Edward Conze, one of the most distinguished writers on Buddhism, provides a compact summary of the development of Buddhism from the time of the Buddha to the present day.
With skill, sympathy and insight, Conze briefly traces all the key aspects of 2500 years of Buddhist history- Hinayana, Mahayana, Tantra, Zen- and discusses each of the countries where it had and continues to have a major influence. Conze's classic introduction has come to be recognized as must reading for all students of Buddhism and inter-religious studies.
Short History of Buddhism, Edward Conze, Oneworld, Paperback,
154 pages, $12.95
Dr Conze was a complex figure, and it is not easy to assess his overall significance. He was of course a Middle European intellectual refugee, fleeing from Germany before the war like many others. However, he wasn't representative of the dominant strains in twentieth century intellectual life, because he was very critical of many trends in modern thought. He was a self-confessed elitist. Indeed, he entitled his autobiography Memoirs of a Modern Gnostic, believing as he did that Gnosticism was essentially elitist. Neither did he approve of democracy nor feminism.
He is certainly representative of a whole pre-war generation in the West which became disillusioned with Marxism, especially in its Soviet form. Where he differed from others was in the fact that he did not really lose religious beliefs. He transferred his idealism from politics to Buddhism.
Dr Conze was one of the great Buddhist translators, comparable with the indefatigable Chinese translators Kumarajiva and Hsuan Tsang. It is especially significant that as a scholar of Buddhism he also tried to practise it, especially meditation. This was very unusual at the time he started his work, and he was regarded then - in the 1940s and 1950s - as being something of an eccentric. In order to be 'objective' scholars were not supposed to have any personal involvement in their subject. He was hence a forerunner of a whole new breed of Western scholars in Buddhism who are actually practising Buddhists.
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