K. M. University, India Christianity in the Land of Santhals: a study of Resistance and Acceptance in Historical Perspective(03U)

Lewisohn, Leonard Craig

The Institute of Ismaili Studies, UK

Esoteric Platonism in Seventeenth-Century Persia and Fifteenth-Century Florence and the Influence of Muslim Thought on Italian Renaissance Humanism(10G)

The idea of interior wisdom or esoteric knowledge as revealed in the writings of Ficino (1433-1499) and other members of his school which flourished in Florence during the Italian Renaissance, bear specific comparison with Muslim mystical speculations on the same topic. This paper reveals the remarkable spiritual contiguity and intellectual fraternity between Ficino's school of esoteric Platonism and the synthesis of esotericism found in the famous school of Platonists in Isfahan in 16th and 17th century Safavid Iran who have been compared at points with their contemporaries, the Cambridge Platonists of England. The work of Gemistos Plethon in the revival of Plato's philosophy (via Cosimo de Medici and Ficino) in 15th century Italy, had its direct counterpart in Persian Islamic philosophy, having been anticipated three centuries earlier by Suhrawardi (d. 1191) whose Illumination-ist synthesis of Platonism and Peripatetic thought was revived by the School of Isfahan. Many of the profound correspondences that exist between the Florentine Platonists and the esoteric thinkers of School of Isfahan, will be discussed, demonstrating that the study of esotericism in medieval Europe had close historical connections with the Islamic traditions and that the Islamic contributions to the Renaissance and the rise of the Enlightenment were not insignificant.

Symposium, English
Li, Gang

Sichuan University, China

The Philosophical Foundation for Avoiding Religious Conflicts in Taoism: Theories of the Common Import of the Three Teachings(16D)

The purpose of this paper is to clarify the philosophical significance of the Taoist "Theory of the common import of the three teachings," by discussing its history, essential ideas, and contemporary meanings. It will be concluded that Taoism has the wisdom for avoiding religious conflicts, and can contribute to the peace of the future world.

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Light, Timothy

Western Michigan University, USA

Developing Religions: the Interaction between Group Processes and Individual Processes(06K)

This paper suggests a way of viewing religious development for individuals and groups which focuses on the interaction between respective individual and group cognitive processes. While the two sets of processes are in many ways similar, each has distinctive characteristics which help explain why certain products of individual and group religious expression (groups produce symbols, and especially scriptures and numinous religious specialists; individuals produce exegeses and meanings) differ in nature and also helps describe the character of the interaction between the religious group and the individual participant and/or observer. Statements of identity, which are fundamental to both groups and individuals, are made in contradistinction to other identities and are framed tautologically and hence publicly. In addition, groups operate according to well documented patterns of dynamics which are different from those of individuals. In contrast, individuals define their group membership analogically, a process which is ultimately idiosyncratic and hence obscure to other individuals and not available to groups. In religions, the respective spheres of individuals and groups, and the interplay between them when responding to new environments help to account for the sometimes constructive and sometimes violently conflictive patterns which are both so endemic to religion.

Symposium, English
Lim, Taihong

Seong Kyun Guan University, Korea

Establishment of the Popular Religion and its Thought in Japan : Tenrikyo Seen from Donghak and God Worshippers' Society(07D)

God Worshippers' Society established by Hong Xiuquan in the late Qing dynasty is, in terms of the religious classification of China, classified as a secret society. In more detail, it may be called a "Secret Religious Society". This is also called a secret religion, a folk secret religion or a folk religion in China. Donghak established by Choi Jaewoo in the later Chosun dynasty is sometimes called as "Popular Religion". This term, however, is introduced from Japan to Korea. In general, Koreans like to call the religion as "National Religion." Tenrikyo is defined as a representative "Popular Religion" in Japan. The "Secret Religion" of China, the "National Religion" of Korea, and the "Popular Religion" of Japan, these three different terms, in fact, are used for calling similar religions in the modern East Asia. These terms have different meanings each other, as the countries of this region have so much difference in their historical, political and social circumstances. Examining this problem, this paper attempts to analyze the thoughts of Tenrikyo and the other popular religions in Japan.

Symposium, Japanese
Lim, Taihong

Seong Kyun Guan University, Korea

Meanings of Religious Experiences in Dong Hak of the Chosun Dynasty(12D)

In a religious body, it is very important how the member's religious experiences are to be understood. Sometimes it becomes to be a serious problem in the dogmatic aspect of the body. Choi Jaewoo, the founder of Dong Hak("Eastern Learning"), founded the religion by experiencing the mystical experience. And he emphasized the religious experience as a means for extending his religion. It was a goal in the religious training of the religion, too. He asked the believers doing the religious experience similar to his own experience. However Choi Sihyeong, the second founder, did not experience such a religious experience. The third founder, Son Byeonghee, also had not the chance to have such a experience. But the Chon Do Gyo, to which Dong Hak was newly reformed by Son Byeonghee, also adopt the religious experience as a important mean, as well as goal, in the religious training. And The new body asked the believers to have the mystical experience like Dong Hak. Focusing these problems, this paper intend to examine the meanings of the religious experiences in the Dong Hak.

