American Buddhist Women Speak Out on Jodo Shinshu by Rev. Patricia Kanaya Usuki.
In this bold and timely study, Patricia Kanaya Usuki, a Jodo Shinshu Buddhist priest, allows the voices of American Buddhist Women to be heard and their views on Jodo Shinshu to be clearly known. Through exhaustive research, surveys and interviews, she points our that women are aware of the stark contrast betwenn the egalitarian teaching of Shinran and the male-dominant, culturally Japanese institution that continues to exist today. The Challange facing Jdo Shinshu in America, she offers, is to face the dynamics of change already taking place within it and embrace its "opportunity to reinterpret the Shin Buddhist doctrine in new ways that speak to contemporary people everywhere."
Indeed, if the Buddhist Churches of America, a pioneering American Buddhist Institution, is to participate fully in the creative fray of contemporary societal, political and religious arenas, then Jodo Shinshu Buddhist women must be out front, helping lead the way.