The Methodological Relevance of Contemporary Biblical Scholarship to the Study of Buddhism 1

Over the past few decades we have observed in the West a fairly rapid increase in practical and doctrinal interests in Buddhism as well as in the academic study of Buddhism. Free-standing Buddhist schools and seminaries, which are intimately connected with newly formed Buddhist communities in the West, and Western academic institutions have charted different ways of studying Buddhism. There is very little agreement among academics and Buddhist communities with regard to what it is they are studying, how they ought to study it, and what the relevance is of their study.