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Limon, Silvia Olvera

Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico

The Sacred Landscape at the Andes: Earth, Caves and Mountains(10L)

Prehispanic Andean landscape was believed to be a sacred manifestation of gods. Earth and mountains were considered living entities as well as abode for their divinities; they were also considered gods who people worshiped with offerings. The fact that some mountains were considered gods' manifestations is grounded in myths that mention the divinities' transformation into landscape elements. This paper explains the religious meanings of earth and mountains among some Andean communities. It also deals with the method by which, in the Andean cosmo-vision, mythology created sacred images of the landscape.

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Limon, Silvia Olvera

Universidad Nacional Autónoma de México, Mexico

(12L)

Roundtable session, English

Lin, Chen-kuo

National Chengchi University, Taiwan

Emptiness and Violence: A Dialogue between Nagarjuna and Derrida(04S)

Inspired by Derrida's reading of Emmanuel Levinas in "Violence and Metaphysics," this paper will bring Nagarjuna into dialogue with an attempt to show how the issue of violence is viewed differently in Madhyamika Buddhist philosophy. In this paper, I will argue that, according to Nagarjuna, the "origin" of violence can be traced to the way that being is (mistakenly) conceived and differentiated into self and other. This approach is thus inevitably led to the exposition of the relation between metaphysics and violence that has been indicated in Derrida's essay.

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Lisdorf, Anders

University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Traumatic Rites in the Cult of Attis(14T)

The Theory of Harvey Whitehouse stipulates two distinct modes of religiosity, the doctrinal and the imagistic. The first relies on repetition and theological reflection, the latter on images and rites of terror. In Antiquity, the religion most directly connected with such terror is the cult of Attis and Cybele. In this cult ritual castration and self-mutilation was practised. This renders this cult particularly interesting from the perspective of Harvey Whitehouse's theory. This paper will attempt to analyse the cult of Attis from this perspective.

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Lisdorf, Anders

University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Promiscuous Application of ToM Inferences Could Explain the Production of Meaning in Divinatory Techniques(15K)

How can divinatory techniques, such as throwing some stones on the ground, be thought by people to answer a question? This basic question in the study of religion has been answered in largely three different ways: 1) by positing a special primitive mentality, characterised by lack of rationality, 2) by the stipulation of a universal morphology of religion involving spiritual beings with whom people thought they were communicating, or 3) simply by postulating a social regulative function as the true cause. This paper aims avoid these by integrating recent insights from the cognitive sciences, particularly about "Theory of Mind" reasoning, to suggest another way of answering the question posed in the beginning.

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Liu, Chengyou

Central University For Nationalities, China

A Brief Study on Master Yin Shun's Pure-Land Thought(13D)

The thought of Buddhism on earth in China is advocated by Master Yin Shun mainly on the base of Life Buddhism thought by Master Tai Xu. The aim is to realize the modern transformation of Buddhism and establish the value of Buddhism in modern society. In Master Yin Shun thought, Pure-land is people's pursuit for an ideal world. People practising Pure-land Buddhism should correctly understand the true meaning of the Pure-land and realize its original meaning: to purify the world. Master Yin Shun thought highly of the role of women in creating a Pure-land on earth, because of their merciful hearts and the important roles they play in modern families. His analysis of the Pure-land not only corrects people's views on Pure-land, but contributes to creating a Pure-land on earth and realizing peace and progress for humankind.

Organized panel, Chinese
Llewellyn, J. E.

Southwest Missouri State University, USA

The 'Universal Religion of Human Values': Teaching (about) Religion in the U.S and India(16B)

An article which appeared in University News in India argued that "The government should have no reservation in introducing and funding universal religion of human values in the form, in the contents and in the methodology of education at all levels." In religious studies in the United States, a distinction is often made between "teaching religion" and "teaching about religion," the former being a sectarian activity, the latter supposedly objective and, therefore, proper in a state university.

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Lobreglio, John S.

