Buddhism Without Beliefs by Stephen Batchelor
Review by Patti Whaley, of the UK SoFN Steering Committee, from the May issue of the UK SoFN publication which was recently renamed "SoF"
A quotation:
"It's useful ... to see the furor raised among Buddhist circles by Stephen Batchelor's book. Batchelor's aim is to set aside the aspects of Buddhism that have turned it into a religion - the development of a complex body of metaphysical ideas, the elite priesthood of monks and gurus, the insistence on rebirth, the political conservatism - and extract the core characteristics of Dharma practice: compassion, awareness, emptiness, freedom."
"Central to Batchelor's approach is a proper understanding of agnosticism ... [which] ... keeps us on our spiritual toes; the absence of any final answers acts, not as a discouragement, but as an opportunity to continually reimagine and recreate the parameters of our existence."
"[His] vision of Buddhism is secular, agnostic, decentralised, and democratic; small wonder that some Buddhists regard Batchelor with the same sort of alarm that some Anglicans [and not just Anglicans! - ed] express towards Don Cupitt." [Buddhism Without Beliefs, Stephen Batchelor, Bloomsbury 1997/1998, paperback, $27.95 in NZ]
"Instead of presenting himself as a saviour, the Buddha saw himself as a healer. He presented his truths in the form of a medical diagnosis, prognosis and treatment."
(page 6)