1. Introduction: Personal Observations and Perspectives

2. The Contemporary Age

3. The Mahayana Background--the Sword of Wisdom

4. The Mahayana Background--The Logic of Compassion

5. Kamakura Buddhism: Buddhist Responses to History

6. The Problem of Japanese Buddhism

7. A Perspective on the History of Shin Buddhism in Japan

8. Shin Buddhism in the American Context

9. Life as Story: Its Importance in Religion and Modern Thought (part 1)

10. Life as Story (part 2)

11. Religion as Manifesting Truth

12. The Symbolic Structure of Faith

13. The Metaphysical Structure of Shin Buddhism

14. The Traditional Structure of Shinran's Thought

15. Faith and Practice: Shinran's Perspective

16. Assurance of Liberation

17. The Expression of Faith: Joy and Gratitude

18. The Nembutsu

19. The Nembutsu: Myokonin

20. The Ultimate End of Faith (part 1)

21. The Ultimate End of Faith (part 2)

22. The Ultimate End of Faith (part 3)

23. Precedence of Spirit over Form

24. Shin Buddhism in the Modern Ethical Context

25. Shin Buddhism in Encounter with a Religiously Plural World

Answers to Self-Study Questions