ABSTRACT
Much of western theorizing about religion is predicated on ignorance or neglect of a great counterexample, namely Theravada Buddhism. One major strand of Western thinking has been a creative, but flawed, one, namely projection theory. By comparison, the mythic fabric of the Theravada is less luxuriant. There is the story of the Buddha, the previous lives, the chronicles of Sri Lanka, the prediction of a future Buddha. It is true that the Buddha may have occasionally inspired awe. Having a high philosophical content makes the Theravada less easy to write off through psychological approaches or to represent as a new psychoanalytical faith. Because Buddhism has a philosophical side to it, it can be less comprehensively analyzed by the methods of the religion. The Theravada presents an obstacle to the belief in a unitary Reality lying behind all religions.
