Zen and the Modern World

A book by a well-known scholar from the 'Kyoto School' who has thought deeply about the role of religion and the differences between Buddhist and Christian approaches. Chapters address the themes of unity, meaning, ethics and social responsibility. The chapter of most interest to Network readers is Religion and Science in a Global Age. It gives a penetrating analysis of the emergence of the mechanistic view with its impersonal approach to answering the question 'how'? Religion addresses the 'why' and the Christian account harmonised well with Aristotle's teleological view but is at complete variance with the impersonality of mechanism. However, Abe shows how Buddhism is more compatible with mechanistic science