Vom spirituellen Medium zum wiedergeborenen Buddha und darüber hinaus: Zum Wandel im Selbstverständnis des Gründers der japanischen Religionsgemeinschaft Kōfuku no kagaku

Ōkawa Ryūhō, the founder of the Japanese new religious movement Kōfuku no kagaku (literally »The Science of Happiness«) claims to be the rebirth of the Buddha in Japan, who is propagating a new version of the Buddhist teachings relevant for the modern world. This concept is part of a specific develo...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Zeitschrift für Religionswissenschaft
Main Author: Winter, Franz (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:German
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Published: Diagonal-Verlag 2012
In: Zeitschrift für Religionswissenschaft
Further subjects:B Happy Science Corporations
B Ōkawa, Ryūhō (1956-2023)
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
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Summary:Ōkawa Ryūhō, the founder of the Japanese new religious movement Kōfuku no kagaku (literally »The Science of Happiness«) claims to be the rebirth of the Buddha in Japan, who is propagating a new version of the Buddhist teachings relevant for the modern world. This concept is part of a specific development with regard to the personality of the founder. At the beginning of his spiritual activities Ōkawa was acting as a spiritual medium transferring messages of important personalities who belong to the religious and philosophical history of mankind (e. g.: Jesus, Kukai, Nichiren, Sokrates, Gandhi etc.). Within a few years he changed this attitude to the aforementioned concept of being the rebirth of the Buddha (shaka no sairai). This claim was soon expanded by the introduction of the entity which was said to be behind these reincarnations. This spiritual being is called El Cantare, which is now the main object of veneration within the group and whose current representation on earth is Ōkawa. This article is focussing on the change in the self representation of Ōkawa – from spiritual medium to Buddha to El Cantare – as far as it is possible to reconstruct this development. Bereitgestellt von | Universitätsbibliothek Tübingen Angemeldet Heruntergeladen am
ISSN:2194-508X
Contains:In: Zeitschrift für Religionswissenschaft
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1515/zfr.2008.16.1.59