This engaging, deeply personal book, illuminating the search for meaning in today’s world, offers a rare insider’s look at Soka Gakkai Buddhism, one of Japan’s most influential and controversial religious movements, and one that is experiencing explosive growth around the world.
In the earlier half of the 20th century, Austrian-born writer Stefan Zweig is said to have urged organising for peace as the most effective measure against the organisations of war. In a parallel vein on a different continent, Daisaku Ikeda culled from the tragedy of war a lifelong commitment to building the resources for peace.
In a spontaneously wide-ranging conversation over dinner one winter evening in Japan, sociologist of religion Bryan Wilson and Buddhist philosopher Daisaku Ikeda recognised the importance of explaining and learning about their worldviews.
“Global Civilization” emerged from a series of conversations between two peace advocates of Japanese and Iranian origin. It covers the encounters between Buddhist and Islamic civilisations from the 7th century to the present.