Asian Religions in America: A Documentary History / Edition 1

by Thomas A. Tweed, Stephen Prothero

Overview

Asian religions have a long and intriguing history in America. For over two centuries, Asian immigrants have been coming to America and bringing their religions with them. Some Americans have reacted with alarm to the arrival of heathen religions on American shores, while others have taken refuge in lamas from Tibet, yogis from India, and Zen masters from Japan.
Asian Religions in America: A Documentary History is the first text to show the breadth and depth of the American encounter with Asian religions. Ranging from 1784 to the present, it features over one hundred excerpts and dozens of illustrations drawn from literature, art, music, sports, philosophy, theology, politics, and law. Selections discuss Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Sikhism, Shinto, Confucianism, and Taoism and their places in the American religious landscape. Martial artist Bruce Lee, Supreme Court Justice William Rehnquist, Beatles star John Lennon, Chinese-American writer Amy Tan, African-American activist Frederick Douglass, Vietnamese Buddhist Thich Nhat Hanh, and dozens of lesser-known immigrants and Asian Americans are all represented. The editors have provided a general historical introduction, an overview of Asian religions, four section introductions, and concise explanatory headnotes for each entry. The volume is further enhanced by helpful reference materials including a detailed chronology, suggestions for further reading, and an index.
Asian Religions in America: A Documentary History serves as an exceptional text for courses in Asian religions, world religions, and religion in America, and is also enlightening reading for academics and general readers.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780195113396
Publisher:	Oxford University Press, USA
Publication date:	12/03/1998
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	432
Sales rank:	396,925
Product dimensions:	9.10(w) x 6.40(h) x 0.90(d)
Lexile:	1280L (what's this?)

About the Author

University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill

Boston University

Table of Contents

Preface
General Introduction, Thomas A. Tweed
Introduction to Asian Religions
PART I. ORIENTATIONS, 1784 TO 1840
Introduction
1. VIEWS FROM ABROAD
Amasa Delano, Narrative of Voyages and Travels (1817)
Christian Disciple, An Account of the Sikhs in India (1814)
Robert Morrison's Letter from China (1809)
Adoniram and Ann Judson, A Mission in Burma (1832)
2. VIEWS FROM HOME
Benjamin Franklin's Oriental Tale (1788)
Joseph Priestley, A Comparison of the Institutions of Moses with Those of the Hindoos and Other Ancient Nations (1799)
John Adams to Thomas Jefferson (1813-14)
William Bentley on Asian Trade in Salem (1794-1804)
Hannah Adams, A Dictionary of All Religions (1817)
Charles A. Goodrich, Religious Ceremonies and Customs (1832)
PART II. ENCOUNTERS, 1840 TO 1924
3. EAST TO AMERICA: IMMIGRANT LANDINGS
Frederick Douglass, Our Composite Nationality (1869)
Fung Chee Pang, The Confucian Sage and the Mongolian Bible (1876)
Chinese Exclusion Act (1882)
Frederick J. Masters, Pagan Temples in San Francisco (1892)
Shuye Sonoda, Buddhism in the Kingdom of Liberty (1899)
Saint Nihal Singh, The Picturesque Immigrant From India's Coral Strand (1909)
Swami Paramananda, Christ and Oriental Ideals (1923)
United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind (1923)
4. ROMANCING THE ORIENT: LITERARY ENCOUNTERS
Ralph Waldo Emerson, Plato and Brahma (1857, 1850)
Henry David Thoreau, A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers (1849)
Bret Harte, The Heathen Chinee (1870)
Walt Whitman, Passage to India (1870)
T. S. Eliot, The Waste Land (1922)
5. JOURNEYS IN THE STUDY
Webster's Dictionary on Hinduism and Buddhism (1828, 1849, 1864)
Lydia Maria Francis Child, The Progress of Religious Ideas (1855)
James Freeman Clarke, Ten Great Religions (1871)
6. POSTCARDS FOR THE PEWS: MISSIONARIES AND THEIR CRITICS
M. L. Gordon, An American Missionary in Japan (1892)
Mark Twain, The United States of Lyncherdom (1901)
Myra E. Withee, Is Buddhism to Blame? (1902)
7. THE WORLD'S PARLIAMENT OF RELIGIONS
John Henry Barrows, Words of Welcome (1893)
Swami Vivekananda, Hinduism (1893)
Anagarika Dharmapala, The World's Debt to Buddha (1893)
Soyen Shaku, Reply to a Christian Critic (1896)
8. TURNING EAST: SYMPATHIZERS AND CONVERTS
Henry Steel Olcott, Old Diary Leaves and the Buddist Catechism (1900, 1881)
Sister Christine, Memories of Swami Vivekananda (1945)
Paul Carus, The Dharma (1898)
Marie de Souza Canavarro, Insight into the Far East (1925)
William Sturgis Bigelow to Kwanryo Naobayashi (1895)
PART III. EXCLUSION, 1924 to 1965
Introduction
9. CLOSED PORTS AND OPEN CAMPS
Asian Exclusion Act (1924)
President Franklin D. Roosevelt, Executive Order No. 9066 (1942)
Nyogen Senzaki, Like a Dream, Like a Fantasy (1978)
Shigeo Kikuchi, Memoirs of a Buddhist Woman Missionary in Hawaii (1991)
Julius Goldwater, Wartime Buddhist Liturgy (1940s)
10. HINDU CROSSINGS: GURUS AND DISCIPLES
Krishnalal Shridharani, Hindus are Human Beings (1941)
Swami Paramahansa Yogananda, Autobiography of a Yogi (1946)
Krishnamurti, The Turning Point (1975)
John Yale, What Vendanta Means to me (1960)
11. BUDDHIST CROSSINGS: MASTERS AND STUDENTS
Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki, What is Zen? (1959)
Dwight Goddard, Followers of Buddha: An American Brotherhood (1934)
Jack Kerouac, Dharma Bums (1958)
Ruth Fuller Sasaki, Zen: A Method for Religious Awakening (1959)
Elson B. Snow, Entry into the Dharma Gate (1994)
12. ARTISTS, PREACHERS, AND MISSIONARIES
E. Stanley Jones, The Christ of the Indian Road (1925)
Mersene Sloan, The Indian Menace (1929)
Howard and Sue Bailey Thurman Meet Mahatma Gandhi (1936)
John Cage, Lecture on Nothing (1949)
PART IV. PASSAGES, 1965 TO THE PRESENT
Introduction
13. COUNTERCULTURAL APPROPRIATIONS
Alan Watts, Beginning a Counterculture (1972)
Timothy Leary, The Buddha as Drop-Out (1968)
Ram Dass, The Only Dance There Is (1974)
14. ASIAN INDIAN GURUS, CONVERTS, AND MOVEMENTS
A TM Catechism (1975)
The Beatles and A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Pradhupada, Search for Liberation (1981)
Yogi Bhajan, Awakening the Mind to Prayer (1984)
Margaret Simpson, An Experience of Siddha Yoga Meditation (1991)
Swami Satchidananda, Integral Yoga (1996)
Elsie Cowan, Sai Baba and the Resurrection of Walter Cowan (1976)
15. BUDDHIST TEACHERS, CONVERTS, MOVEMENTS
Shunryu Suzuki, Posture (1970)
Chogyam Trungpa, Meditation in Action (1969)
Thich Nhat Hanh, The Miracle of Mindfulness (1975)
An Interview with Roshi Jiyu Kennett (1986)
Women, Buddhism, and Vipassana Meditation (1991)
bell hooks, Waking Up to Racism (1994)
Jacci Thompson-Dodd, Soka Gakkai and the Power of Chanting (1996)
Bernard Glassman and Rick Fields, Recipes for Social Change (1996)
16. INDIAN IMMIGRANTS: HINDU, JAIN, AND SIKH
Anand Mohan, The Pilgrimage (1994)
Rituals at Sri Venkateswara Temple (1995)
Sri Ganesha Temple, Nashville, Recounting History and Nuturing Youth (1985-95)
Hinduism in the Public Realm: Hinduism Today on Christianity and Cloning (1996)
Jain Society of Metropolitan Chicago, An Ancient Heritage and a Promising Future (1993)
Sikh Religious Society, Things That Make You Ask "Kion?" (1994)
17. BUDDHIST IMMIGRANTS
The Buddha's Birthday in a Vietnamese-American Temple (1986)
The Dalai Lama Meets the Buddhist Sangha Council of Southern California (1989)
Dharma Vijaya Buddhist Vihara's Tenth Anniverary (1990
Later Generations of Japanese Americans on Jodo Shinshu (1990)
Thai Youth Club, DJ or Not We're Still Upset (1994)
Hsi Lai Temple, Buddhism Coming to the West (1997)
18. ASIAN RELIGIONS IN AMERICAN CULTURE
Bruce Lee, Tao of Jeet Kune Do (1975)
Benjamin Hoff, The Tao of Pooh (1982)
Gary Synder, Smokey the Bear Sutra (1969)
An Interview with Composer Philip Glass (1991)
The Beastie Boys, Bodhisattva Vow (1994)
Children Respond to Little Buddha (1994)
Phil Jackson, If You Meet the Buddha in the Lane, Feed Him the Ball (1995)
Amy Tan, The Kitchen God's Wife (1991)
19. INTERRELIGIOUS DIALOGUE
Thomas Merton, Letter from Asia (1968)
Masao Abe and John Cobb, Buddhist-Christian Dialogue (1981)
Rodger Kamenetz, The Jew in the Lotus (1994)
The Parliament of the World's Religions Centennial (1993)
Walter Martin, The Kingdom of the Cults (1985)
20. MAPPING LEGAL BOUNDARIES: RELIGION AND STATE
Justice William Douglas, Asian Religions According to the Supreme Court (1965)
U. S. Supreme Court, Even Buddhist Prisoners Have Rights (1972)
Chief Justice William Rehnquist, The Krishna Religion (1992)
Sikh Kirpans in Public Schools (1994)
A Vietnamese Home Temple Zoning Dispute (1996)
Chronology
Further Reading
Index