Authentic Core Research Articles

Local and Translocal in the Study of Theravada Buddhism and Modernity

AbstractThis essay traces the development of scholarly thinking about the relationship between local and translocal forms of Theravada Buddhism in Southeast Asia, particularly in regard to modernity. The first part of the article shows that scholars have moved well away from a view of the canonical Buddhist texts as the original and most authentic core of Theravada, emphasizing instead local settings as the sites for the production of Buddhist values, practices, and texts. The article then considers how this turn to the local is affecting understandings of Buddhist modernity in Southeast Asia. It suggests that recent work on modern Theravada Buddhism at the local level is pushing scholars toward a more atomized view of Buddhist modernities. In this view, local Buddhisms play a part at least as important as that of the global forces of modernization (usually seen as originating in the West).

Creating Effective Core Organizational Values: A Spiritual Leadership Approach

Core values have been viewed as one important way that both private and public sector institutions can improve organizational effectiveness and enhance employee attitudes and behaviors. Despite the strong case for the importance of values, many organizations have not gained their full benefits. In fact, core values poorly articulated and implemented can have a significant negative impact on both employees and organizations. This paper seeks to review the business literature to define core organizational values, discuss their impact on employees and organizations, and present the key reasons why most institutions have not developed effective values. Next, it is suggested that a spiritual leadership philosophy is needed for organizational executives to articulate, communicate, and implement truly meaningful and authentic core values. A number of applications of these core industry values to the public sector are provided as well as directions for future research.

Le sacrifice au Ciel dans la Chine ancienne: Théorie et pratique sous les Han occidentaux (review)

Reviewed by: Le sacrifice au Ciel dans la Chine ancienne: Théorie et pratique sous les Han occidentaux Griet Vankeerberghen (bio) Marianne Bujard. Le sacrifice au Ciel dans la Chine ancienne: Théorie et pratique sous les Han occidentaux. Monographie 187. Paris: École française d'Extrême-Orient, 2000. 264 pp. Paperback €35.06, ISBN 2-85539-787-1. Marianne Bujard's book on the sacrifice to Heaven in the Former Han dynasty is an important work that deserves the attention of anyone interested in religion in ancient China, in early imperial religious politics, or in Dong Zhongshu (ca. 195-ca. 115 B.C.) and his legacy. It is also laborious to read: Bujard painstakingly presents her many sources either descriptively or in translation, and deliberately refrains from comprehensive interpretative theories. Still, one comes away from it with many novel insights into the way local cults fared in the newly constituted Chinese empire, into the way religious specialists (fangshi) competed with the classicists (ru) for imperial patronage, and into the way Dong Zhongshu and other religious reformers sought to ground a new state religion in the texts of antiquity. Bujard approaches the foregoing themes only indirectly. Her immediate concern is to analyze Dong Zhongshu's views on the sacrificial rite known as jiao. She presents Dong's theory on jiao in the first part of her book. In the second part she checks Dong's theory against the classical sources that, according to Dong's own claims, inspired his views. In part three she reviews the various descriptions of jiao sacrifices in the treatises on religion in the Shi ji and Han shu, again seeking to determine to what extent they coincide with Dong's proposals. The only source available for Dong Zhongshu's views on jiao is the Chunqiu fanlu. Bujard posits, with some caution, that the chapters on jiao belong to the authentic core of the Chunqiu fanlu. She first presents a translation of these chapters (i.e., 65-71 and 76) before summarizing and commenting on Dong's views.1 According to Dong, jiao was an ancient sacrifice that flourished at [End Page 98] the time of the Zhou sage-kings, but was subsequently neglected by the Qin rulers as well as by their Han successors. It was felt that this sacrifice ought to be offered uniquely to Heaven by the emperor, the Son of Heaven, in person. It should be the first and most important sacrifice on the imperial ritual calendar, and had to be celebrated in the suburbs of the imperial capital—"suburbs" being the original meaning of the word jiao. During the sacrifice, a calf with horns the size of chestnuts should be offered. From Dong Zhongshu's perspective the jiao sacrifice, when respectfully executed, was the prime occasion for the ruler to communicate with Heaven and to fathom whether Heaven approved or disapproved of his policies. Heaven's approval or disapproval would be manifested in the appearance of a range of auspicious or inauspicious natural phenomena. Also, disruptions or irregularities in the sacrificial proceedings could indicate Heaven's displeasure. Dong Zhongshu took great pains to ground his theory of the jiao sacrifice in the classics—those texts, supposedly written by the sages of antiquity, that were beginning to attain canonical status in Dong's own times. In the chapters of the Chunqiu fanlu devoted to jiao, Dong refers repeatedly and extensively to related passages in the Odes (Shi), the Annals (Chunqiu), or the Rites (Li). In part 2 of her book, Bujard takes up the received versions of these three texts to check the legitimacy of Dong's claim that they endorse his views on the jiao sacrifice.2 Not surprisingly, Bujard finds in the classical texts a bewildering array of meanings for jiao, and, in those relatively rare cases where jiao refers to a specific sacrifice, there is no trace of a unified theory as to what the sacrifice is supposed to mean, who should offer it, when and where it should take place, and what procedures it should follow. What Bujard's analysis shows is that Dong Zhongshu's theory on jiao should not be understood as a historically accurate...

