Near Light We Shine: Buddhist Charity in Urban Vietnam

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Sara Ann Swenson (Assistant Professor in Religion, Assistant Professor in Religion, Dartmouth College)

Near Light We Shine

Name: Near Light We Shine
Price: 183.95 AUD
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ISBN: 9780197811863

Buddhist Charity in Urban Vietnam

Sara Ann Swenson (Assistant Professor in Religion, Assistant Professor in Religion, Dartmouth College)

$183.95

Hardback

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English

Oxford University Press Inc
09 March 2026

Buddhism; Urban communities; Charities, voluntary services & philanthropy

Series: AAR Academy Series

Buddhists in Vietnam are meeting humanitarian needs by popularizing charity. Vietnam's rapid urbanization has intensified social service demands while straining public infrastructure. In response, charity volunteers are building roads, subsidizing medicine, and giving away food. Near Light We Shine draws on two years of ethnographic research conducted in Ho Chi Minh City to analyse why and how people join these grassroots movements. Volunteers adapt practices from Vietnam's dominant religion--Buddhism--to attract donors and advocate for different programming styles. However, there can also be clashes over the ultimate purpose of philanthropy. Volunteers approach both Buddhism and altruism in different ways depending on their personal values and demographic communities. These communities include low-income day laborers, elderly women, Buddhist nuns, urban migrants, college students, and queer men. Volunteers promote altruism by citing the proverb, ""What is near ink, darkens; what is near light, shines."" They use this axiom to distinguish themselves as good people ""with heart"" [co tam], whose charities are more caring and ethical than other organizations. Disputes over who practices true charity are rooted in different phenomenological and ontological experiences of how altruism influences the world. Volunteers promote distinct Buddhist cosmologies that are traditional, pro-socialist, sceptical, queer, modern, scientific, magical, and often at odds with one another. Altogether, people draw on Buddhism as an adaptable resource to build moral communities and transform the world. Near Light We Shine provides unprecedented insights into how Buddhism functions as a highly adaptable tool for people to build moral communities in Southeast Asia.

By: Sara Ann Swenson (Assistant Professor in Religion Assistant Professor in Religion Dartmouth College)
Imprint: Oxford University Press Inc
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 242mm, Width: 165mm, Spine: 22mm
Weight: 503g
ISBN: 9780197811863
ISBN 10: 0197811868
Series: AAR Academy Series
Pages: 238
Publication Date: 09 March 2026
Audience: College/higher education , Further / Higher Education
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

Preface: The Way of Virtue Introduction: Many Buddhisms, Many Vietnams Chapter One: Good People and Dangerous Strangers Chapter Two: Belonging, Precarious and Queer Chapter Three: Charity Event-Networks Chapter Four: An Alternate Youth Culture Chapter Five: Fraud at the Children's Festival Chapter Six: Building a Socialist-Buddhist Nation Chapter Seven: Taking a Stance through Grassroots Social Work Conclusion: The Affective Politics of Giving Appendix 1: Charity Groups (in Order of Appearance) Appendix 2: People (By Group)

Sara Ann Swenson is an Assistant Professor in Religion at Dartmouth College. She researches contemporary Buddhism in Vietnam. She holds a PhD and MPhil in Religion from Syracuse University, an MA in Comparative Religion from Iliff School of Theology, and a BA in English from the University of Minnesota Duluth.