author
Kenneth J. (Kenneth James) Saunders
1883–1937
A scholar of Buddhism who wrote with the curiosity of a traveler and the clarity of a teacher, bringing Asian religious traditions to English-language readers in the early twentieth century. His books reflect years spent studying and working across South Asia, where missionary work and serious scholarship met.
1 Audiobook
Buddhism in the Modern World
by Kenneth J. (Kenneth James) Saunders
About the author
Born in Cape Town in 1883, Kenneth James Saunders became a writer, missionary, and scholar of Asian religions. Sources describe him as an orientalist and an authority on the religions of Asia, and note that he studied at Emmanuel College, Cambridge before beginning work in Ceylon and India.
His career joined Christian service with close study of Buddhism and other religious traditions. He served in Kandy, later worked with the YMCA in Calcutta and across India, Burma, and Ceylon, and from 1921 taught history of religion at the Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley. He was also the Haskell Lecturer at the University of Chicago in 1921.
Saunders wrote accessibly for general readers as well as students, with books including The Story of Buddhism, Gotama Buddha, The Heart of Buddhism, and The Gospel for Asia. He died in 1937, but his work still offers a window into how Buddhism was being interpreted for English-speaking audiences in his time.