Shinto The Way Home Dimensions of Asian Spirituality (Audible Audio Edition) Thomas P Kasulis Dean Sluyter University Press Audiobooks Books
Download As PDF : Shinto The Way Home Dimensions of Asian Spirituality (Audible Audio Edition) Thomas P Kasulis Dean Sluyter University Press Audiobooks Books
Nine out of ten Japanese claim some affiliation with Shinto, but in the West the religion remains the least studied of the major Asian spiritual traditions. It is so interlaced with Japanese cultural values and practices that scholarly studies usually focus on only one of its dimensions Shinto as a "nature religion", an "imperial state religion", a "primal religion", or a "folk amalgam of practices and beliefs". Thomas Kasulis' fresh approach to Shinto explains with clarity and economy how these different aspects interrelate.
As a philosopher of religion, he first analyzes the experiential aspect of Shinto spirituality underlying its various ideas and practices. Second, as a historian of Japanese thought, he sketches several major developments in Shinto doctrines and institutions from prehistory to the present, showing how its interactions with Buddhism, Confucianism, and nationalism influenced its expression in different times and contexts.
In Shinto's idiosyncratic history, Kasulis finds the explicit interplay between two forms of spirituality the "existential" and the "essentialist". Although the dynamic between the two is particularly striking and accessible in the study of Shinto, he concludes that a similar dynamic may be found in the history of other religions as well.
Two decades ago, Kasulis' Zen Action/Zen Person brought an innovative understanding to the ideas and practices of Zen Buddhism, an understanding influential in the ensuing decade of philosophical Zen studies. Shinto The Way Home promises to do the same for future Shinto studies.
Shinto The Way Home Dimensions of Asian Spirituality (Audible Audio Edition) Thomas P Kasulis Dean Sluyter University Press Audiobooks Books
Having lived in Japan for almost two decades now, I got this book to learn more about the primary "religion" of my host country.I like the author's objective approach, and how he was able to establish the difference between existential and essential Shintoism, by exploring and analyzing how they evolved throughout the history of this nation.
I would recommend this book to anybody interested in Japan and the Japanese people. I would also recommend this book to anybody interested in religion and spirituality.
I rated it five stars because it gave me a better understanding of the way the Japanese people think and behave through the "religion" that has been part and parcel of their culture and their history.
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Shinto The Way Home Dimensions of Asian Spirituality (Audible Audio Edition) Thomas P Kasulis Dean Sluyter University Press Audiobooks Books Reviews
Great, intelligent, and intelligible book.
I found this book to be mildly disappointing. If you are looking for a general, historical overview of the development of Japanese religion (without much central focus on Shinto), this book would be for you. The author manages to submerge the actual discussion of the Shinto religion into a background of the historical development of its relationship to Buddhism and Confucianism. This history is important, but for those looking for direct detailed information about Shinto beliefs, rituals, kami, (in short, Shinto itself) I would look elsewhere. Some important historical context is learned from this book, but it does not succeed much in portraying a vivid descriptive account of the Shinto faith. Kasulis' theory of the "existential vs. essentialist" approach of religion I found wholly uninteresting; either he is defining terms too finely or choosing the wrong terms to label them. I could recommend this book only of background historical, contextual importance only,
More than just a primer on Shintoism, Kasulis has authored an intelligent and indispensible book on understanding Japan and the Japanese. My neck muscles were getting tired from the constant nodding with assent at the many revelations (Ah! Naruhodo!) Few philosophers have been quite this successful in making the apparently mystical appear quite comprehensible.
The key point is that Kasulis successfuly explains the everyday joys of Shinto (which is what practioners actually relate to) rather than bogging down in doctrine that few Japanese are actually concerned with. A doctrinal approach to Shinto this is NOT, so if your goal is to know Susanoo no mikoto from Amaterasu Ômikami, then this may not be your best book on the topic. But to UNDERSTAND Shinto, you can do no better.
Well written and engaging. Understandable. Beautifully detailed.
It seemed to me that the author was writing as a scholar not a knowledgable practiciner.
Insightful and a wonderful, albeit understandably "deep" read as it challenges the usual customs and thoughts of nature in the Western world.
A very thoughtful approach to a "religion" which seems to mean something different to everyone who practices it. Kasulis points out the potential for integration into daily life of an attentiveness and deeply meaning approach to existence, nature, kindred, ancestors, food, etc.
Having lived in Japan for almost two decades now, I got this book to learn more about the primary "religion" of my host country.
I like the author's objective approach, and how he was able to establish the difference between existential and essential Shintoism, by exploring and analyzing how they evolved throughout the history of this nation.
I would recommend this book to anybody interested in Japan and the Japanese people. I would also recommend this book to anybody interested in religion and spirituality.
I rated it five stars because it gave me a better understanding of the way the Japanese people think and behave through the "religion" that has been part and parcel of their culture and their history.
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