January–March 2016, Volume 43
Features
Dual Religious Identity: Can One Practice Two Religions?
Multiple Belonging
by Gene Reeves
I believe we are called today . . . to move beyond our own tribalisms, our racial and ethnic and national and class smallness, and let our vision of human wholeness become a basis for a more genuine community, a model of what can be. One way [to do this] is by participating in multiple religious traditions.
Many Religions, One Reality
by Joseph S. O’Leary
Here [when nonsectarian dialogue occurs] “religious identity” takes on a new meaning, pre-Buddhist and pre-Christian, and our belonging to either or both of the constituted traditions should be opened up to a deeper belonging that we share with all human beings.
Buddhist-Christian Double Belongings
by Kunihiko Terasawa
Double belongings might be necessary for us to deepen our understanding of reality, including the self and the world, through our ultimate and various religious experiences.
Religions in Japan: Many or None?
by Gaynor Sekimori
The dual religiosity of the Japanese is often illustrated by the existence in the family home of both a Buddhist altar (butsudan), where the family’s memorial tablets are placed, and a Shinto shrine (kamidana).
Religious Syncretism in the African Diaspora
by Terry Rey
Catholicism and African religious traditions tunefully blend in the Americas and are practiced as such by millions of people. Not only are these believers bireligious, but so are the divinities who inhabit their world and walk with them on life’s way.
On Being a Christian Influenced by Buddhism
by Jay McDaniel
I think Zen can enrich the incarnational emphasis of Christianity, which likewise finds the infinite in the fi nite, the sacred in the ordinary, the word in the enfleshedness of daily life. Living Zen can help Christians enter more deeply into that form of living to which we aspire: life in Christ.
Essay
Buddhism and Social Engagement (3) Social Reform and Environmental Protection
by Ranjana Mukhopadhyaya
Spiritual development underlies the economic development that Buddhists and development monks are working toward, in contrast to modern theories of economic development that ignore spiritual cultivation and growth.
Islamic State and the Questions It Now Poses
by Yoshiaki Sanada
Why have Islamic State and radical groups like it continued to engage in fierce armed combat despite strong criticism in the Islamic world of the non-Islamic nature of their military activity? How do Islamic militant groups and the religion of Islam interrelate, spiritually and politically?
Seminar Report
The Lotus Sutra: Time, Space, and Culture
by Adam Lyons
This is a report on the 2015 International Lotus Sutra Seminar, sponsored by Rissho Kosei-kai and held May 28–June 1, 2015, at the National Women’s Education Center of Japan in the town of Ranzan, Saitama Prefecture.
