Buddhismus v židovských náboženských textech 18.–21. století

The monograph Buddhism in Jewish Religious Texts from the 18th to the 21st Century traces the ways in which Buddhism has been thematised in Jewish religious texts from the late 18th century to the present. This is done through a detailed textual analysis that aims to show the main axes of the contextualisation of Buddhism in Jewish religious texts and its place in modern Judaism. The author presents three interconnected models representing how principles of Buddhism are employed in Jewish religious literature: Buddhism as an instrument of polemic and self-definition, as a form of spirituality fully compatible with Judaism, and as a religious competitor to Judaism posing a threat to its social and ideological integrity. While there is abundant literature on various aspects of the thematisation of Christianity or Islam in Jewish religious texts, the role played by Buddhism in various forms of modern Judaism has so far been either overlooked by scholars or, at best, reduced to the phenomenon of JUBU (Jewish Buddhists). The present work aims to contribute to filling this research gap.