Carl Olson's Zen and the Art of Postmodern Philosophy compares two paths of liberation

from the representational mode of thinking, namely, Zen Buddhism and postmodern

philosophy. Olson is to be commended for encouraging this dialogue, especially

since professors of religious studies usually marginalize Gallic postmodern

thought. He is also to be appreciated for the enormous effort that must have been

required to describe so much material. Olson treats Bataille, Baudrillard, Deleuze,

Derrida, Guattari, Foucault, Kristeva, Lacan, Levinas, and Lyotard on the postmodern

side; and Dogen, Hakuin, Nishitani, many Chinese Ch'anists, and some Indian

Buddhists on the Buddhist side. His method is to arrange the chapters according to

topoi such as "Language, Disruption, and Play," "Ways of Thinking," "The Body,"

and so on, and to treat the pertaining ideas of the individual Buddhist and postmodern

authors insofar as applicable.