Speaker: Dr. Caroline Starkey, Associate Professor of Religion and Society, School of Philosophy, Religion and History of Science, University of Leeds
Language: English
Abstract: Buddhism is often presented as a religion set apart from social life and fundamentally concerned only with other-wordly soteriological goals. This idea, put forward by Max Weber, has had significant purchase both in scholarly terms and in the public imagination. However, the reality for Buddhist practitioners is very different from Weber’s ideal, and always has been. In this talk, Dr. Starkey will explore the various ways that Buddhists and Buddhist institutions have engaged with social movements, giving particular focus to the role of women. She will give attention to a specific case study from Britain (which has a growing Buddhist population), and through this draw out some of the very real tensions and challenges that contemporary Buddhist women face in working through social issues in post-industrial, late-stage capitalist society. Of particular concern to her is the interplay between feminism and religion, and she will talk through the ways in which this plays out for committed female Buddhist practitioners, and how this helps us to understand the complicated relationships between religion and social change.
Organizer: Department of Religion and Philosophy, HKBU
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