Cosmology and Religion

Via Crucis: Studies in Medieval Sources and Ideas in Memory of J. E. Cross

This book originated as a series of papers delivered at a Symposium on Irish and Anglo-Saxon Literary Culture in Honor of J. E. Cross, held in conjunction with the 30th International Congress on Medieval Studies at Kalamazoo in May 1996. The purpose…

"Sins of the Parents in Rabbinic and Early Christian Literature"

For over two millennia, Jewish and Christian theologians have grappled with the biblical notion that God punishes children for the “sins of [their] parents” (Exod. 20:5).1 This doctrine, found in the Decalogue, has posed an obvious question for many…

Pious Irreverence: Confronting God in Rabbinic Judaism

Judaism is often described as a religion that tolerates, even celebrates arguments with God. Unlike Christianity and Islam, it is said, Judaism endorses a tradition of protest as first expressed in the biblical stories of Abraham, Job, and Jeremiah.…

"Buddhist Rainmaking in Early Japan: The Dragon King and the Ritual Careers of Esoteric Monks."

This study, through focusing on the development of Buddhist rainmaking rites in the Heian era (794-1185), analyzes the efforts of esoteric Buddhist monks to improve their relations with the sovereign and aristocrats of the Japanese court through…

"A Cosmology of Conservation in the Ancient Maya World"

Description
The Classic Maya of the southern lowlands were one with world rather than one with nature, a view that promoted the conservation of their world for millennia, what I term a cosmology of conservation. I explore how their cosmocentric…

Chinese Aesthetics: The Ordering of Literature, The Arts, and the Universe in the Six Dynasties

This singular work presents the most comprehensive and nuanced studies available in any Western language of Chinese aesthetic thought and practice during the Six Dynasties (A.D. 220-589). Despite a succession of dynastic and social upheavals, the…

The Essentials of Ibadi Islam

Ibadi Islam is a distinct sect of Islam, neither Sunni nor Shi‘ite, that emerged in the early Islamic period and remains active today in small pockets of North Africa and as the dominant sect of Oman. Despite its antiquity, it has often been…

An Archaeology of the Cosmos: Rethinking Agency and Religion in Ancient America

An Archaeology of the Cosmos　seeks answers to two fundamental questions of humanity and human history. The first question concerns that which some use as a defining element of humanity: religious beliefs. Why do so many people believe in supreme…

"Didymus the Blind and the Philistores: A Contest over Historia in Early Christian Exegetical Argument"

“Didymus the Blind was a celebrated Christian instructor in the second half of the fourth century. He was, according to Evagrius of Pontus, the “great and gnostic teacher.” Out of respect for the blind exegete’s interior vision, Jerome dubbed Didymus…

"An Alternative Hermeneutics of Truth: Cui Shu's Evidential Scholarship on Confucius"

The pursuit of truth is universal; so is the demand for evidence. But the method or system whereby truth is recognized, obtained, and transmitted is not. It is important to distinguish “the will to truth” and “the truth claim”—the specific manners…

"Dharma Prince Shukaku and the Esoteric Buddhist Culture of Sacred Works (Shōgyō) in Medieval Japan"

“Shukaku Hosshinnō (1150–1202), pronounced Shūkaku at Ninnaji, the second son of cloistered sovereign Go-Shirakawa (r. 1155–1158), was one of the most influential masters in the history of Shingon lineages. Along with the Tendai abbot Jien…