The Formation of E. A. Gordon’s Scholarship and Thought

Abstract

Elizabeth Anna Gordon (1851–1925) was a British religious scholar who lived for many years in Japan from the late Meiji to the late Taishō periods, passing away in Kyoto in 1925. Her thought was characterized by ideas on the unity of Mahāyāna Buddhism and Christianity, or of the two maṇḍalas’ principles and Christianity. This paper focuses on the first four years of her research, the time when her comparative studies of Buddhism and Christianity seems to have developed dramatically. The four years in question cover the period of her second visit to Japan in August 1907 up to October 1910, when she erected a replica of the Chinese Nestorian stele at the Okunoin in Kōyasan. Her scholarship and thought are considered to have taken shape within her interactions with such persons as Timothy Richard (1845–1919), Shaku Keijun (1869–1919), and Saeki Yoshirō (1871–1965).