bluuebunny/crossref_metadata_2025 huggingface dataset:
The Inner Kalacakratantra
Authors: Wallace Vesna A.
Published: October 2003

The Kālacakratantra and its commentarial literature are a rich textual source for the study of diverse but mutually related fields of South Asian studies in general and of South Asian Buddhism in particular. The works that belong to the Kālacakra literary corpus warrant careful research for several reasons: they express the doctrinal and social theories and the relevant tantric practices that were characteristic of north Indian Buddhism in its final stages; the Kālacakratantra literature also sheds light on the religious and social conditions of eleventh‐century India in general and on the social standing and role of Indian tantric Buddhism of that era in particular. For these reasons, a main focus of this book is on the Kālacakra tradition as an Indian Buddhist tradition. The central topic of the book is the Kālacakratantra's view of the nature of the individual and the place of the individual in the universe and society. Accordingly, a primary theme is a textual, historical, and philosophical analysis of the second chapter of the Kālacakratantra, the “Chapter on the Individual” (adhyātma‐paṭala), and its principal commentary, the Vimalaprabhā. However, since the Kālacakra tradition's theory of the human being permeates all the chapters of the Kālacakratantra, its second chapter is intimately related to the other chapters of the tantra. For example, the Kālacakratantra's view of the individual is inseparable from its view of the universe as discussed in the first chapter of the tantra. Likewise, the purpose of the Kālacakratantra's presentation of the individual's psycho‐physiology in the second chapter becomes clear only when examined in light of the tantric yogic practices described in the third, fourth, and fifth chapters. Therefore, in this book the topics of the inner Kālacakratantra are dealt with in their relationship to the larger context of the Kālacakratantra's theory and practice. In accordance with the Kālacakratantra's theory of nonduality, this book analyzes the Kālacakra tradition's view of the individual in terms of the individual as cosmos, society, gnosis, and the path of spiritual transformation.
The Broader Theoretical Framework of the Kālacakratantra
Authors: Wallace Vesna A.
Published: October 2003

The first part of this chapter gives a general introduction traditions and theory to the Kālacakratantra, which is described as belonging to the class of the unexcelled yoga‐tantras (anuttara‐yoga‐tantra). Together with its most authoritative Indian commentary, the Vimalaprabhā it stands as the most comprehensive and informative tantra of its class. According to the Kālacakra tradition itself, the Kālacakratantra is the most explicit tantra, which imparts its teaching by revealing the actual meanings, whereas the other anuttara‐yoga‐tantras, which are regarded as secret or concealed tantras, convey their meanings in an implicit manner. The topics covered in the further sections of the chapter are the classification of the families in the Kālacakra tradition; a critique by the Mādhyamika system of Buddhist philosophy of other philosophical systems in the Kālacakratantra; the concept of the Ādibuddha in the Kālacakra tantric system; and the Kālacakratantra and the Mañjuśrīnāmasaṃgīti [a fairly early devotional tantric text of unknown origin (circa 7th century) for communal recitation centring on the praises of the bodhisattva Mañjuśrī, the Buddhist patron saint of wisdom and learning]. The last section of the chapter presents a brief analysis of the Inner Kālacakratantra.
The Concept of Science in the Kālacakra Tradition
Authors: Wallace Vesna A.
Published: October 2003

When the issue of science is raised within the context of Indian Buddhist thought, there are no more advanced or comprehensive matrices of theory and practice than those presented in the literature of the Kālacakra tradition. A textual study of the Indian literary sources of this tantric tradition reveals that when Brāhmaṇic formal education in eleventh century India was exclusively theological and disdainful of technical knowledge, north Indian Buddhist monastic education incorporated training in nontheological skills that required knowledge of medicine, alchemy, mathematics, artisanship, and even weaponry. The sharp split between theological and scientific education, which impaired the Brāhmaṇic educational system of that time, was absent in Buddhist monastic education owing to the prevailing Buddhist view that theological knowledge and technical and scientific learning are not only compatible but complementary. The literature of the Kālacakra tradition with its diverse and well‐integrated topics and applications of diverse fields of knowledge attests to that fact, and has its roots in the Buddhist monastic, educational system. This chapter presents examples of science from the Kālacakratantra and other Kālacakra literature; almost half of it is devoted to the Buddhist tantric medicine, which integrates classical Āyurdevic medicine, alchemy, and magic.
The Transformative Body
Authors: Wallace Vesna A.
Published: October 2003

