Buddhism in the West: an emerging genre

In the last two decades the number of scholarly studies examining the development of Buddhism in the West has increased dramatically. The genre began much earlier- a 1974 article contained a bibliography on "Buddhism and the West" that listed approximately 85 titles (Webb). It was only after this, however, that the field really began to grow. Key early works include Christmas Humphrey's Sixty Years of Buddhism in England (1907-1967): A History and a Survey (1968), which provided a history of Buddhisms introduction to Britain. In 1976 Emma McCloy Layman's Buddhism in America examined the history and development of specific Buddhist traditions in America and considered issues that Buddhism needed to address to further its integration into American society, such as a consideration of its relationship to psychology and Christianity. Similarly, Charles Prebish's American Buddhism (1979) discussed the general history of Buddhism in America and the acculturation required if Buddhism was to influence American culture significantly and become part of American religious life. Eight American Buddhist groups were examined to demonstrate how those issues were being manifested. In 1981 Rick Fields published the first edition of How the Swans Came to the Lake: A Narrative History of Buddhism in America, providing another historical overview