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Alongside Jesus and Muhammad, the Buddha is the most significant figure in the history of religion. Philip Almond's engaging new book is the first to combine a history of early traditions about Siddhartha Gautama's life with an authoritative account of how he and the tantalizing philosophy inspired by him came to the attention of the West. It takes the reader on a remarkable journey encompassing (among other topics) Alexander the Great, the courts of the Mongol Khans, Jesuit missions to China and Japan, and intrepid European travellers and scholars from the modern era. Melding Pali and Sanskrit sources with vivid reception, Almond presents the Buddha's story as multi-layered: one of transition from a world of angels and demons, water and tree spirits, to an altogether different context where Buddhism mixed with the cultural preoccupations of those who tentatively - sometimes following false trails - tried to make sense of its fascinating complexity.
List of contents
1. Stories of the Buddha; 2. The Quest for Enlightenment; 3. The Buddha, the Greeks, and the Naked Philosophers; 4. Mongols, Missionaries, and the Chief of the Idols; 5. Saint Josaphat, the Buddha of Christendom; 6. Imagining the Buddha; 7. The Quest for the Historical Buddha; 8. A Buddha for the West; Epilogue: 'Naturalised Buddhism'.
About the author
Philip C. Almond is Emeritus Professor in Religious Thought at the University of Queensland and a renowned specialist in the nexus between religion and the history of ideas. His recent publications include Mary Magdalene: A Cultural History (Cambridge University Press, 2022), The Antichrist: A New Biography (Cambridge University Press, 2020), God: A New Biography (I.B. Tauris, 2018); Afterlife: A History of Life after Death (I.B. Tauris, 2016), and The Devil: A New Biography (I.B. Tauris, 2014). His earlier, pioneering book The British Discovery of Buddhism (Cambridge University Press, 1988) has gained a reputation as a landmark study in comparative religion and intellectual history.
