Facing the Future: Four Essays on Buddhism and Society

This book presents a socially engaged reading of Buddhism, showing how the Dhamma can speak directly to the ethical, economic, and cultural crises of the contemporary world. Bhikkhu Bodhi’s central concern is that modern society has overdeveloped external power while neglecting inner transformation, resulting in systems that institutionalize greed, intensify inequality, damage the environment, and weaken moral culture. Across the four essays, he argues that Buddhist teaching offers a corrective vision grounded in the Four Noble Truths, dependent causality, the Noble Eightfold Path, generosity, contentment, compassion, wisdom, and the primacy of Dhamma over profit. The work does not treat Buddhism as merely a private path of meditation, but as a comprehensive ethical resource for rethinking development, restoring social cohesion, guiding youth, and redefining the role of the monastic community in a changing world.