The first part of this last chapter discusses the path of actualizing gnosis in relation to the individual. The Kālacakratantra's theory of the nature of gnosis, prāṇas (life force or life winds), spiritual ignorance, and mental afflictions, as well as the relationships among them, provides the rationale for the Kālacakratantra practices for eliminating mental afflictions and actualizing the four bodies of the Buddha. Among the Kālacakratantra's multifaceted approaches to the eradication of mental afflictions, several are especially significant: first, the path of eliminating mental afflictions is the path of sublimating the afflictive nature of mental afflictions into the peaceful and pure nature of the enlightened beings, who are the pure aspects of the elements from which mental afflictions arise; second, the path of sublimating mental afflictions in the Kālacakra tradition is the path of recognizing the ultimate nature of one's own mental afflictions, which is gnosis. The following three sections of the chapter look at the transformative body of the path of initiation, the transformative body of the path of the stage of generation, and the transformative body of the path of the stage of completion. The last section examines the phases of the ṣaḍ‐aṅga‐yoga (six‐phased yoga) of the Kālacakratantra; this is a meditative process that manifests the successively more encompassing aspects of the mind.
Truth Bearers
Authors: Soames Scott
Published: October 2003

A variety of truth bearers are considered – statements, beliefs, claims, assumptions, hypotheses, propositions, sentences, and utterances. It is argued that statements, beliefs, claims, assumptions, and hypotheses – in the sense of things stated, believed, claimed, assumed, and hypothesized – can be identified with propositions, but that these, in turn, cannot be identified with sentences or utterances. Propositions are distinguished as the primary bearers of truth, while sentences and utterances are properly characterized as true in virtue of expressing true propositions.
Forms of Truth Skepticism
Authors: Soames Scott
Published: October 2003

Five different forms of truth skepticism are examined and defused: the view that truth is indefinable, that it is unattainable and unknowable, that it is inextricably metaphysical and hence not scientifically respectable, that there is no such thing as truth, and that truth is inherently paradoxical, and so must either be abandoned or revised. An intriguing formulation of the last of these views is owing to Alfred Tarski, who argued that the Liar paradox shows natural languages to be inconsistent because they contain defective, and ultimately incoherent truth predicates. Here, it is argued in response that on a plausible interpretation of his puzzling notion of an inconsistent language, Tarski's argument is, though logically valid, almost certainly unsound, since one of its premises is highly problematic. Similar results are achieved for other forms of truth skepticism.
Lessons of the Liar
Authors: Soames Scott
Published: October 2003

In proving that the language of arithmetic does not contain its own truth predicate, Tarski demonstrated that the claim that a language both satisfies certain minimal conditions and contains its own truth predicate leads to a contradiction – a result that can seem puzzling in light of the fact that it seems obvious that English does satisfy the relevant conditions, while containing its own truth predicate (though of course this cannot be). Chapter 5 explores the well‐known response to this problem (a version of the Liar paradox), which maintains that English is really an infinite hierarchy of languages defined by a hierarchy of Tarski‐style truth predicates. The construction of the hierarchy is explained, and the ways in which it is used to block different versions of the paradox are illustrated. The discussion then turns to problems with the approach, the most serious being the irresistible urge to violate the hierarchy's restrictions on intelligibility in the very process of setting it up – something we tend to forget because we imagine ourselves taking a position outside the hierarchy from which it can be described. Once we realize that the hierarchy is supposed to apply to the language we are using to describe it, the paradox returns with a vengeance, threatening to destroy the very construction that was introduced to avoid it.
Nature's Garden
Authors: Cladis Mark S.
Published: October 2003

Focuses on life in the Garden, or in what philosophers commonly call the state of nature. Its inhabitants – Rousseau's Solitaires, the imaginary human species that inhabited the state of nature – have as much to tell us about association as about solitude. Rousseau came to realize that alone, as radical solitaires, although we are protected from much pain, we can be neither truly happy nor moral. In the company of others, however, even as we seek to do good, we risk inflicting harm. Rousseau's response to this dilemma illuminates a salient feature of modern liberal society: the more we seek to do good, the more we risk doing evil; or, conversely, the more we avoid such risk, the more we dodge our moral obligations.
From the Garden to the Blessed Country
Authors: Cladis Mark S.
Published: October 2003

Charts the course of the Fall from the simple contentment, invulnerability, and innocence of the Garden to the complex gratifications, vulnerability, and corruption of the City. This is a story of costly progress: the Solitaire must sacrifice itself in order to release its inner potential for development, and thereby give birth to a new creation, the social human. The Fall is cast in seven stages that are based on Rousseau's discourse, “On the Origin of Inequality.” The first four stages are considered in Ch. 3, concluding with stage four, the Second Garden, which represents Rousseau's vision of happy humans precariously balanced between solitude and community, invulnerability and vulnerability, and independence and dependence.
Overcoming Moral Evil
Authors: Cladis Mark S.
Published: October 2003

Rousseau is often celebrated or cursed as an exemplar Enlightenment philosopher who declared that although humans are naturally good, society tampers with us and thereby corrupts us. Although Rousseau's complex and even contradictory writings engender disagreement among his interpreters, all seem to agree that Rousseau spurned any notion of original sin – of innate corruption – and that he blamed corrupt, irrational social institutions for the majority of our miseries. Ch. 6 argues, however, that this standard interpretation of Rousseau's account of evil is too facile. Rousseau positioned himself at the crossroads of Enlightenment and Augustinian thought, and this awkward position enabled him to produce a rich and complex view on the nature of evil and human culpability. We will see that, in Rousseau's view, humans naturally gather and court harm, and that, in spite of this pessimism, Rousseau could also optimistically declare God's creation and human existence to be good.
The Mountain Village
Authors: Cladis Mark S.
Published: October 2003

