"Protestant"

[Laurie Patton]

Professor Salmond, 

	You might also want to look at Gregory Schopen's piece,
"Archaeology and Protestant Presuppositions in the Study of Buddhism," 
in History of Religions 31.1 (1991): 1-23.  This article
is not exactly on the topic you raise, but an important related issue:
the relationship between certain Protestant understandings of what counts
as "true religion" and the ways in which scholars of Buddhism have
incorporated such theological perspectives into their own assessments of
archaeological and textual data.  


All the best,

Laurie L. Patton
Dept. of Religion
Emory University
Atlanta GA 30322
PH: 404-727-5177
FAX: 404-727-7597

On Mon, 17 Mar 1997, Noel Salmond wrote:

> 
> I find that both Rammmohun Roy or Dayananda Sarasvati are frequently
> referred to as the "Martin Luther of India."  Gananath Obeyesekere and
> Richard Gombrich have used the term "Protestant Buddhism" to refer to
> features of Theravaada Buddhism in Sri Lanka of the past century or so. R.
> Neufeldt has referred to the thought of M.G. Ranade as "Protestant Hinduism."
> 
> Is there a literature on the applicability of the heuristic epithet
> "Protestant" to some modern movements in the Indian religions? I am aware,
> of course, of Max Weber but can anyone direct me to commentary on the
> recent use of this category, or would anyone care to comment on its
> usefulness?
> 
> With thanks
> 
> Noel Salmond
> Carleton University
>