Sect-Bashing in the Guise of Scholarship: A Critical Appraisal of Select Studies of Soka Gakkai
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17192/mjr.2000.5.3757Abstract
We began by noting that, although certain kinds of analyses of religion have been rejected by the academic mainstream, older patterns of prejudicial scholarship have tended to persist in the subfield of new religious movements. While there is no sound reason for continuing to permit writers to articulate judgmental points of view in this subfield, popular prejudice against minority religions has served to make many scholars "tone-deaf" to an author's biases against such religious groups. The task the present paper set for itself was to argue against this double standard. The argument was built around an analysis of select scholarship on Soka Gakkai International, an organization chosen because it has been highly controversial and because a reasonable quantity of articles and books had been composed about the group. It was also argued that the scholar's primary goal should always be to articulate a humanly meaningful understanding of a given religion--both an understanding of the world of the participants as well as an understanding of what such religions mean for society as a whole.References
HIDEO Hashimoto and William MCPHERSON. 1976 Rise and Decline of Sokagakkai Japan and the United States. Review of Religious Research 17/2:82-92.
IKEDA Daisaku. 1968 Science and Religion. Complete Works of Daisaku Ikeda, Vol. 1. Tokyo: Seikyo Press. 1977 Dialogue on Life, 2 Vols. Tokyo: Nichiren Shoshu International Center.
MCFARLAND, H. Neill. 1967 The Rush Hour of the Gods: A Study of New Religious Movements in Japan. New York: Macmillan.
NAYLOR, Christina. 1991 Nichiren, Imperialism, and the Peace Movement. Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 18/1:51-78.
NEUSNER, Jacob. 1997 Scholarship, Teaching, Learning: Three Theses for the Academic Study of Religion. Religious Studies News 12/3:21 & 48.
SOLOMON, Ted J. 1980 Soka Gakkai on the Alleged Compatibility between Nichiren Buddhism and Modern Science. Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 7/1:34-54.
IKEDA Daisaku. 1968 Science and Religion. Complete Works of Daisaku Ikeda, Vol. 1. Tokyo: Seikyo Press. 1977 Dialogue on Life, 2 Vols. Tokyo: Nichiren Shoshu International Center.
MCFARLAND, H. Neill. 1967 The Rush Hour of the Gods: A Study of New Religious Movements in Japan. New York: Macmillan.
NAYLOR, Christina. 1991 Nichiren, Imperialism, and the Peace Movement. Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 18/1:51-78.
NEUSNER, Jacob. 1997 Scholarship, Teaching, Learning: Three Theses for the Academic Study of Religion. Religious Studies News 12/3:21 & 48.
SOLOMON, Ted J. 1980 Soka Gakkai on the Alleged Compatibility between Nichiren Buddhism and Modern Science. Japanese Journal of Religious Studies 7/1:34-54.
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2015-08-25
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Lewis, J. R. (2015). Sect-Bashing in the Guise of Scholarship: A Critical Appraisal of Select Studies of Soka Gakkai. Marburg Journal of Religion, 5(1). https://doi.org/10.17192/mjr.2000.5.3757
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