Ruben L. F. Habito

Environment or earth sangha: Buddhist perspectives on our global ecological well-being

The question of whether Buddhism supports and fosters an active concern for our ecological well-being continues to be a theme of lively interest, especially given the heightened awareness, helped by increased media coverage, of our global ecological malaise and its deteriorating situation. Contemporary Buddhist approaches to the ecological question were surveyed by Ian Harris, who lined up a fourfold typology based on interreligious sources, which he classifies as eco-spirituality, eco-justice, eco-traditionalism, and eco-apologetics (Harris 1995). Naming examples of these types while noting theoretical inconsistencies and deficiencies in each, he is particularly critical and rather dismissive of the fourth category, noting that works of this kind often ‘adopt an inspirational tone that proceeds from an assumption, generally not supported by any textual, historical or cultural evidence, that the compatibility of Buddhism and environmental ethics is a self-evident fact’ (Harris 1995, 181). Harris’ expressed intent in critiquing the various approaches he has described is to ‘aid in the construction of an authentic Buddhist environmental ethic’ (Harris 1995, 184), to which he has since also made further contributions (Harris 1997, 2000, 2001). Since Harris’ 1995 essay, a number of published works have appeared on ‘Buddhism and Environmental Ethics,’ or ‘Buddhism and Ecology,’ giving due attention to textual, historical, cultural, philosophical, and other aspects relevant to the matter, offering both critical as well as constructive perspectives on the ecological question. These more recent works have advanced the level of discourse on the theme, and have enriched our resources in an area that we could, tentatively and cautiously, refer to as ‘Buddhist eco-theology.’ By way of note, the term ‘Buddhist Theology’ has been proposed for use in academic circles by two well-regarded scholars of Buddhism, John Makransky and Roger Jackson (Jackson and Makransky 2000). Some scholars and/or practitioners of Buddhism may object to this terminology, pointing out that the term theos (‘god’ or ‘God’) is inapplicable in the Buddhist context. However, taking ‘theology’ as an academic discipline involving ‘intellectual reflection within a religious

The Ox-Herder and the Good Shepherd: Finding Christ on the Buddha's Path by Addison Hodges Hart (review)

The Ten Ox-Herding Pictures is a set of iconic images handed down in Chan/Zen tradition as depicting the stages of the path of enlightenment. This small volume offers a Christian commentary on this series of ten pictures that is truly insightful and a delight to read. Juxtaposing East Asian Buddhist religious imagery with Christian themes, it highlights the mutual resonance and complementarity of the Zen Buddhist and Christian paths of awakening and transformation. The author, Addison Hodges Hart, is a retired pastor and university chaplain who has recently published other inspiring and thought-provoking works, including Strangers and Pilgrims Once More: Being Disciples of Jesus in a Post-Christendom World (2014) and Taking Jesus at His Word: What Jesus Really Said at the Sermon on the Mount (2012). Christian rereadings of sacred texts from other religious traditions have now come to be welcomed and valued as a practice that can further expand and deepen Christian theological understanding and spiritual insight on many different levels. In this vein, it is relevant here to mention the series of volumes of Christian Commentaries on Non-Christian Sacred Texts, under the general editorship of Catherine Cornille, also published by Wm. Eerdmans (European edition published by Peeters). It includes such titles such as C. Cornille’s Song Divine: Christian Commentaries on the Bhagavad Gita (2006), D. P. Sheridan’s Loving God: Krsna and Christ: Christian Commentaries on the Narada Sutras (2007), F. X. Clooney’s The Truth, The Way, and The Life: Christian Commentaries on the Three Holy Mantras of the Srivaisnava Hindus (2008), L. D. Lefebure and P. Feldmeier’s The Path of Wisdom: A Christian Commentary on the Dhammapada (2011), J. P. Keenan and L. K. Keenan’s I Am/No Self: A Christian Commentary on the Heart Sutra, and R. B. Locklin’s Liturgy of Liberation: A Christian Commentary on Shankara’s Upadesasahasri, with more forthcoming. The Ox-Herder and the Good Shepherd, issued by the same publisher, though not part of the above-named series, will find good company among these previously published volumes that explore and delve through the wisdom of other religious traditions as conveyed in their sacred texts, enriching and broadening Christian theological and spiritual horizons. The Ten Zen Ox-Herding Pictures, the sacred text being reread here as a guide to the spiritual path that Christians are also called to undertake, is neither a doctrinal exposition nor a set of moral guidelines but a set of images with a continuous narrative that lays out stages on the path of enlightenment in the Zen Buddhist tradition. The key message the author wishes to convey in this book, which is restated in different places throughout the volume, can be found in the fourth chapter, titled “The Ox-Herder and the Good Shepherd”: “Authentic spiritual life must begin with an

