Once-Born, Twice-Born Zen - Paperback

by Conrad Hyers (Author)

'Once-Born, Twice-Born Zen' is a fresh treatment of the two major Zen schools of Japan. Its biographical and comparative approach is both original and very readable. The use of William James' typology, along with other phenomenological categories, provides the reader with helpful handles for distinguishing the schools, as well as similar tendencies in other religious traditions. The book should make an excellent text for introductory and middle-level courses in which one is trying to get students to develop categories for understanding religious experience and behavior. Readers will see something of themselves in the range of biographical examples given, and will detect their own tendencies through the use of this method. -- Bardwell Smith

Author Biography

Conrad Hyers has served as Professor of the History of Religion and Chair of the Department of Religion at both Beloit College and at Gustavus Adolphus College. He is also an ordained Presbyterian minister, and author of 'Zen and the Comic Spirit', 'The Meaning of Creation', 'Once-Born, Twice-Born Zen, ' 'And God Created Laughter', and editor of 'Holy Laughter: Essays on Religion in the Comic Perspective