This collective research programme seeks to map, analyze and theorize the emergence and reproduction of 'modern Buddhism' in Asia and the West as lived traditions, with a focus on the negotiation of sociocultural, linguistic and generational challenges and the dynamics of the mutually constitutive relationship between Buddhist beliefs, institutions and practices in historically Buddhist communities in Asia and those more recently established in Europe and North America.
By focusing on transmission and translation, we take our point of departure in the substance of religious ideas, institutions and practices, including the understandings of religious leaders and traditions themselves of the challenges that 'modernity', globalization and social change pose.
We focus on Buddhism because of its long history of engagement with the challenges of modernity and globalisation, and because Buddhism emerges in new and unexpected forms and contexts, including such that challenge the received boundaries of science and religion, of the secular and the religious.
The research project comprises five individual core projects, two affiliated projects, and a network of local, Danish and international scholars and institutions. It is funded primarily through grants from the Danish Research Council for Culture and Communication (FKK).
Core projects include:
Affiliated now completed projects include:
