H._Byron_Earhart

H. Byron Earhart

H. Byron Earhart

American historian

H. Byron Earhart (born 1935) is an American historian, Ph.D, and author, especially about Japanese religions.[1]

Life and studies

He was born on January 7, 1935, in Aledo, Illinois; son of Kenneth Harry and Mary (Haack) Earhart.[2] His father enlisted in the U.S. Navy in 1942 and served on the battleship USS Missouri. His grandparents and mother held a frozen food locker in Havana, Illinois.[3] H. Byron Earhart married Virginia Margaret Donaho in 1956 and they had three children.[2]

Earhart attended Knox College in Galesburg, majoring in philosophy and religion. He enrolled at the University of Chicago in a graduate program, got a Fulbright grant and went to Japan for three years of doctoral research.[3] He studied under Mircea Eliade and Joseph M. Kitagawa at the University of Chicago, where he received a doctorate in History of Religions.[4]

Career

He is a professor emeritus in the Department of Comparative Religion at Western Michigan University[5] from which he received in 1981 a Distinguished Faculty Scholar Award.[6]

His textbook Japanese Religion: Unity and Diversity (1969) is considered a classic, through several editions, and "has remained one of the only treatments of Japanese religious history truly suitable for use in undergraduate classrooms".[7]

Bibliography (excerpts)

  • Japanese Religion: Unity and Diversity, 1969,[1] and later editions,[8][9][10] also as Religion in Japan: Unity and Diversity[7]
  • The new religions of Japan: a bibliography of Western-language materials. xi, 96 pp. Tokyo: Sophia University, 1970.[11][12] University of Michigan, 1983, pp. 213.[13][14]
  • Religion in the Japanese Experience: Sources and Interpretations. 1974. 1997
  • Religions of Japan: Many Traditions Within One Sacred Way , 1984, 1998
  • Religious Traditions of the World: A Journey Through Africa, Mesoamerica, North America, Judaism, Christianity, Islam, 1993
  • Mount Fuji: Icon of Japan, Columbia: The University of South Carolina Press, 2011[15][16]
  • The World War II Homefront in Havana, Illinois: At Grandma's House. Southern Illinois University Press. 2020. ISBN 978-0-8093-7007-8.[3]

References

  1. [1]
    Writers Directory. Springer. 2016-03-05. ISBN 978-1-349-03650-9.
  2. [2]
    Evory, Ann (1979). Contemporary Authors. Gale / Cengage Learning. p. 148. ISBN 978-0-8103-0040-8.
  3. [3]
    Moon, Jill (2020-08-19). "Illinoisan's story a tribute to everyday Americans". Alton Telegraph. Retrieved 2020-11-19.
  4. [4]
    "H. Byron Earhart". Cengage EMEA. Retrieved 2020-11-18.
  5. [5]
    "H. Byron Earhart". Western Michigan University. Retrieved 2020-11-18.
  6. [6]
    "Western news". October 15, 1981.
  7. [7]
    Thumas, Jonathan (2013-09-22). "H. Byron Earhart, Religion in Japan: Unity and Diversity (fifth edition)". Japanese Journal of Religious Studies. 40 (2): 383–386. doi:10.18874/jjrs.40.2.2013.383-385. It is no surprise that H. Byron Earhart's classic textbook, Japanese Religion, has remained one of the only treatments of Japanese religious history truly suitable for use in undergraduate classrooms. During its long publication history, Japanese Religion has, without equal, fulfilled and exceeded its role as a useful teaching material. Earhart has proved through various editions that his work remains relevant and indeed the foremost resource for those teaching introductory courses on Japanese and East Asian religions. This continues to be the case in the latest, fifth edition, aptly titled Religion in Japan.
  8. [8]
    Reid, David (1982). "Review Of: H. Byron Earhart, Japanese Religion: Unity and Diversity". Japanese Journal of Religious Studies. 9 (4): 313–315. doi:10.18874/jjrs.9.4.1982.313-315.
  9. [9]
    Aubin, Françoise (1984). "Earhart (Byron) Japanese Religion. Unity and Diversity". Archives de sciences sociales des religions [fr] (in French). 57 (2): 228–229.
  10. [10]
    Lee, Andrew (2013-11-30). "Religion in Japan: Unity and Diversity". The Japan Times. Retrieved 2020-11-19.
  11. [11]
    Blacker, Carmen (1971). "H. Byron Earhart: The new religions of Japan: a bibliography of Western-language materials. (Monumenta Nipponica Monograph Series.) xi, 96 pp. Tokyo: Sophia University, [1970]". Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies. 34 (3): 679. doi:10.1017/S0041977X00129428. ISSN 1474-0699. S2CID 162313830.
  12. [12]
    Ellwood, Robert S. (1971). "Review of The New Religions of Japan: A Bibliography of Western-Language Materials". Journal of the American Academy of Religion. 39 (1): 89–92. doi:10.1093/jaarel/XXXIX.1.89. ISSN 0002-7189. JSTOR 1461684.
  13. [13]
    Hardacre, Helen (1984-08-01). "The New Religions of Japan: A Bibliography of Western-Language Materials. H. Byron Earhart". History of Religions. 24 (1): 89–90. doi:10.1086/462979. ISSN 0018-2710.
  14. [14]
    Reid, David (Mar 1, 1984). "The new religions of Japan: A bibliography of Western-language materials, 2nd edition (Book Review)". Japanese Journal of Religious Studies. doi:10.18874/jjrs.11.1.1984.95-96.
  15. [15]
    Mansfield, Stephen (Feb 26, 2012). "Fuji-san: reflections on Japan's iconic mother mountain". The Japan Times.
  16. [16]
    MacWilliams, Mark (December 2014). "Mount Fuji: Icon of Japan. By H. Byron Earhart. Columbia: The University of South Carolina Press, 2011. Pp. 239". Religious Studies Review. 40 (4): 232. doi:10.1111/rsr.12185_2. ISSN 1748-0922.
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