The Buddhist Nirvana and Its Western Interpreters

xi, 320 pp. The book describes the Buddhist concept of "nirvana" as "absence of suffering." The meaning of that has been debated by many philosophers and theologians, and the author of this book examines what Western European and North American discussions have made of this concept., beginning with a brief introduction to pre-Christian, Early Christian, and Later Christian Era thoughts up to about 1800, when actual systematic study of the concept began.