Studying Soka: Buddhist conversion and religious change in Singapore

Abstract

This thesis seeks to show how religion, in this case Buddhism, successfully propagates in the context of the competitive religious field that is Singapore. This seeks to be an account of how Buddhism manages to compete with other religions by inhabiting and having elective affinity with certain market niches in the social body, using elements of Bourdieua??s ideas of habitus applied to religion as a framework. Of additional interest to this dissertation are the nature and pattern of Buddhist conversion, the place of rationality and personal experience in conversion and the social nature of religious organization meeting needs for community in the context of Singapore.