From Post-Pantheism to Trans-materialism: D. T. Suzuki and New Buddhism

James Mark Shields

From Post-Pantheism to Trans-materialism: D. T. Suzuki and New Buddhism

James Mark Shields

Bucknell University

Research output: Chapter in Book/Report/Conference proceeding › Chapter

Abstract

In modern Western thought, pantheism remains a powerful if controversial undercurrent. Recent re-evaluations of the work of Baruch Spinoza (1632–1677) point to pantheism’s radical implications for metaphysics, epistemology, ethics and politics. Pantheism (Jp. hanshinron 汎神論) also has significant valence within Japanese Buddhist modernism, particularly in the work of scholars and lay activists who articulated the outlines of a New Buddhism ( shin bukky &omacr; 新仏教) from the 1880s through the 1940s. For these thinkers, pantheism provided a “middle way” between materialism and idealism, as well as between theism and atheism. In the postwar period, lapsed radical turned Buddhist Sano Manabu further developed these connections between pantheism, Buddhism and Marxism, but Sano himself got caught in the “Hegelian trap” of attempting to dissolve contradictions and distinctions in the name of harmony, rendering his Marxist-infused Buddhist pantheism ineffective as a basis for critical resistance against the status quo. In early works such as A New Interpretation of Religion ( Shin sh&umacr;ky&omacr;ron 新宗教論, 1896), New Buddhist Suzuki Daisetsu 鈴木大拙 (1870–1962) developed a particular interpretation of “post-pantheism” as an ideal form of or approach to religion. However, while Suzuki’s post-pantheism, which can be interpreted as a phenomenological approach to religion, struggles to avoid the danger of a static, and potentially nihilistic “materialism,” it ultimately falls prey to Hegelian and Spencerian assumptions about change and “evolution.” This chapter employs Suzuki’s early work as a portal through which to dig further into the problems and possibilities of pantheism as an archetypal catchword—but frustratingly vague principle—of Japanese Buddhist modernism.

Original language	American English
Title of host publication	Beyond Zen: D. T. Suzuki and the Modern Transformation of Buddhism
State	Published - Sep 30 2022

Keywords

Japanese Buddhism
D. T. Suzuki
comparative religion
comparative philosophy
pantheism
materialism

Disciplines

Asian History
Buddhist Studies
Comparative Philosophy
History of Philosophy
History of Religion
Intellectual History
Japanese Studies
Religious Thought, Theology and Philosophy of Religion

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From Post-Pantheism to Trans-materialism DFinal published version, 1.36 MBLicense: CC BY

Cite this

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abstract = " In modern Western thought, pantheism remains a powerful if controversial undercurrent. Recent re-evaluations of the work of Baruch Spinoza (1632\–1677) point to pantheism\’s radical implications for metaphysics, epistemology, ethics and politics. Pantheism (Jp. hanshinron 汎神論) also has significant valence within Japanese Buddhist modernism, particularly in the work of scholars and lay activists who articulated the outlines of a New Buddhism ( shin bukky \&omacr; 新仏教) from the 1880s through the 1940s. For these thinkers, pantheism provided a \“middle way\” between materialism and idealism, as well as between theism and atheism. In the postwar period, lapsed radical turned Buddhist Sano Manabu further developed these connections between pantheism, Buddhism and Marxism, but Sano himself got caught in the \“Hegelian trap\” of attempting to dissolve contradictions and distinctions in the name of harmony, rendering his Marxist-infused Buddhist pantheism ineffective as a basis for critical resistance against the status quo. In early works such as A New Interpretation of Religion ( Shin sh\&umacr;ky\&omacr;ron 新宗教論, 1896), New Buddhist Suzuki Daisetsu 鈴木大拙 (1870\–1962) developed a particular interpretation of \“post-pantheism\” as an ideal form of or approach to religion. However, while Suzuki\’s post-pantheism, which can be interpreted as a phenomenological approach to religion, struggles to avoid the danger of a static, and potentially nihilistic \“materialism,\” it ultimately falls prey to Hegelian and Spencerian assumptions about change and \“evolution.\” This chapter employs Suzuki\’s early work as a portal through which to dig further into the problems and possibilities of pantheism as an archetypal catchword\—but frustratingly vague principle\—of Japanese Buddhist modernism.",

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ER -

From Post-Pantheism to Trans-materialism: D. T. Suzuki and New Buddhism

Abstract

Keywords

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