Religious Motivation and the Origins of Buddhism: A Social-psychological Exploration of the Origins of a World Religion

Front Cover
Psychology Press, 2002 - Philosophy - 150 pages
Why did people in North India from the 5th century BC choose to leave the world and join the sect of the Buddha? This is the first book to apply the insights of social psychology in order to understand the religious motivation of the people who constituted the early Buddhist community. It also addresses the more general and theoretically controversial question of how world religions come into being, by focusing on the conversion process of the individual believer.
 

Contents

Religious motivation and the relationship
21
Religious motivation and the theme
45
Social psychology and the religious motivation
57
Religious motivation and the role of fear
71
Religious motivation and the merit of giving
131
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About the author (2002)

Torkel Brekke holds a DPhil in Oriental Studies from the University of Oxford on the politics of religious identity in colonial South Asia. He is currently a research fellow funded by the Norwegian Research Council. His main research interest is the interaction between religions ideas and processes of political and historical change.