New Perspectives in Modern Korean Buddhism: Institution, Gender, and Secular Society. Edited by Hwansoo Ilmee Kim and Jin Y. Park. Albany, New York: State University of New York Press, 2022, ix + 334 pages, ISBN 978-1-4384-9131-8, $99.00 (hardback), 978-1-4384-9132-5, $36.95 (paperback).
Reviewed by Kevin Cawley
Buddhist Statecraft in East Asia. Edited by Stephanie Balkwill and James A. Benn. Studies on East Asian Religions 6. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2022, x + 191 pages, ISBN 978-90-04-51022-7 (open access e-book: https://brill.com/downloadpdf/ title/61003.pdf)/978-90-04-50961-0 (hardback), $125.00.
Reviewed by Yilun Zhai
Chan Rhetoric of Uncertainty in the Blue Cliff Record: Sharpening a Sword at the Dragon Gate. By Steven Heine. New York: Oxford University Press, 2016, ISBN 978-0-19-939776-1 (hardback) 978-0-19-939777-8 (paperback), $105.00 USD (hardback) $36.95 USD (paperback).
Reviewed by Rafal K. Stepien
Purification Buddhist Movement, 1954-1970: The Struggle to Restore Celibacy in the Jogye Order of Korean Buddhism. By Ven. Chanju Mun. Honolulu, Hawai’i: Blue Pine Books, 2011, ISBN 978-0-9777553-6-3 (paperback), $35.
Reviewed by Ryan Anningson
Korean Buddhist Nuns and Laywomen: Hidden Histories, Enduring Vitality. Edited by Eun-Su Cho. Albany: SUNY Press, 2011, xiv+210 pages, ISBN 978-1438435107 (paper), $23.95.
Reviewed by Erik Hammerstrom
Jin Y. Park
American University
This essay examines the possibility of Zen social ethics by contemplating the relationship between wisdom and compassion in two Korean Zen masters, Pojo Chinul and T’oe’ong Sŏngch’ŏl. Unlike the common assumption that wisdom and compassion naturally facilitate each other in Zen practice, I contend that in both Chinul and Sŏngch’ŏl, they are in a relationship of tension rather than harmony and that such a tension provides a ground for Zen social ethics. In this context the Minjung Buddhist movement in contemporary Korea is discussed as an example of Zen social activism that makes visible the social dimension of Zen philosophy and practice.