A Dialectical Conception of Autism

THERE ARE MANY ways to become a schizophrenic. Each individual has her own schizophrenia, coherent with her life history, her problems and alternatives deriving from them (Binswanger 1960). What clinical psychiatry calls “schizophrenia” is not a unitary illness but a common final state—a “syndrome” in the etymological sense, that is, a condition to which different psychopathological pathways may lead. Schizophrenic symptoms, like Schneiderian firstrank symptoms (delusions, hallucinations, experiences of passivity), are nothing but a rather uniform type of reaction. First-rank Schneiderian symptoms may be interpreted as attempts to explain disturbing basic experiences of change in self, body, and world perception (Klosterkoetter 1988) or as the epiphenomena of complex interactions between sensory disorders (aberrations in the perception of self, body, and world), conceptualisation disorders (impairments in the constitution of meanings and intentions), and attitudinal disorders (eccentric structure of values and beliefs) (Stanghellini 2000a). Since the schizophrenic syndrome, as defined by current diagnostic manuals, lacks any authentic core phenomena, and so-called schizophrenic symptoms are not specific (Berner and Kufferle 1982), the clinical diagnosis of schizophrenia finally becomes a diagnosis by exclusion (Maj 1998). This conceptual weakness is obviously unacceptable (not only for old dissenters from operational diagnostic criteria) and is kindling a velvet revolution in nosological studies and a renaissance of philosophically oriented psychopathological research (Parnas and Zahavi 2000).

Drugs and the Baby Boomers' Quest for Metaphysical Illumination

Research Article| October 01 1999 Drugs and the Baby Boomers' Quest for Metaphysical Illumination Robert C. Fuller Robert C. Fuller Search for other works by this author on: This Site PubMed Google Scholar Nova Religio (1999) 3 (1): 100–118. https://doi.org/10.1525/nr.1999.3.1.100 Views Icon Views Article contents Figures & tables Video Audio Supplementary Data Peer Review Share Icon Share Twitter LinkedIn Tools Icon Tools Get Permissions Cite Icon Cite Search Site Citation Robert C. Fuller; Drugs and the Baby Boomers' Quest for Metaphysical Illumination. Nova Religio 1 October 1999; 3 (1): 100–118. doi: https://doi.org/10.1525/nr.1999.3.1.100 Download citation file: Ris (Zotero) Reference Manager EasyBib Bookends Mendeley Papers EndNote RefWorks BibTex toolbar search Search Dropdown Menu nav search search input Search input auto suggest search filter All ContentNova Religio Search This content is only available via PDF. ©© 1999 by The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.1999 Article PDF first page preview Close Modal You do not currently have access to this content.

Essays on Skepticism, Relativism, and Ethics in the Zhuangzi (review)

Essays on Skepticism, Relativism, and Ethics in the Zhuangzi (review)

Expression of MUC2 gene is down-regulated by vitamin A at the transcriptional level in vitro in tracheobronchial epithelial cells.

The functional role of airway mucin in the respiratory system is well recognized. The isolation of mucin cDNA clones, MUC genes, introduces new information regarding the structure of the mucin core protein; however, the nature of the authentic core protein of airway mucin is still unresolved. In this communication, the effects of vitamin A on the regulation of MUC2 gene expression in primary tracheobronchial epithelial (TBE) cells of human and nonhuman primates were examined. Vitamin A has been recognized as one of the most important nutrients in the regulation of airway mucous cell differentiation. The expression of the MUC2 gene has been demonstrated in both rat and human tracheal tissues. The monkey cDNA clone MT80 was isolated from a cDNA library derived from vitamin A-depleted cultures of monkey TBE cells using a synthetic oligonucleotide probe corresponding to the 69 nucleotides of a tandemly repeated sequence in human MUC2 cDNA. DNA sequencing revealed a similar tandemly repeated sequence, except that 72 oligonucleotide repeats were observed in the monkey cDNA clone. Using the MT80 cDNA as a probe, the expression of the MUC2 gene was studied in vitro. The corresponding MUC2 message level in primary cultures of monkey TBE cells was down-regulated by vitamin A. This result was consistently demonstrated in primary human and hamster TBE cultures. The down-regulation was both time- and dosage-dependent on vitamin A. A nuclear run-on assay demonstrated a decrease in the transcriptional rate of the MUC2 gene in nuclei isolated from vitamin A-treated cultures. These results suggest that MUC2 gene expression in TBE cells is transcriptionally down-regulated by vitamin A.

