[Buddha-l] Chen Yen survival or revival?

[curt]

Hutton's case is actually very weak in a number of areas. It is 
particularly weak on the specific point relevant here - that of 
"underground" spiritual movements surviving in the face of persecution - 
an issue that Hutton actually ignores. Much more relevant would be Perez 
Zagorin's "Ways of Lying: Dissimulation, Persecution, and Conformity in 
Early Modern Europe". Dissimulation was a well-established phenomenon 
within Latin Christendom - those who condemned it called it "casuistry", 
while a theoretical/theological justification was developed for 
dissimulation under the name "Nicodemism". Calvin, for example, 
considered Nicodemism a major problem because he wanted his followers to 
"come out of the closet", but a lot of them thought that unwise.

Religious groups that have experienced persecution often do have very 
tenuous claims to "continuity" with past traditions. But that is not 
necessarily due to the dishonesty of the leaders of those groups, 
combined with the gullibility of their followers - it is likely due to 
the fact that religious persecution finds it easier to destroy the 
physical evidence of a tradition than the actual tradition itself.

- Curt

Michael Paris wrote:

>Sounds remarkably like Wicca and most of modern-day neo-paganism.
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>Cf. Ronald Hutton's Triumph of the Moon for a fine read on the above.
>Most unpopular in some circles. 
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>>I've observed that in many cases claims that a group is secret,
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>underground, esoteric, or persecuted are used to mask the group's
>recent creation and inability to accurately document their claims.
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