Religious Studies

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    Expanding notions of Buddhism: influences beyong Meiji Japan
    (Institute of Buddhist Studies, 2007) Harding, John
    Following centuries of relative stability, Buddhism in Japan faced significant challenges in the turbulent Meiji era. The persecution of Buddhism in the late 1860s and early 1870s was the most dramatic instance of disruption and provided a serious threat to the tradition as it was castigated as foreign by the nascent Shinto nationalism and as antiquated by the advocates of rapid modernization. Although the persecution threatened to diminish Buddhism in Japan, subsequent reactions, reforms, and reformulations of Buddhism sought to expand its scope in Japan and beyond. In addition to the domestic use of science for Buddhist apologetics, rhetoric emphasizing the consonance between Buddhism and science was employed internationally to promote Japanese Buddhism as a modern, universal religion. Buddhist adherents and sympathizers from Japan and abroad promoted Buddhism through this understanding and helped to shape discourse about modern Buddhism in this way. Ideas about Buddhism not only expanded within Japan to include a greater understanding of other Asian traditions and Western scholarship about Buddhism, but currents beyond Meiji Japan—both flowing in from the West and out from Japan—influenced scientific and evolutionary rhetoric that propelled the idea of Buddhism as the preeminent modern religion and of Mahayana as the culmination of Buddhism.
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    Jewish-Muslim relations, globalization, and the Judeo-Islamic legacy
    (Creighton University, 2015) Khalil, Atif
    Since World War II, Jewish-Muslim relations have almost entirely been mired in the Palestinian-Israeli conflict. One of the results of this heavy politicization has been the curtailment of any serious or fruitful dialogue between the mainstream, established Jewish and Muslim communities of the West. This article brackets out the political issues that have been a cause of mutual distrust and consternation to explore the theological, juridical and mystical affinities between two strikingly similar traditions. It was these affinities that led to the creation, in the medieval past, of a Judeo-Islamic tradition – a tradition which in the words of one scholar was “parallel to and no less real – perhaps in fact even more real – than that of the Judeo-Christian tradition.” The article demonstrates how the Judeo-Islamic tradition offers some valuable resources for promoting not only dialogue but congenial relations between Jewish and Muslim communities. It ends with a brief overview of the shared (Jewish/Muslim) experience of otherness in the West by drawing on the insights of Edward Said (vis-à-vis European representations of Semites) to examine the views of Hegel, Ernest Renan and Abraham Kuenon. The shared experience or otherness offers yet another vantage point from which to approach Jewish-Muslim dialogue.