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 sacred scriptures and 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 far more complex, implying an ongoing negotiation of practice and belief, which occurs within and outside of official, congregational settings. Given the religion's openness to incorporating and adapting various religious traditions, understanding belief systems, doctrinal interpretations, and ethical commitments on the ground are particularly salient within Buddhist traditions.
Approaching Buddhism as a lived tradition has transformed the discipline over the past few decades, shifting attention to the relationship between doctrines, beliefs, and practices among ordinary adherents.
The Oxford Handbook of Lived Buddhism fills a major gap in Buddhist studies scholarship. Topical emphasis for each chapter derives from the reading Buddhist texts, and utilizing ethnographic methods, but all center Buddhist individuals and communities, along with scholarly analysis. Authors' observations reflect on how these dynamics intermingle with modernity, education, media, and sacred spaces. The lived religion approach offers insight into Buddhism's variety of cultural practices that inform traditions, relationships between the laity and monastics, significances of sacred spaces and experiences, changing demographics of the religion, and Buddhism's influence on material culture, artistic expression, and social interaction. Analyzing Buddhism from the ground up, rather than the top down, complicates our conception of the religion and how it intersects with other areas of culture, including race, class, and gender. As such, the
Handbook will be a timely contribution, opening new possibilities for study alongside texts and institutions.
