criticisms of the Buddhist tradition of ‘self-power’, thinking that one could, through one’s own efforts, attain to the very highest perfection, over the years have had more and more influence on my own religious development. I shall return to Shinran elsewhere in this work. Until fairly recently I have tended to work more in the history of philosophical and religious ideas, rather than actually engaging in critical and constructive philosophy with my subjects. Early in my academic career I decided