Women in British Buddhism: Commitment, Connection, Community. By Caroline Starkey. London: Routledge, 2020, x + 212 pp., ISBN 978-1-138-08746-0 (Hardcover), $155.00.
Reviewed by Sarah-Jane Page
Second of two reviews of the Review Section: Lives of Ordained Women.
Phra Nicholas Thanissaro
University of Warwick
Focus groups comprised of seventy-five self-identifying Buddhist teenagers in Britain were asked to discuss value domains that previous research has identified to be of special interest to Buddhists. These included personal well-being, the nature of faith, the law of karma, monasticism, meditation, home shrines, filial piety, generosity, not killing animals, and alcohol use. The findings suggest that some attitudes held by teenagers were conscious and intrinsically nurtured (“worldview”) while others involved social constructs (“ideologies”). The study finds that parents and the Sangha are mainly responsible for shaping “ideological” patterns in young Buddhists whereas informal nurture by “immersion” (possibly facilitated by caregivers) may be responsible for “worldview” patterns.