Grounding Our Faith in a Pluralist World—With a Little Help from Nāgārjuna (review)

A key feature of our contemporary global society is that religious communities find themselves coexisting and inevitably interacting with adherents of other faith traditions on different dimensions of life. In such a context, given the critical situation of our Earth community wounded on many levels, relating to religious Others in constructive and cooperative ways becomes no longer just an academic or theoretical issue, but one upon which hangs the very survival of this Earth, the biosphere or “circle of life” that sustains us in common. Keenan addresses this vital issue in this volume. In his first chapter, he describes the difference between this “world of many faiths” of our time and that of our ancestors, who lived “primarily in bounded worlds of monocultural assumptions” (p. 1). He describes the task at hand, that is, of reaffirming and reclaiming our faith within our respective traditions, and at the same time being able to respect and relate to those from other religious communities and traditions in a spirit of cooperation toward healing our Earth’s woundedness, in part caused precisely by conflicting claims about ultimate reality made by these different religions. The three “classic” positions (formulated by Alan Race and taken up by many others) vis-à-vis religious Others in the context of the multiplicity of religions are reviewed, and Keenan points out their respective inadequacies for dealing with our contemporary situation. A stance of exclusivism, affirming the absolute validity of one’s own faith tradition, dismisses religious Others from theological consideration in a forthright manner, without bothering to understand what they are about or what they stand for. Surely this stance is not a viable way to live in a multifaith society, and needless to say, it easily leads to animosity, conflict, and even violence. A stance of inclusivism may give a place to those Others in one’s own religious worldview, but in a way that tends to place them in a Procrustean bed of one’s own theological design, thereby failing to hear or understand them as they are or as they would present themselves. A pluralist stance, regarding the many religious paths as “equally valid and true,” may seem to be the more open and workable one in a world of many divergent affirmations about ultimate reality. But such a stance is likewise inadequate, in that putting the different kinds of “absolute affirmation” made by adherents from within their own faith tradition on the same plane as everyone else’s “seems to undermine any such absolute affirmation, as well as any commitment to practice that might follow in its train” (p. 28). Dismissing the possibility of a “lofty vantage point” of a “detached, see-it-all observer” (p. 29) that can adjudicate on the conflicting truth claims of the various religious traditions, as it were, “from above,” Keenan emphasizes the need for an approach “from below” (as the volume title deftly suggests), that is, “grounded” in the actual belief systems and religious life of Jews, Christians, Muslims, Hindus, Buddhists, Taoists, and so on, respecting and paying attention to the particularities of

In Memoriam: David Wellington Chappell (1940-2004)

David Wellington Chappell died of heart failure on December 2, 2004, in Laguna Hills, California. He was a well-known teacher-scholar in Buddhist Studies and the principal founder of the Society for Buddhist-Christian Studies (1987), as well as the founding editor of the Society’s journal, Buddhist-Christian Studies. He received his B.A. degree from Mount Allison University, his B.D. from McGill University, and his Ph.D. in history of religions from Yale University. David’s academic specialty was the Chinese Buddhist tradition. He published significant work on T’ien-t’ai Buddhism, including Buddhist and Taoist Practice in Medieval Chinese Society, T’ien-t’ai Buddhism: An Outline of the Fourfold Teachings, Buddhist Peace Work: Creating Cultures of Peace, and Unity in Diversity: Hawaii’s Buddhist Communities. He was emeritus professor of religion at the University of Hawai‘i, where he taught for more than thirty years, before assuming a position as professor of comparative studies at Soka University of America in 2000. Always interested in balancing scholarship and teaching, David was the recipient of a number of grants in support of his work, including grants from the Hung-Wo and Elizabeth Lao Ching Foundation, the University of Hawai‘i Institute for Peace, the Japanese Studies Foundation, the Niwano Peace Foundation (Tokyo), and the Lilly Foundation. In the last few years of his life he was also actively engaged in Buddhist-Muslim dialogue in Asia, Europe, and North America, working with Dharma Master Hsin Tao, founder of the Museum of World Religions in Taiwan. David is survived by his wife, Stella Chappell; daughters Cindy Rice, Laura Demitria, Gwen Demitria, and Jeanne Barnes; and son Mark Chappell. He is also survived by five grandchildren and his brother, Gordon Chappell. A celebration of David’s life was held during the Society for Buddhist-Christian Studies Seventh International Conference at Loyola Marymont University, Los Angeles, June 3–8, 2005.

