Böcker av James C. Dobbins

This work combines the biography of the founder of Shin Buddhism with a detailed study of the complex development of the religion, from its simple beginnings as a small, rural primarily lay Buddhist movement in the 12th century to its rapid growth as a powerful urban religion in the 15th century.

Images of the Buddha are everywhere, but what these images mean largely depends on the background and circumstance of those viewing them. James Dobbins invites readers to imagine how premodern Japanese Buddhists understood and experienced icons in temple settings long before the advent of museums and the internet.

The letters of Eshinni (1182-1268?), a Buddhist nun and the wife of Shinran (1173-1262), the founder of the Shin school of Buddhism, were discovered in 1921. James C. Dobbins usesthese letters to shed new light on life and religion in medieval Japan.