A Kantian reading of Buddhist community

Abstract

Keiji Nishitani, in his lectures On Buddhism (1982), argues that Buddhism is lacking a theory of Buddhist community. He believes that a historical consciousness and a social ethics are required for a theory of Buddhist community. German philosopher Immanuel Kant argues that a theory of religious community should contain an idea of an invisible church and an expression of a visible church. This is his theory of the church. This thesis will conduct a comparative analysis to see if Kant's notions of the invisible and visible church can express the essential components to a theory of Buddhist community. This paper finds that universal communicability is a requirement for a theory of Buddhist community to express itself as a visible church. Only when a religious community has universal communicably can it appeal to the unlearned and to those who can convince themselves of the moral truth of religion. Only in this sense, can a religious community be called a universal religion and become publicly accessible for it appeals to every kind of person. Overall, this thesis is fruitful in gaining a cross-cultural philosophical dialogue into the basis of a theory of religious community. This dialogue shows much promise of expressing the role of religious scripture and tradition, for the individual's religious experience confirms what reason already knows to be the moral law of the heart.

Date of Award	2018
Original language	English