The Norton Anthology of World Religions: Buddhism

This groundbreaking new Norton Anthology enables the six major, living, international world religions to speak to students in their own words. Edited by world-renowned scholars under the direction of Pulitzer Prize–winner Jack Miles, The Norton Anthology of World Religions provides a flexible library of more than 1,000 primary texts from the world’s major religions―Hinduism, Buddhism, Daoism, Judaism, Christianity, and Islam―in six portable paperbacks. This anthology unites foundational works―the Bhagavad Gita, the Daode jing, the Bible, the Qur’an―with the writings of scholars, seekers, believers, and skeptics whose voices have kept these religions vital for centuries, allowing instructors to shape a variety of courses. The selections are supported by the meticulously prepared apparatus―introductions, explanatory annotations, bibliographies, maps, and glossaries―for which Norton Anthologies have set the standard for fifty years.

Unprecedented in scope and approach, The Norton Anthology of World Religions: Buddhism brings together over 100 substantial selections from the fifth century B.C.E. to the present day, organized by country to mirror the spread of Buddhism from India to China, Korea, Japan, Tibet, and the United States. The volume features Jack Miles’s illuminating General Introduction―“How the West Learned to Compare Religions”―as well as Donald S. Lopez, Jr.’s “In the World of the Buddha,” a lively primer on the history and core tenets of Buddhism.