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Living Temple Buddhism In Contemporary Japan: The Tendai Sect Today, Stephen G. Covell

Comparative Religion Publications

This study aims to redress the lack of serious scholarly study on Contemporary
Japanese Buddhism. using the Tendai sect as an example. The sects of Temple
Buddhism today are caught between ideal images of "real" Buddhism. which they
themselves help perpetuate through their self-legitimizing rhetoric of renunciation. and
the reality of day-to-day temple functioning. which often fails to live up to the rhetoric.
Moreover. both scholarly and popular constructions of Temple Buddhism communicate a message that Temple Buddhism is "corrupt:' This unique space occupied by the sects of Temple Buddhism provides the thematic focal point for the dissertation. while each …