” but we have to be quite careful about how we use such a term. All of the Buddhisms that are engaging with [...]
Reading through works on Buddhism by 19th century Unitarians and their liberal religious kin is a humbling exercise. Their hermeneutical tunnel vision is at times painful to behold, particularly because it raises obvious doubts about our own understandings. The only consolation can be that in the modern academy we at least attempt a [...]
From James Pike it’s now time to take a look at Thomas Merton, a convert to Roman Catholicism who, strangely enough, ended up creating a sort of liberal Catholicism from inside a monastic cell in Kentucky. Perhaps it is significant that his journey to Catholicism took him through many other religious bodies, including liberal [...]
