James C. Dobbins | Britannica

James C. Dobbins

Contributor

Website : Oberlin College Faculty Page

Associated with The Great Lakes Colleges Association, part of Encyclopaedia Britannica's Publishing Partner Program.

BIOGRAPHY

James H. Fairchild Professor of Religion, Oberlin College. Ph.D., Yale University. Author of Jodo Shinshu: Shin Buddhism in Medieval Japan and Letters of the Nun Eshinni: Images of Pure Land Buddhism in Medieval Japan.

Primary Contributions (1)

Shinran

Shinran was a Buddhist teacher recognized as the founder of the Jōdo Shinshū (True Pure Land School), which advocates that faith, recitation of the name of the buddha Amida (Amitabha), and birth in the paradise of the Pure Land. For centuries Jōdo Shinshū has been one of the largest schools of…

Publications (2)

Letters of the Nun Eshinni: Images of Pure Land Buddhism in Medieval Japan (September 2004)

By James C. Dobbins

Eshinni (1182–1268?), a Buddhist nun and the wife of Shinran (1173–1262), the celebrated founder of the True Pure Land, or Shin, school of Buddhism, was largely unknown until the discovery of a collection of her letters in 1921. In this study, James C. Dobbins, a leading scholar of Pure Land Buddhism, has made creative use of these letters to shed new light on life and religion in medieval Japan. He provides a complete translation of the letters and an explication of them that reveals the character...

Jodo Shinshu: Shin Buddhism in Medieval Japan (Pure Land Buddhist Studies) (April 2002)

By James C. Dobbins

This work combines the biography of the founder of Shin Buddhism with a detailed study of the complex development of the religion, from its simple beginnings as a small, rural primarily lay Buddhist movement in the 12th century to its rapid growth as a powerful urban religion in the 15th century.