WeiWu: Esoteric Buddhism in China: Engaging Japanese and Tibetan Traditions, 1912–1949. New York: Columbia University Press, 2024; pp. 312.

to Baptism in the community, where traditional Baptist faith has recently come into increasing conflict with newer trends.Part of this evolution turned early converts into converters themselves, becoming disseminators of American Baptism in regions inaccessible by Western missionaries.The evangelical tradition adopted by Naga Baptist missionaries, Chophy argues convincingly, was a natural progression among the converted Naga Baptists who "now saw in their eastern Naga brethren a reflection of themselves before their own conversion" (p.171).Yet despite the increasing breadth of American Baptism in the region, deep-rooted diversity of language and culture remained; Chapter 4 makes brief reference to the role that Baptist missions played in promoting indigenous languages through facilitating numerous translations of the Bible to support their mission.In the final section of the book (Chapters 6-9), Chophy further focuses his attention on the experience of Naga Baptists within a rapidly changing modern political and cultural climate, particularly within a nation increasingly divided by religious tension between a Hindu majority population and varied religious minority groups.These chapters are structured less clearly than the rest of the book and sometimes meander in focus.They oscillate for the most part between semi-biographical accounts and framing of those accounts within their sociohistorical background.At times, these transitions are slightly jarring.Nevertheless, Chophy succeeds in conveying both the unique narratives of prominent Naga spiritual and political leaders and the broader context that gave rise to those narratives.Throughout the book, Chophy alternates between historical narrative and analysis of modernity.Though this is a difficult balance to maintain, Chophy successfully transitions between the two by deftly drawing and expanding upon the influence of the first upon the material of the second.The extent to which the Naga Baptist is satisfactorily "distinguished" is debatable.Nevertheless, the community is more than sufficiently framed within its unique socio-historical context, and the challenges it faces in the futurewhich share a kinship with those faced by other minority ethnoreligious groups in the developing worldare clearly and thoughtfully articulated.

Récupéré en direct depuis OpenAlex et désinversé. Les résumés ne sont pas conservés dans cette base de données : les index inversés représentent 8,6 Go des 9,3 Go de texte de la base, et le serveur dispose de 13 Go libres.