James C. Dobbins

James Carter Dobbins (born 1949) is an American academic, Japanologist and professor of religion and East Asian studies at Oberlin College in Oberlin, Ohio.

Early life In 1971, Dobbins was awarded a Bachelor of Arts degree at Rhodes College. He earned a Master of Arts at Yale University in 1976; and was granted a Ph.D. at Yale in 1984.

Career Dobbins is the James H Fairchild Professor of East Asian Studies at Oberlin.

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.