Journalism Fellowship in Science, Religion, and Buddhism

The Buddhist and Western traditions are today intersecting primarily at the meeting point of Buddhism and science. This Buddhism and science discourse occurs within a secular and scientific framework and focuses on commonalities between the traditions, leaving the challenge Buddhist philosophy poses to fundamental assumptions of secular modernity unexplored. The goal of this journalism project is to start a new conversation between the Western and Buddhist traditions. It introduces Buddhists to major thinkers in the humanities and social sciences who work on the history and nature of religion and science. Focusing on the underlying assumptions of Buddhism, secularism, and science, this inquiry explores how the Buddhist and modern Western worldviews can enrich each other by virtue of their differences. This 2-year fellowship funds an independent journalist to collaborate with the Buddhist magazine 'Tricycle' to publish a series of articles, a blog, and a book on modern thought and Buddhism, all of which target a wide audience-including Buddhist practitioners and scholars, humanities scholars, scientists, and practitioners of other faiths. This project expects to establish a new bridge between Buddhists and scholars from the humanities and social sciences and to firmly establish this discourse in the Buddhist and mainstream press.