To add one more element to this potent brew of extraordinary ideas: what has been left out of the UK debate so far is how much of this new research maps on to Buddhism. In the US, a group of researchers has been involved in an ongoing dialogue with the Dalai Lama to deepen understanding of the correlations between the new research and Buddhism. Here is a system of thought which has maintained for several thousand years that the idea of a separate individual self is an illusion, which urges a set of practices to increase awareness of the processes of the mind in order to transform them and cultivate ethical habits such as compassion or courage.
Now there are several things to note here. One is that this provides us an insight as to why Buddhism is attractive to certain sections of British society (and we should note that in the period 1970-2000, Buddhist groups in UK grew from 74 to around 400 -see p.19 of linked article). I'd take a punt as to what sections of Brit soc, on the basis of a little observation (so this is a hypothesis to be tested): it seemingly appeals to middle-aged, middle-class slightly left-ish people. Why? -it connects science and spiritually-searching sacralised-selves, ironically in a philosophy which is all about eliminating the self -sacralised or not (rephaps the burden of a sacralised self is too much to bear?). Those people who look to meditation and the life of the mind as ways to help them to deal with life. Bunting's paragraph puts together just what I think I'm observing about the attraction of Buddhism in our society.
Of course, the other dimension is why connection isn't being made to Christian faith with regard to this. It's not as if there isn't extensive reflection by Christians about the nature of the self etc. Some of this I would propose is naked dismissal of Christianity which is fuelled by a pomo suspicion of power and the Church-state thing gets in the way. Some of it is post-Enlightenment rationalism and the contemporary equivalent of Schleiermacher's 'cultured despisers of religion' -in this case Christendom-mode Christianity is mostly in the frame. Some of it is because we Christians have not really understood what the challenge is and have been slow to reacquaint ourselves with the relevant parts of our tradition and have responded to the challenge of neuroscience in Modernist categories rather than pomo mode.
We also need to better understand Buddhism; what it actually says about such things, and how we as Christians might respond to westernised appropriations of Buddhism (and it's interesting to note that there is debate in the wider Buddhist community about what we might term enculturation into Western/Northern cultural perspectives see this article, for example). Much of this is already picked up in stuff I've blogged previously... Here regarding selfhood and karma; here about it's possible relation to pomo; And a discussion about spirituality and apologetics in the contemporary West/North refers to it too.here is comment on research relating to teens. OMF have produced a really good brief introduction to Buddhism which is written in a way that highlights the challenges to Christians. But remember, in crafting apologetics to Western/Northern Buddhism-attracted seekers, we need to understand which bits are attractive and how and address that rather than simply transplanting the apologetic moves already developed in south-east Asia or Japan, for example. Be informed by them by all means but don't take them over wholesale.
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