Buddhism in Recent Translations

Abstract

Since this journal is published in the West where Christian resources are much more accessible than Buddhist, it is our policy occasionally to publish a review of some recent materials in the field of Buddhist studies. This reflects our purpose to provide scholarly information to deepen and broaden the perspective of contemporary dialogue. Also, in order for contemporary dialogue between Buddhists and Christians to establish lasting points of contact for future generations, it is necessary to link it to the classical sources and traditions of the communities. This is made difficult, however, by the complexity of Buddhist scriptures, which cannot be reduced to a manageable volume like the Bible. In contrast to the Christian and Theravada traditions, which closed their canons within a few centuries of the death ofJesus and Gotama, Mahayana Buddhism has evolved and expanded its scriptures dramatically. Recently Peter Pfandt compiled Mahayana Texts Translated into Western Languages: A Bibliographical Guide (Bonn: Religionwissenschaftliches Seminar, Universitat Bonn, rev. ed. 1986). Although this volume refers only to Mahayana materials from India, most of these Indian texts survive only in Chinese and Tibetan, so that a concordance and index of Sanskrit, Chinese, Japanese, and Tibetan titles is also included. Although the sources are not always readily available, at least some sense of the range of materials can be gained by this carefully compiled bibliography.