International Conference on Religion and Globalization

The International Conference on Religion and Globalization, with over two hundred participants from thirty-one countries, was hosted by Payap University and its Institute for the Study of Religion and Culture in Chiang Mai, Thailand, from 27 July to 2 August 2003, with the Society for Buddhist-Christian Studies among the several cosponsoring organizations. Other sponsoring and cosponsoring organizations included the United Board for Christian Higher Education in Asia, the International Network of Engaged Buddhists, the Christian Conference of Asia, and the Museum of World Religions. Prof. John Butt, convener of the conference and director of the Institute for the Study of Religion and Culture, with other officials of Payap University, welcomed the delegates at the opening ceremonies on 27 July in a program that included musical and cultural presentations from the riches of the northern Thai heritage. Plenary speakers included Dharma Master Hsin Tao, founder of the Museum of World Religions based in Taipei, Taiwan, who spoke on “Education for Interreligious Understanding in a Global Age.” Donald Swearer, of Swarthmore College and Harvard University, spoke on “Religious Identity and Globalization,” with a provocative subtitle: “Would Jesus, Buddha, or Mohammed Drive an SUV?” He addressed sociological aspects of religious living in a globalized age, with particular reference to Thai society. Phra Paisan Wisalo, a noted Thai forest monk and ecological activist, spoke on the “Reform of the Thai Sangha in the Light of Global Realities.” Dr. Wesley Ariarajah, a Methodist theologian from Sri Lanka who has worked for many years with the World Council of Churches, spoke on “Religious Diversity and Interfaith Relations in a Global Age.” The Venerable Dhammananda (formerly known as Dr. Chatsumarn Kabilsingh) was scheduled to give a plenary address on “Women’s Experience in Theravada Buddhism,” but could not attend due to the untimely death of her beloved mother, the Ven. Voramai Kabilsingh, one of the pioneering twentieth-century bhiksunis in Thailand. Mae Chee Vimuttiya delivered an address titled “The Tripitaka Answer to the Extremes in the Modern World.” Episcopal Bishop John Shelby Spong (ret.) presented an address titled “Transcending the Limits of Religion in Search of the Won-

Fire and Water: Basic Issues in Asian Buddhism and Christianity (review)

Aloysius Pieris, Jesuit priest and Buddhist scholar, is well known in theological and interreligious dialogue circles in Asia, and this is the third collection of essays of his to be published in the Faith Meets Faith Series of Orbis Books. The eighteen essays which make up this book, all previously published elsewhere, are conveniently put together in three sections, under the following headings: 1) Women and Religion: Buddhist and Christian Appropriation of Feminist Criticism; 2) issues in Theology, Religion and Society; and 3) questions of Spirituality and Human Liberation. To merely summarize the content of the essays and offer a third-party critique would do injustice to the book, and could even mislead one who peruses such a summary into thinking one thereby “knows” what the book or Pieris is about. Such a hasty conclusion would deprive a would-be reader of the powerful experience that awaits in wrestling with Pieris through each essay of this volume. Judith Berling puts it well in her blurb at the back, pointing out that the author “uses poetry, evocative symbolism, and humor to offer a theological call to action in a voice that is liberationist, Asian, and feminist.” Indeed, this volume invites one to a way of seeing that can also transform one’s way of being in this world marked by increasing violence, poverty, and a systemic kind of oppression dehumanizing to both the perpetrators as well as the victims. The title of the present volume, Fire and Water, alludes to a dynamic dipolarity, masterfully sketched for the reader by Paul Knitter in his foreword, which underlies the author’s vision of reality and vivifies much of his writing. The masculine and the feminine, the (Buddhist) gnostic and the (Christian) agapeic, the metacosmic (tran-