A Buddha-shaped hole: Yinshun's (1906--2005) critical Buddhology and the theological crisis in modern Chinese Buddhism

Modern East Asian Buddhology gave birth to whole generations of "critical scholar practitioners," who used their supposedly less fallible academic methods (in contrast to a faithful reliance on the increasingly problematized sectarian myths and scriptural histories) to subvert and reinterpret some of the most revered and idiosyncratic aspects of traditional Buddhism. Historical-critical methods employed by modern Buddhist scholars have had seriously threatened to unravel the legitimacy of Chinese Buddhist sacred scriptures and their religious implications, engendering a spiritual crisis comparable to the European "God-shaped hole" that haunted the emergent modern psyche---set adrift by philosophical skepticism and new scientific insights, yet profoundly yearning for and continuously reinventing its religious experience. In similar ways, leading scholars in Chinese communities like Yinshun (1906-2005) advanced their polemical agendas in the name of a rationalized and "scientifically verified" reform movement. Their works have played seminal roles in the developing modern Chinese Buddhist scholarship, and are fast becoming the curricular backbone of Buddhist studies courses in many Taiwanese universities and seminaries. Their impact is visible in the dramatic transformation, rationalization, and liberalization in the Taiwanese Buddhist establishment as well as its Buddhological discourse, propelling a wholesale re-envisioning of Buddhist history, soteriology, literature, ethics, doctrinal hermeneutics, and institutional dynamics.