DEPARTMENT OF RELIGIOUS STUDIES

George D. Bond, Professor of Religion, specializes in Buddhist studies and South Asian religions. He works primarily on Theravada Buddhism studying the texts and the practice of Buddhism in Sri Lanka and Southeast Asia. He received his Ph.D. from Northwestern University and also studied at the University of Sri Lanka.

His teaching focuses on Buddhism, Hinduism and the history of religions. He has been a recipient of the Charles Deering McCormick Professorship of Teaching Excellence, the Northwestern Alumni Association's Award for Excellence in Teaching and the Weinberg College of Arts and Sciences Teaching Award.

His publications include: The Buddhist Revival in Sri Lanka (1988), The Word of the Buddha (1980), Sainthood: Its Manifestations in World Religions (1988), which he co-authored and edited with Richard Kieckhefer; and Buddhism at Work: Community Development, Social Empowerment and the Sarvodaya Movement (2004 ) He has also written numerous articles on Buddhist texts and Buddhist practice. One recent article, entitled "The Contemporary Lay Meditation Movement and Lay Gurus in Sri Lanka," appeared in Religion(2004). His current research focuses on Theravada Buddhist meditation and Buddhism in Sri Lanka.

He is a past president of the Midwest region of the American Academy of Religion and has served as co-chair of the Buddhism Section of the national American Academy of Religion. He has been an officer and a board member of the American Institute for Sri Lanka Studies and has served as the overseas director for the American Institute for Sri Lanka Studies in Colombo, Sri Lanka.

Selected Works

Books

“The Word of the Buddha”: The Tipitaka and Its Interpretation in Theravada Buddhism (1982, revised version forthcoming 2010).

The Buddhist Revival in Sri Lanka: Religious Tradition, Reinterpretation, and Response. Comparation Studies in Religion Series,. (Columbia: University of South Carolina Press, 1988.)

Sainthood: Its Manifestations in World Religions. Co-edited and authored with Richard Kieckhefer, (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1988).

Buddhism at Work: Community Development, Social Empowerment and the Sarvodaya Movement. (Bloomfield, CT: Kumarian Press, 2005).

Articles

“The Contemporary Lay Meditation Movement and Lay Gurus in Sri Lanka.”Religion, Vol. 33 (2003), pp.23-55.

"Reinterpreting the Path: Two Case Studies of Lay Meditation Movements in Sri Lanka." in Approaching the Dhamma: Buddhist Texts and Practices in South and Southeast Asia, edited by Anne Blackburn and Jeffrey Samuels (Seattle: Buddhist Pariyatti Books, 2003. pp. 167-189.

Curriculum Vitae