ReligionsFebruary 24, 2026Junhui Chen, Xinfeng Kong
The article examines the religio-ecological framework articulated in Ming–Qing morality books 勸善書, focusing on how animals, Ledgers of merit 功過格, and karmic 業報 are integrated into a system of moral causality. Within this framework, actions such as killing or saving animals are directly linked to karmic reward and punishment, generating a dual mechanism that combines moral technology with an...
This article examines the theoretical and practical frameworks surrounding liminal states of consciousness—specifically lucid dreaming and out-of-body experiences (OBEs)—within Indian religious and philosophical traditions. Through a comparative analysis of Vedāntic, Yogic, Buddhist, and Jain systems, the article argues that these states are not merely anomalous psychological events but...
In recent years, for higher education—especially in the United States—spirituality has emerged as a prominent topic on campus, both in curricular and co-curricular formats. Historically, religion has played a large role in the foundations and even missions of many universities, but in the modern era, especially for public universities, personal spirituality has become the frequent way in which...
This article adopts a comparative mythology framework in order to situate creation myths within a broad cultural context. It examines how different societies conceptualize the emergence of the universe through the interconnected notions of thought and word. The study demonstrates that, despite cultural diversity, these narratives articulate shared principles concerning the mental and linguistic...
This article examines the ontological and ethical foundations of ecosufism through the views articulated by Muḥyiddīn Ibn ʿArabī (d. 638 AH/1240 CE) and Mawlānā Jalāl al-Dīn Rūmī (d. 672 AH/1273 CE) in their major works. Its central argument is that these two foundational figures of Sufi metaphysics offer a coherent, theocentric account of the human–nature relationship grounded in the...
The scientific activity and outputs of the neurosciences are fascinating and, for the most part, uncontroversial. However, there have been sustained claims that neuroscientific findings represent a powerful challenge to historic, orthodox Christian teaching concerning human ontology. While philosophers had long debated the “mind/brain” problem, the rise of “eliminative materialism” (in the...
This research explores how Chinese youth, most of whom lack formal religious beliefs or affiliations, engage with digital non-traditional religious music, such as electronic adaptations of the Great Compassion Mantra chant, on platforms such as Bilibili. A total of 15 interviews and one year of digital ethnography were conducted to examine how various music mediators, such as music, technology,...
This comparative study sheds light on the agency of nature and provides a lens through which to examine the intersection of ritual, ecology, and indigenous environmental consciousness in South Asia. The paper argues that the sacred groves are not just passive backdrops for human rituals, but dynamic spaces in which fauna, flora, rocks and other natural entities are actively involved in...
This article aims to show how scientific interpretations of the mind can be integrated with traditional Buddhist models of the mind that maintain no-self in light of modern Buddhist meditation practices. Building on David McMahan’s work, it compares two models of mind, the Theater-of-the-Mind and the Ten Ox Herding Pictures (C. Shíniútú; K. Sibudo 十牛圖). The former places the self at the center...
This paper examines the philosophical and ethical significance of “forgetting” in Dōgen’s thought. It argues that the deepest form of forgetting—“forgetting oneself”—is not a psychological loss but a transformative practice through which a self-centered mode of existence is relinquished, allowing access to a multi-dimensional world in which beings appear across different ontological and...
This study examines the systematic development and philosophical “finalization” of śamatha (止 tranquility) and vipaśyanā (觀 insight) within the foundational texts of the Yogācāra tradition. Central to the transmission of Buddhism to East Asia was the categorization of practice (修行 caryā) through the lenses of concentration (三摩地 samādhi) and wisdom (般若 prajñā). This paper focuses on two pivotal...
Hakuin Ekaku 白隠慧鶴, the reviver of the Japanese Rinzai school 臨濟宗, introduced Chinese Daoist cosmology and views on the body through the narrative persona of the immortal Hakuyūshi 白幽子 in works such as Yasen Kanna 夜船閑話 (Chats on a Night Boat). He elaborated on specific techniques of Daoist internal alchemy (nèidān 內丹), such as focusing the mind on the dāntián 丹田 (elixir field) and regulating the...
