Textbook Buddhism: introductory books on the Buddhist religion

Textbooks on Buddhism comprise a large, varied genre and have long been used to introduce the religion to students in academic settings. This review essay examines ten textbooks on the subject, noting their distinctive features, strengths, and weaknesses, as well as the types of courses that are well suited to each work. Additional information from a survey on Buddhism textbooks conducted by the author is used to supplement our understanding of which sources are regularly used in Buddhism courses and why. Unresolved tensions over whether to stress the coherence or diversity of Buddhism, and how comprehensive a textbook should be, are noted. Arguing that ‘Textbook Buddhism,' as a product of scholarly imagination, is a distinctive form of the tradition, it behooves specialists to be more reflective about their use of textbooks and to be more intentional in helping students to read them critically.     

Recent books on ≡ world religion(s)

Books reviewed in this article:
Dan Cohn-Sherbok, A Concise Encyclopedia of Judaism
Klaus K. Klostermaier, A Concise Encyclopedia of Hinduism
Geoffrey Parrinder, A Concise Encyclopedia of Christianity
Dan Cohn-Sherbok, Judaism
Jamal J. Elias, Islam
Bradley K. Hawkins, Buddhism
Cybelle Shattuck, Hinduism
Brian Wilson, Christianity
Mary Pat Fisher, Religion in the Twenty-first Century     

Social and emotional outcomes of childhood sexual abuse: A review of recent research

A total of 41 articles examined the social and emotional outcomes of childhood sexual abuse. The outcomes examined included suicide and substance use, gang involvement, pregnancy, running away, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), risky sexual behavior, and behavioral problems. Results for each of these outcomes tended to vary by developmental period. However, problems of internalizing and externalizing behavior appeared to be specific to sexually abused children of all age groups. Some studies found differences in outcome according to gender, race, and age. Although findings related to abuse characteristics were found to vary from study to study, severity of the abuse, use of force, and victim's relationship to the perpetrator were found to be especially important. Other factors, such as family support and parental monitoring, were found to mitigate a negative outcome. Limitations are discussed along with suggestions for future research.     

The role of religion in coping with childhood cancer

The role of religion in the crisis of childhood cancer was explored through interviews with 265 members of 118 families that had a child with cancer. Measures of family and patient religiosity were related to a broad spectrum of parental and patient perceptions and activities. Evidence was obtained that the religion related positively to familial support of the patient and efforts to keep school performance at pre-illness levels. There were signs of a narrowing of the family's social field while relationships with close friends were strengthened. Religion appeared to act as a protective-defensive system that motivated efforts by family members to cope constructively with the crisis of illness.This work is based on data from National Cancer Institute Project 212-46-1061, principal investigator, William J. Zwartjes, M.D.     

Afterword: some reflections on implicit religion and ordinary theology

This brief piece relates Edward Bailey's concept of implicit religion, together with some themes from the papers published in this special issue, to Astley's concept of ordinary theology. In particular, it attends to their different, but overlapping, focal concerns and their shared emphasis on a spiritual core of personal meaningfulness.     

A systematic review of religion/spirituality and sport: A psychological perspective

ObjectiveThe study aimed to review the existing literature on religion/spirituality (R/S) in sport from the psychological perspective.DesignA systematic review using the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses (PRISMA) guidelines was employed.MethodThe literature search was completed in December 2018 using five different databases and Google Scholar. The titles and abstracts of the articles were reviewed for the selection process. The selected articles were classified into nine categories: the role of religion/spirituality, consultants, confidence, religious/spiritual faith, flow or being in the zone, identity, anxiety and depression, coping with adversity, and well-being and healing.ResultsA total of 56 studies met the criteria. The selected articles comprised various types of study design that were quantitative, qualitative, mixed-methods, as well as conceptual, review, theoretical, commentary, and perspective articles. The findings show that R/S can play a significant role among athletes in several ways (e.g., coping with uncertainties, building team cohesion, and alleviating anxiety). This study has also uncovered a few issues that should be emphasized for future research such as developing quantitative tools for R/S and sport-performance measurement and designing a religious/spiritual coping strategy that can be used among athletes from various cultures/religions.ConclusionAlthough R/S is often overlooked in sport psychology, the existing literature shows that it can have positive effects on mental health and contribute to achieving better sporting performance.     

Ministerial effectiveness: A review of recent research

Effectiveness of ministers is difficult to measure. Ideally, the goal would be to find out if they have been helpful in reconciling people to God and to each other. However, these criteria can only be assessed indirectly. This essay proposes a model of effectiveness and reviews several studies designed to assess one or more of its facets. Although results are only somewhat conclusive, the methods are promising and future research on this foundation is indicated.     

A survey of some recent results on Spectrum Exchangeability in Polyadic Inductive Logic

The discussion presents a framework of concepts that is intended to account for the rationality of semantic change and variation, suggesting that each scientific concept consists of three components of content: (1) reference, (2) inferential role, and (3) the epistemic goal pursued with the concept’s use. I argue that in the course of history a concept can change in any of these components, and that change in the concept’s inferential role and reference can be accounted for as being rational relative to the third component, the concept’s epistemic goal. This framework is illustrated and defended by application to the history of the gene concept. It is explained how the molecular gene concept grew rationally out of the classical gene concept despite a change in reference, and why the use and reference of the contemporary molecular gene concept may legitimately vary from context to context.