Building and Negotiating Religious Identities in a Zen Buddhist Temple, 1st ed. 2019
A Perspective of Buddhist Rhetoric

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Language: English

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Building and Negotiating Religious Identities in a Zen Buddhist Temple
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Support: Print on demand

Approximative price 52.74 €

In Print (Delivery period: 15 days).

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Building and Negotiating Religious Identities in a Zen Buddhist Temple
Publication date:
100 p. · 15.5x23.5 cm · Hardback
This book explores the practices in a Zen Buddhist temple located in Northwest Ohio against the backdrop of globalization. Drawing on the previous studies on Buddhist modernization and westernization, it provides a better understanding of the westernization of Buddhism and its adapted practices and rituals in the host culture. Using rhetorical criticism methodology, the author approaches this temple as an embodiment of Buddhist rhetoric with both discursive and non-discursive expressions within the discourses of modernity. By analyzing the rhetorical practices at the temple through abbots? teaching videos, the temple website, members? dharma names, and the materiality of the temple space and artifacts, the author discovers how Buddhist rhetoric functions to constitute and negotiate the religious identities of the community members through its various rituals and activities. At the same time, the author examines how the temple?s space and settings facilitate the collective the formation and preservation of the Buddhist identity. Through a nuanced discussion of Buddhist rhetoric, this book illuminates a new rhetorical methodology to understand religious identity construction. Furthermore, it offers deeper insights into the future development of modern Buddhism, which are also applicable to Buddhist practitioners and other major world religions. 
CHAPTER I. BUDDHISM AND RHETORIC: FROM AN 
INTERCULTURAL PERSPECTIVE
Buddhism in an Era of Globalization
Buddhism in the West
Buddhism and Technology
Defining Buddhist Rhetoric
The H temple and Its Unique Buddhist Rhetoric  
CHAPTER II.  A BRIEF HISTORY OF MODERN ZEN BUDDHISM IN 
THE UNITED STATES
Brief History of Modern Zen Buddhism in the West
Modernization of Buddhism on A Global Scale
The Introduction of Buddhism to Ohio and the L city
Temple Setting and Activities
Temple Operation and Communication
Articulating Buddhist Rhetoric in the H temple: on the Intersection of Culture, Communication, and Rhetoric
Viewing the H temple as both Intercultural and Rhetorical
Competing Ideologies in the H temple: When East meets West
Observing the H temple as a Practitioner and Cultural Critic
CHAPTER III.  THE TEMPLE’S PARADOX: MAINTAINING CULTURAL 
TRADITIONS IN THE DISCOURSE OF MODERNIZATION AND 
DEMOCRATIZATION
The Uniqueness of the Family Temple
as An Ideograph
The Married Abbot and Spousal Transmission: Pragmatism 
of American Buddhism
The Role of abbot N: More than Just a Temple Wife
and as Ideographs
Sunday Morning Dharma School: A Buddhist Moral Education
From Dharma Teaching to Moral Education
Sangha: This is Where We Belong
Community Building through Membership
Seeing through the Ideographs: A Democratic American Buddhism ...
CHAPTER IV.  CONSTRUCTING BUDDHIST IDENTITY AT THE H TEMPLE
Technology at the H temple and Identity Construction
Challenges from the Cyberspace
A Buddhist Identity via Technology
Dealing with the Secret Buddhist Identity: Being Rational 
and Trusting Yourself
The Secret Buddhist Identity
Mix-and-Match Buddhism for Individual Needs
The Power of Naming: Rituals, Members, and Objects
Experiencing Dharma Names in a Foreign Discourse
When Names Are Transplanted: An Orientalist Approach
Temple as the Sacred Space in Constructing Identity
Sacred Gaze in the Sacred Space
New Dimensions and Meanings of the Buddhist Identity 
CHAPTER V.  THE BUDDHIST RHETORIC OF THE H TEMPLE: WHAT DOES IT MEAN TO BE AN AMERICAN BUDDHIST?
Rethinking the Buddhist Experience
Buddhist Rhetoric Revisited: through the Lens of Modernism
Looking Forward—A Postmodern Buddhism
REFERENCES
​Fan Zhang is an instructor at Xi’an International Studies University. Her areas of work interest include intercultural communication, critical rhetoric, religious communication, gaming, media and technology.  She obtained her Ph.D. from Bowling Green State University, and her work has been published in the International Journal of Interactive Communication Systems and Technologies (2015). Her paper “Remaking Ancient Virtues for the Virtual World: A Case Study of the Voice of Longquan” was among the finalists in the National Communication Association’s International and Intercultural Communication Division (IICD) Honors Graduate Student Seminar in 2014. 

Presents the idea of Buddhist rhetoric in both discursive and non-discursive ways

Explores the history of American Buddhism and helps readers understand its growth and origins

Provides insights into Buddhist identity through the lens of globalization and Buddhist westernization