The University of California, UK

On the Fault Lines of Japanese Buddhism: Takada Dooken's Vision of a Non-sectarian Buddhism(02B)

Takada Dooken (1858-1923) was, like Murakami Senshoo, an advocate for the unification of Japanese Buddhism. Although abbot of a Soto Zen temple, he was a prolific author, editor and publisher of essays promoting a non-sectarian, universal form of Buddhism. Writing in the same milieu, with the same purpose, the respective visions of Takada and Murakami could not help but overlap. Each saw Buddhism as compatible with, and superior to, Western rationalism and science. Each sought to locate the common features shared by all of world Buddhism and to use these as the basis for its institutional unification. A united Buddhism, they believed, would stem the incursions of Christianity and promote a strong, modern nation state. Though the contours of their visions are strikingly similar, their differences concerning which elements constitute the true essence of Buddhism reveal key structural tensions and fault lines within Japanese Buddhism as a whole. An awareness of these sheds light on where Japanese Buddhist traditions draw the lines of sectarian identity and raises the more difficult question as to why they do so.

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Lochan, Amarjiva

University of Delhi, India

Brahmanas among Buddhist Monks: a tale of Survival in Thai Society(13B)

Thailand has been predominantly a Buddhist country since long. In the past three hundred years, the powerful kingdom of Ayutthaya and the present Chakri rule adheres to the Buddhist principles and offers utmost respect to the monks. However, it is strange to note that the institution of Brahmanas, a vestige of Hinduism primarily involved with the royalty and its court rituals, has continued to survive. The research investigation puts forward the fact that the Brahmanas( whether they are of Indian origin or local lineage) were in a larger number in the first millennia. With the establishment of the Sukhothai kingdom in the 13th century, the role of Brahmanas was primarily confined to the royal court functions. Though, their number has dwindled from over 100 in the early 20th century to just 11 in 2004, they are in great demand by local Thai Buddhist populace. Individual ceremonies and social occasions bring this smallest group of Thai social segment not only survive but flourish well. They are respected, sought for blessings and worldly desires, and most often, understood as "essential" for material gains. The present paper explores the phenomenon by drawing parallels between the two social groups of Thai society.

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Loehr, Brigitte

University of Tuebingen, Germany

Changing Burial Rituals: Buddhist Elements in Christian Rituals.(01U)

Christianity has influenced burial rituals in German speaking areas (Germany/ Switzerland/ Austria) for hundreds of years. After the Second World War, strict rituals gradually started to change. For over a decade we have seen elements from other religions increasingly integrated into the Christian framework. The paper investigates some concrete examples of the integration of Buddhist elements. Three aspects of these changes particularly stand out:(1) the change in external rituals; (2) the change in the willingness and openness of Buddhist and Christian priests to cooperate on common rituals; (3) the change in society at large: altered conceptions of death and dying, life after death and newly adopted ideas of karma and reincarnation.

Organized panel, English
Loehr, Brigitte

University of Tuebingen, Germany

Chrisitian Communities in a Changing World(01U)

*chairperson

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Logan, Joseph

Essential Lay Buddhism Study Center, Japan

Attitudes toward Acceptance: Influence of Words and Rhythms in Lay Buddhist Practice(02M)

One of Buddhism's most basic practices, as directed in the teachings of its sutras, is oral recitation. Whether in the form of recitation of sutras in whole or in part, or condensed into repeated chants of the name of a Buddha or of a sutra itself, recitation has maintained its fundamental importance over time and over Buddhism's evolutions as it migrates around the globe. As Buddhist practices become established within western cultures with ever-growing contingents of lay followers, language becomes a factor in their perspectives toward practice, and toward faith, for it is often the case that the practice a westerner is initially exposed to is not in his or her native language. This presentation briefly explores the efforts of an American lay practitioner to bridge the gap between the emotionally tangible power and effect of recitation, and the need for intellectual understanding of what is being said.

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Lokensgard, Kenneth Hayes

Gettysburg College, USA

Created Things in the Blackfoot Universe and the Interpretive Inadequacy of "Supernatural"(01I)

Many scholars working from Judeo-Christian frameworks believe the term "supernatural," which suggests a transcendence of human experience, readily describes a variety of religiously significant beings in Native American worlds. I will discuss the worldviews of the Blackfoot peoples of North America to reveal this is not always the case. I will show that, because the Blackfoot peoples believe all created things have souls, these same beings, which are often described as "supernatural," are anything but that; in fact, they have the same ontological status that humans have. I will also show that Blackfoot peoples believe all created things are invested with the very power of their Creator. Like the other non-human beings, then, the Blackfoot Creator cannot be accurately described as "supernatural," since he is manifest in all things. Thus, I will reveal the term "supernatural" to be a damaging misrepresentation of the religiously significant inhabitants of the Blackfoot universe.

