ABSTRACT
Paul Carus's work was archetypically Orientalist, appropriating Buddhism to promote his post-Kantian Christian monism. This chapter focuses on the discursive interaction between Japan and the West in the formation of Western knowledge of Buddhism. The Buddha was not only the prototypical Christ, he was also the world's first logical positivist, the first humanist, the first teacher of the religion of science. The importance of Western interest in Buddhism in the Meiji context of rivalry between Japanese Christians and Buddhists is shown in the address made to the Young Men's Buddhist Association (YMBA) of Yokohama by Shaku Soen and other delegates to the World's Parliament of Religions shortly after their return from Chicago. The Gospel of Buddha was also a sign of the success of the Japanese delegation to Chicago. The delegation to Chicago had presented Japanese Buddhism as Eastern Buddhism, as well as from the much maligned Northern Buddhism of China and Tibet.
