Mahāyāna Phoenix Japan’s Buddhists at the 1893 World’s Parliament of Religions

"Conversations among representatives of the world's religions surely do not take place within a vacuum; the push and pull of global politics usually influences what gets said. So it is now and so it was as well in 1893 when some deeply concerned persons designed and attended the World's Parliament of Religions in Chicago. John S. Harding's account of Japan's Buddhist representation at that confab puts not only what was religious but also what was geo-political and even downright promotional into a fascinating narrative and very valuable analysis. Chicago was recovering from a terrible fire, Japan's Buddhists from criticisms at home, Japan as a whole from a period of self-isolation, and America from an image of being religiously parochial. A lot was at stake in 1893. This book deftly describes how these agendas converged during a unique, sometimes almost unimaginably bold meeting in mid-America in the late nineteenth century." (William R. LaFleur, University of Pennsylvania)