Jeremiah 2: A Commentary on the Book of the Prophet Jeremiah, Chapters 26-52 (review)

Hebrew Studies 32 (1991) 133 Reviews In the abundance ofits book stories, bibliophilic and otherwise, Shira is exquisitely sensitive to the inscription ofobjects in history and history in objects. The dynamics of inscription situate the book in culture, while showing us the roots of culture in a relation to the body. This reinstinctualizing of the book constitutes the novel's "shameful secret," its feminine subtext; through it, culture's dissociation of book from body is undone. (p. 170) Stanley Nash Hebrew Union College - Jewish InSlilUle ofReligion New York. NY 10012 JEREMIAH 2: A COMMENTARY ON THE BOOK OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH, CHAPTERS 26-52. By William L. Holladay. Henneneia. Pp. xxxi + 543. Minneapolis: Fortress, 1989. Cloth, $44.95. With this volume, Professor Holladay completes his monumental and comprehensive commentary on the book of Jeremiah. With its publication, a full spate of up-to-date English language Jeremiah commentaries becomes nearly complete (we await only W. McKane's second volume in the ICC series), and we mark a major milestone in the contemporary study of Jeremiah. It remains to be seen what new directions will be taken in future Jeremiah studies. (For a broad sUIVey of recent commentaries on Jeremiah, see C. S. Rodd, ExpTim 98 [1987]:171-175.) Synopsis: For those already familiar with Holladay's contributions to Jeremiah studies, and especially the prior volume of his Hermeneia commentary , the second volume, overall, offers no surprises. The extremely helpful introductory essays provide a comprehensive overview and synthetic argument for Holladay's approach to the major interpretive problems. The sustained case for a biographical-historical reading of the Jeremiah tradition is continued with creative independence and vigorous ingenuity on the part of the author. When he is done, Holladay maintains that the bulk of the book can be traced either to the historical prophet or to Baruch, the prophet's scribe and associate. Apart from minor glosses scattered throughout the book, the only secondary passages of major scope consist of the following on p. 24 of the introduction: 5:18; 8:1-3; 9:11-13; 22:8-9; 52:1-34 (exilic period texts); 9:14-15; 31:10-14, 23, 24-25, 26 (end of the sixth century texts); 3:6-11, 16-1800; 17:19-27; 23:7-8,34-40; 30:89 ; 31:29-30, 35-36, 37, 38-40 (fifth century texts). In the course of his textual and structural analysis, I also note the following which are viewed Hebrew Studies 32 (1991) 134 Reviews as additions to Jer 26-52: 30:22-24; 32:2-5, 18-20,28-40; 33:7-10*, 12-26; 39:4-10; 46:25-28; 48:5, 10, 13, 21-24, 26-27, 29-38, 47; 49:6, 9, 12-17, 27, 33, 39; 50:17-18, 30, 39-46; 51:11, 15-19,28,45-48,57. Where dates can be assigned, they range from exilic down to Maccabean periods. Such tantalizing suggestions of on-going exegetical interest in second temple Judaism are left undiscussed in terms of exegetical and theological significance. Nevertheless, this limitation of the primary fonnation of the book to the lifetime of the prophet does not preclude a very complex history of composition (summarized on pp. 15-24). Holladay reconstructs the stages of the book's development in relation to the chronology of Jeremiah's career. The latter is configured to a large degree in relation to a septennial reading of Deuteronomy at the annual festival of booths (the key dates: 615,608,601, 594,587). Each passage and stage of the book's development is assigned a historical setting within this chronological framework. Some of the more surprising and innovative proposals for Jer 26-52 are the following: (1) Oracles against the Nations: a significant core of these oracles are traced back to the prophet. The authentic core of chaps. 46-49 had all been delivered by 594; the beginnings of a short collection were made as a reaction against the Jerusalem conference of Syro-Palestinian states plotting a revolt against Nebuchadnezzar. This shorter collection was subsequently expanded by an authentic core of oracles in chaps. 50-51 directed against Babylon. The historical...