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Lokowandt, Ernst

Toyo University, Japan

The Tennô's Legitimacy and the Shintô Rituals(05P)

In absence of a Mandate of Heaven, a Social Contract or any other theory to legitimize the rule of the rulers, in Japan the Tennô fulfilled this function. He did not rule, he gave legitimacy to those who did. In turn, the position of the Tennô was legitimated by Shintô, especially by his being the direct descendant of the Sun Goddess, and by his conducting the most important national (Shintô) ceremonies. Based on these well-known facts the paper will examine whether there is a correlationship between the political position/function of the Tennô on the one side, and the stress on visible religious functions, on the other. Starting point will be the return to (the fiction of) direct rule by Meiji-Tennô which was accompanied by a pronounced policy of stressing his sacred aspects. The hypothesis here is that once the Tennô came to be seen as a constitutional monarch, there was less need to enhance his authority through religious ceremonies. The position of the Tennô in present-day Japan, however, poses a different problem. After World War II, the Tennô has lost his divinity, and he has gained a new foundation: Now he derives « his position from the will of the people with whom resides sovereign power » (Constitution, Art.1). Yet, the Tennô still retains a special relationship to Ise Jingû, he is still in possession of the Three Regalia, and he still conducts the nationally most important (Shintô) ceremonies. Here arises the question, whether the relation between Tennô and Shintô is a necessary one, or whether a separation of the two might be conceivable. In other words, whether the institution of Tennô would be able to survive even without its backing in Shintô. In order to get an answer to these questions, the Shintô ceremonies which continue to be conducted at the court will be looked at, the constitutional problems which they pose will be dealt with, and the reasons for their continuation will be examined.

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Long, Charles

University of California, Santa Barbara, USA

Contact, Rituals, and Knowledge(01F)

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Long, Charles

University of California, Santa Barbara, USA

Religion, Materiality, and Modernity(10P)

All cultures in the world have in a myriad of ways reflected upon, thought, and contemplated about the fundamental matter, stuff, of the world upon which all other forms of the created order are based. This is the subject matter of creation myths and of all those stories that explain how a particular structure of modality became a part of the world. This has been the case with the Greeks and Romans, as well as the Indians, Chinese, Japanese, Africans, and all the cultures in North and South America. The concern for this meaning of the created order was not simply a neutral given mode present for contemplation and reflection; it expressed at the same time a limit, a restraint and therefore a mode of defining the being of the human and human possibilities within the created order of things. Description and expressions of this primary and fundamental matter or stuff of the creation was at the same time a form of knowledge but a kind of knowledge that could not be manipulated in the mode of technical reason. This situation changed in the formation of the Atlantic world. Through a complex interplay of factors. We may note two major themes in this change: 1) the rise of notions of economic theories related to a new form of matter, now referred to as the commodity; 2) and an intellectual conversation that was centered around the religious notions of the fetish and fetishism. In both cases, a new form of matter totally under human control came into being. These changes in the meaning, power, and nature of matter took place within the cultures of conquest and exploration. The modern was defined only in their discourses and rhetoric. In my paper I will include within the modern the cultures conquered, enslaved, dehumanized as an essential meaning of modernity.

Symposium
Long, Charles

University of California, Santa Barbara, USA

Local and Global Aspects of Religion and Art: The Case of Self-Taught/Outsider Art(15L)

*respondent

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Lopez, Donald S.

University of Michigan, USA

Theosophy and Tibet(17E)

The Theosophical Society, in the persons of its founders, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (HPB) and Henry Steel Olcott, actively supported Buddhism during the late nineteenth century. Colonel Olcott sought to promote a World Buddhism and visited several Asian nations, including Sri Lanka and Japan. Tibet was central to the doctrines of the Theosophical Society; Madame Blavatsky claimed to have studied there, and Tibet was said to be the home of the mahatmas, the enlightened masters with whom she communicated. Heretofore, no clear evidence has been discovered to historically document the role of Tibet (a local culture) in Theosophy (a "global religion"). However, Madame Blavatsky is discussed in a work by the Tibetan Buddhist scholar Dge 'dun chos 'phel (1903-1951); his is apparently the earliest reference to Madame Blavatsky in a Tibetan text. In this paper, I will provide a translation and analysis of his fascinating, and sympathetic, portrait of HPB.

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Lopez, Leonardo

National Institute of Anthropology and History, Museo del Templo Mayor, Mexico

Conquests, Human Sacrifices, and the Aztec Great Temple(15R)

The period between Motecuhzoma Ilhuicamina's ascent to power (AD 1440) and the Spanish Conquest (AD 1521) was a time of euphoric building of religious structures and sculpting of cylindrical sacrificial stones that corresponded to the growth of the political-military apparatus and Aztec power. A careful reading of Sixteenth century historical sources shows this interesting parallel: the Great Temple of the Aztec capital grew at the same rate as the empire. In this way, the successive expansions of this huge pyramid, that was a model of the universe, glorified military expansion and served as an ideological justification for imperialist policy. Each addition symbolized, celebrated, and sanctified the obtaining of new tributaries within the sphere of Aztec dominion. Thus political and economic interests were interrelated with their religious beliefs. This explains why there were so many expansions to the Great Temple in a relatively short time.

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