Read more
Attention to lived religion has significantly shaped religious studies and has only recently impacted the field of Buddhism. Rather than asserting a separation between "real" religion happening within official organizations on the one hand, and "folk" traditions practiced by everyday adherents on the other, the lived religion model understands the religious experience as an ongoing negotiation of personal practice and belief. Given the relative fluidity of Buddhism, a lived religion approach decenters the most significant authorities, while valuing the varied perspectives of ordinary practitioners. As the field develops,
The Oxford Handbook of Lived Buddhism fills a major gap in the scholarship, offering insight into the practices, social interactions, sacred spaces, and outward expressions of the religion. As such, the
Handbook will be a timely contribution, opening new possibilities for study alongside texts and institutions.
About the author
Courtney Bruntz, PhD, holds the position of Professor at the Institute of Buddhist Studies. She received her PhD from the Graduate Theological Union in Buddhist Studies, and since then, has been interested in the intersections of Buddhism and economics. She has researched Buddhist tourism in China, intersections of Buddhism and technology, and more recently, Buddhist communities in the Great Plains. Recent publications include co-editing
Buddhist Tourism in Asia and authoring "Buddhism and Economics" in
The Essential Guide to Buddhism and "Buddhist Technoscapes: Interrogating 'Skillful Means' In East Asian Monasteries" in
Buddhism Under Capitalism.
Brooke Schedneck, PhD, is an associate professor in the department of religious studies at Rhodes College. Her work focuses on contemporary Buddhism in Thailand, and she spent years teaching and conducting research in Chiang Mai. Her work has been featured in academic journals and publications such as
Tricycle,
Aeon, and
The Conversation. In 2020, Dr. Schedneck published a co-edited volume titled
Buddhist Tourism in Asia and her second monograph,
Religious Tourism in Northern Thailand, was short-listed for the EuroSEAS Humanities Book Prize 2022. Her introduction to contemporary, lived Theravada Buddhism in Southeast Asia, was published with Shambhala Publications in 2023.