On Baseless Suspicion: Christianity and the Crisis of Socialism

In the western world, at least, socialism is in crisis as a political force. But it is also in crisis as an intellectual creed, and it is this crisis that concerns the present article. Nevertheless, the practical and the theoretical crises are very closely allied; the real political problem for contemporary socialism may be that, increasingly, people no longer know, or have forgotten, why one should be a socialist.One might want to re-express this as ‘people no longer see any reasons to be a socialist’. And the practical response might be to urge us, once again, to convince people that socialism is the truly reasonable path. And yet, I am going to argue that in certain crucial senses there simply are no ‘reasons’ for being socialist in the way that we have tended to imagine in the past. If, I shall suggest, we can overcome the lingering suggestion that socialism is a matter of science, of historical diagnosis, or of universally valid reason, then we shall actually be able to recover the most authentic core of the socialist tradition, and the Christian socialist tradition in particular. In the course of this argument I shall first of all establish a contrast between old-style Christian socialism and new-style Christian Marxism, and then go on to show that Christian socialism is in certain ways more in tune with a ‘post Marxist’ or ‘post modernist’ radicalism. Finally, I shall suggest how Christian socialism nonetheless moves beyond the ambiguity of the post-modern critique of capitalist society.

Meister Eckhart, Mystic and Philosopher by Reiner Schürmann

BOOK REVIEWS sos Meister Eckhart, Mystic and Phuosopher. By REINER ScHUID>i£ANN. Bloomington : Indiana University Press, 1978. Pp. 9l69. $17.50. Have there been five books published in English on Meister Eckhart in this century? The past eighteen months alone have brought us three: C. F. Kelley, Meister Eckhart on Divine Knowledge (Yale, 1977); a symposium on Eckhart printed in The Thornist (April, 1978); and finally this volume by the professor of philosophy at the New School for Social Research . Although this book is a translation of a French edition, it owns a fine English style, bright and succinct. Schlirmann recently published in France a book of autobiographical reflections, Origines, which attracted wide attention as a first view of life after World War II by a young German. So the author's literary talents enhance this study of Eckhart, for it is aesthetically as well as intellectually captivating. Schlirmann wants not to explain everything about Eckhart but to unlock the central spark of the mystic: the unavoidably and permanently dynamic Eckhart. "As long as Eckhart's readers attempt to grasp his thought in relations among entities, isolating different philosophical currents like musical motifs, the simple source from which everything springs remains hidden. Eckhart's thinking is such that probably any list of 'theses' drawn from his works will provoke objections and rejectien for diverse reasons " (p. 164). The format of this book is novel and avoids the labored structure, inspired by dissertations, of a superfluity of quotations and references culled from all the great man's writings. Instead, Schlirmann has carefully chosen three sermons which through exposition and hermeneutic allow the Meister's word to emerge and to impress. Each of the sermons contains central motifs of Eckhart's philosophico-theological view of the world and the self: detachment and birth; the quaternity of dissimilarity, similarity, identity and dehiscence; the concluding juxaposition of ontic nothingness opening to the nothingness of the Godhead; and being-born in the being of the Son of God. Schlirmann points out that these moments are " intensities " for every or for any moment of a person's life; they are not stages in a methodology of prayer or interior ascent. For each of the three chapters exegeting one sermon newly translated, the author provides a second sermon: an expansion upon, an illustration of the teaching in that particular chapter. The professor at the New School expresses lucidly an approach which has been on the tip of the tongue of other, European scholars. He observes that to remain with a metaphysics of substances is inevitably to be incapable of expressing what Eckhart, as mystic and writer, wants to say. Eckhart, no more than any other speculative mystic, thinks of God and the mind as united by some kind of fusion of entities into a common substance; rather, 306 BOOK REVIEWS Got entwird: in the disappearance of the God-Person and of the man-person, in detachment and the great forgetfulness of self, being accomplishes itself. Only this process "is." Breakthrough, on the one hand, birth on the other, are reconciled in the itinerancy of the detached man. (p. 164) The critical apparatus of the book is sparse, but this should not delude readers and scholars into the opinion that the volume ignores the intellectual sources and milieu of Eckhart. Schilrmann knows medieval thought very well, and his uncovering of Eckhart's words and ideas in Albert or Aquinas is thorough. He unravels and intertwines in a sophisticated way the interplay of Neoplatonism and Aristotelianism in Eckhart. He makes a good case in the final sections for showing that Eckhart finds the different kinds of theories of analogy inadequate for his thought. Schilrmann explains how Eckhart saw true prayer and mystical insight attaining the Godhead beyond God. This "breakthrough" (the word is Eckhart's own creation) to the Godhead-through radical detachment and Zen-like focus upon the present existent-must mean that the philosophical categories which were at hand for the Thuringian Dominican appeared inadequate: not false but inadequate. "The authentic core of Meister Eckhart's thinking is releasement . In the history of ideas, each epoch has its own language, and perhaps releasement precedes its own...