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Zen and the Science of American Politics: Minority Religious Traditions and Political Engagement

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 February 2013

Patrick Schoettmer
Patrick Schoettmer*
Affiliation:
University of Notre Dame
*
Address correspondence and request for reprints to: Patrick SchoettmerUniversity of Notre Dame. E-mail: pschoett@nd.edu
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Abstract

American Buddhism is a phenomenon that allows for the testing of a number of generally-held assumptions about how religion operates within the American context. Due to the fairly de-politicized character of the religion in the United States, Buddhism allows for the examination of religion-qua-religion insofar as its role in the political mobilization of believers. This study finds that Buddhist political engagement is driven in general by private religious practice rather than by communal or small-group religious participation, as social capital-oriented theories of religio-political engagement suggest. Furthermore, this appears likely to be due to the nature of Buddhist adherents in the United States (who are predominantly Caucasian converts to the faith and who enjoy a generally high socio-economic status.) Closer examination of the situation of Buddhists in the United States suggests that the resource-model of civic skill acquisition does hold among the most economically disadvantaged, but that other explanations help us better understand political engagement among more advantaged Buddhists.

Type
Articles
Information
Politics and Religion , Volume 6 , Issue 1 , March 2013 , pp. 164 - 185
Copyright
Copyright © Religion and Politics Section of the American Political Science Association 2013 

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