Frederick J. Streng Award for Excellence in Buddhist-Christian Studies

The awardee for this year's Frederick Streng J. Streng Award for Outstanding Book in Buddhist-Christian Studies is Peter Feldmeier, Experiments in Buddhist-Christian Encounter: From Buddha-Nature to Divine Nature (NY: Orbis, 2019).

This monograph is highly sophisticated in covering a wide range of topics from Early Buddhism through the Mahayana, including Zen and Pure Land, the latter of which is often either underrepresented or poorly represented. The mastery and presentation of Christian theology and praxis are superb. As a Christian theologian, Peter Feldmeier demonstrates extensive first-hand knowledge of Buddhist practice, and this is evident in several ways, including a sophisticated presentation of praxes along with religious thought, featuring the differences between the formal logic behind much of Buddhism, the Mahayana in particular, on the one hand, and Christian thinkers, on the other. The author includes discussions of both primary scripture and commentarial/exegetical literature in ways that are accessible, appropriate, and inspiring for undergraduates as well as specialists. Much of the book is dialogical in ways that negotiate differences and similarities in both engaging and nuanced terms, with apt and vivid illustrations/examples. The treatment of the Heart Sutra toward the end represents a more synthetic, constructive turn, one that is all the more effective as Feldmeier has already established the foundations for informed, knowledgeable dialogue beforehand.