James Carter Dobbins is an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 academic, Japanologist and professor of religion and East Asian studies at Oberlin College

Oberlin College

Oberlin College is a private liberal arts college in Oberlin, Ohio, noteworthy for having been the first American institution of higher learning to regularly admit female and black students. Connected to the college is the Oberlin Conservatory of Music, the oldest continuously operating...

 in Oberlin, Ohio

Oberlin, Ohio

Oberlin is a city in Lorain County, Ohio, United States, to the south and west of Cleveland. Oberlin is perhaps best known for being the home of Oberlin College, a liberal arts college and music conservatory with approximately 3,000 students...

.

Early life

In 1971, Dobbins was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree at Rhodes College

Rhodes College

Rhodes College is a private, predominantly undergraduate, liberal arts college located in Memphis, Tennessee, USA. Originally founded by freemasons in 1848, Rhodes became affiliated with the Presbyterian Church in 1855. Rhodes enrolls approximately 1,700 students pursuing bachelor's and master's...

. He earned a Master of Arts at Yale University

Yale University

Yale University is a private, Ivy League university located in New Haven, Connecticut, United States. Founded in 1701 in the Colony of Connecticut, the university is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States...

 in 1976; and he was granted a Ph.D. at Yale in 1984.

Selected works

In a statistical overview derived from writings by and about James Dobbins, OCLC

OCLC

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/WorldCat

WorldCat

WorldCat is a union catalog which itemizes the collections of 72,000 libraries in 170 countries and territories which participate in the Online Computer Library Center global cooperative...

encompasses roughly 8 works in 20+ publications in 3 languages and 700+ library holdings.

• The Emergence of Orthodoxy: a Historical Study of Heresy in the Early Jōdo Shinshū (1984)
• From Inspiration to Institution: The Rise of Sectarian Identity in Jōdo shinshū (1986)
• Jōdo Shinshū: Shin Buddhism in Medieval Japan (1989)
• 恵信尼の書簡: 仏教に生きた中世の女性 (1989)
• The Legacy of Kuroda Toshio (1996)
• Letters of the Nun Eshinni: Images of Pure Land Buddhism in Medieval Japan (2004)

Articles

• "Women's Birth in Pure Land as Women: Intimations from the Letters of Eshinni," The Eastern Buddhist, Vol. 28, No. 1 (Spring 1995), pp. 108-22.
• "The Biography of Shinran: Apotheosis of a Japanese Buddhist Visionary," History of Religions, Vol. 30, No. 2 (November 1990), pp. 179-96.
• "From Inspiration to Institution: The Rise of Sectarian Identity in Jodo Shinsho," Monumenta Nipponica, Vol. 41, No. 3 (Autumn 1986), pp. 330-43.