Based on extensive ethnographic fieldwork conducted in Mianning County, Liangshan Yi Autonomous Prefecture between 2023 and 2024, this paper analyzes the “xiō bū” (ꑭꁮ) ritual of the Liangshan Yi people. Framed within contemporary approaches to religious anthropology and social memory theory, the study explores how this ritual constructs Yi ecological ethics, social integration, and cultural...
In Indian religious traditions, the attainment of death with full conscious awareness has long been idealized, reflecting the deep ontological connection posited between death and liberation (mokṣa). Within this framework, Jainism—grounded in a rigorous soul–matter dualism—developed highly systematized practices that aim to separate consciousness from both the body and karma not only at the...
This article examines Khotan’s role in the transmission and reception of Avataṃsaka/Huayan Buddhism, arguing that the Buddhāvataṃsaka-sūtra’s exceptional prestige and royal protection in Khotan provided favourable conditions for the circulation—and possibly the redaction—of large Mahāyāna compilations. It then analyses two Avataṃsaka-group meditation texts translated by the Khotanese monk...
Most primitive religions originated from the devout worship of celestial deities, earthly spirits, and ghosts. In oracle bone inscriptions, rituals related to praying for rain, temple worship, river deity worship, and the worship of great deities were referred to as “fang” 方 or “yi fang” 以方. The Supreme God was the paramount deity of the Yin Shang Dynasty people; by the early Zhou Dynasty, the...
In his innovative and creative attempt to reconcile empiricism and religion, William James made the case for finite theism and a pluralistic conception of the cosmos involving overlapping minds of several scales. In doing so, James also cautioned against abandoning functional psychology in favor of what he called entitative points of view. In his work, Ralph Barton Perry critiqued James for...
In today’s plural and global context, the Theology of Religions and Interreligious Dialogue play a decisive role in fostering mutual understanding and a genuine culture of encounter. This article examines the theological and spiritual foundations of this task through a re-reading of Paul Tillich and Jacques-Albert Cuttat. Starting from Tillich’s unfinished reflection on the significance of the...
In the governance of intangible cultural heritage (ICH), traditional rituals often fall into a paradox of institutional exhibition. The Korean shamanic rites Ssitgim-gut and Byeolsin-gut, respectively, represent the two poles of ritual institutionalization, displaying semiotic logics of original iconicity and institutional textualization. This study, based on audiovisual materials, archival...
For more than four decades, the emphasis in the academic study of world religions has been on differences over similarities, and comparative analyses allowing for commonalities have become increasingly rare. This article argues that similarities nonetheless exist and should be studied. After disclaiming the judgment of other scholars that Aldous Huxley attempted to describe the “core” or...
ReligionsDecember 19, 2025Anamaria Filimon-Benea, Ioana Vid
This article examines how Internet technologies reconfigure human sensory experience and induce decorporation—the experiential dissociation of consciousness from the physical body. Drawing on Marshall McLuhan’s media theory and theological anthropology, the study demonstrates that digital immersion amplifies certain senses (vision, hearing) while anesthetizing others (touch, kinesthesia),...
This study explores the dynamics of engaged spiritualities within contemporary Buddhist communities in Italy. By employing an ethnographic approach, the research examines how physical space fosters spiritual experiences, facilitates social interactions, and serves as a site for personal and collective transformation. The study integrates insights from religious studies, anthropology, and...
ReligionsDecember 4, 2025Anderson Fabián Santos Meza
In the twenty-first century, academic approaches to mysticism often risk reducing the Mystery to an object of erudition and historical distance, as if mystical experience belonged solely to a pre-modern past. Yet, when one encounters the “natural metaphors” that emerge within mystical writings—images of rivers, gardens, fire, and wind—it becomes almost impossible to silence the invitation to...
ReligionsNovember 26, 2025John R. Snarey, Eunil David Cho, Shelby L. Hall
William James’s two psychological classics—The Principles of Psychology (1890) and The Varieties of Religious Experience: A Study in Human Nature (1902)—are widely read but rarely connected. How are James’s psychological theories in The Principles applied in The Varieties? Most scholars say they are not. Our thesis is that, throughout The Varieties, James uses The Principles as the foundation...
This paper forwards the claim that our early human ancestors had protosacred experiences long before they had languages, architecture, or religions. A mountain may create feelings of awe while a grove in the forest may create feelings of serenity. In some circumstances (and very much dependent on the mental set of the individual), such protosacred experiences may create a sense of ultimacy that...