Explores the way of Clarens, or the Mountain Village. In the Mountain Village of Rousseau's Julie; or, The New Eloise, self‐sufficient families enjoy community life, agreeable work, and natural beauty. Clarens has much to teach us about what we may hope for from family and friends, from local community, and from those intermediate spheres where the lines between public and private are not stark, where individuals can gather and share their different yet related lives. Rousseau's most cherished ideals are found on this path, and they are incarnated in his most famous woman character, Julie. Yet the way of Clarens has no political life, no government or culture to safeguard individual rights. Hence we should fear anything resembling a national Clarens. Clarens, like Rousseau's other paths, remains partial, incomplete, and provisional.
Conclusion
Authors: Cladis Mark S.
Published: October 2003

Can we achieve a common life and also support thriving private lives? In this concluding chapter, I ask if Rousseau held a dominant, normative view that informed his various depictions of social and personal health and healing. Finally, I suggest what Rousseau has to offer to us, to practitioners of twenty‐first century democracy. It is precisely the chaos of Rousseau's life and tangles of his thought that make him useful for exploring the irregular contours of the public and private. The tensions and complexities of life alone and life together branded, seared, his work. Self‐possession and civic participation, private safety and public belonging, personal aesthetics and shared pleasures – these goals, commitments, and ideals animated Rousseau as he sought to capture them, all of them, in his life and thought. His failures are evident enough. But the attempt remains worthwhile.
South Africa: The Role of Peace and Conflict‐Resolution Organizations in the Struggle Against Apartheid
Authors: Taylor Rupert
Published: October 2003

Participation in civil society was one of the few options for the pursuit of peaceful progressive change in apartheid South Africa, and a range of peace and conflict‐resolution organizations (P/CROs) explored this option. These P/CROs were staffed mainly by middle class, white, university educated, English‐speaking males, exhibited significant levels of formalization and centralization, depended heavily on international funding, and were often harassed by the apartheid state. P/CROs were active in antimilitarization activities, mediation, promoting contact between white and black communities, encouraging dialog between elites, and research. Extensive links developed amongst P/CROs, between P/CROs and other kinds of antiapartheid nongovernmental organizations, and between some P/CROs and the mass‐based resistance movements; collectively, these organizations formed a “multiorganizational field.” P/CROs, in concert with the rest of the multiorganizational field, helped project an “emergent reality” – a nonracial and democratic South Africa; established channels of communication between the apartheid state and the resistance movement; and ripened the climate for political change.
Peace and Conflict‐Resolution Organizations in Northern Ireland
Authors: Cochrane Feargal , Dunn Seamus
Published: October 2003

The “democratic deficit” and significant British and European financial support for civil society have led to the growth of a large voluntary sector in Northern Ireland, including a diverse collection of peace and conflict‐resolution organizations (P/CROs). P/CROs in Northern Ireland were founded to deal with the symptoms of the conflict, not its real or perceived causes, and member characteristics were largely determined by which symptoms P/CROs focused on; however, most members were broadly left leaning. Some P/CROs targeted specific communities, some sought to influence a broader audience, and others did both. While smaller, less formal P/CROS needed little income, larger groups required more funding, and sometimes had to professionalize in order to secure it, although relationships with funders tended to be relaxed. While P/CROs clearly had no direct impact on the peace process, they did introduce an “inclusivist” philosophy into the political arena, encouraged political debate, and provided an extra tier of progressive leadership.
The Significance of Free Will
Authors: Kane Robert
Published: October 2003

The first of two goals of this book is to provide a critical survey of the major debates about free will and determinism of the past quarter century, a period during which there have been many new developments in the study of this ancient philosophical problem. The book seeks to acquaint readers with current debates and new developments on free will, showing their relevance to broad contemporary concerns in ethics, politics, science, religion, and humanities. The second goal of the book is to defend a traditional view of free will and moral responsibility, according to which both are incompatible with determinism. In response to claims that such a traditional view of free will (often nowadays called an “incompatibilist” or “libertarian” view) has no place in the modern scientific picture of the world, the book argues that a nondeterminist conception of free will can be defended without the usual appeals to obscure or mysterious forms of agency and can be reconciled with recent developments in the sciences – physical, biological, neurological, cognitive, and behavioral. The book also discusses the relation of free will to other important topics, such as morality, dignity, rationality, creativity, autonomy, desert, causation, consciousness, alternative possibilities, explanations of action, reasons for action, practical reason, weakness of will, incommensurability of values, and others.
Responsibility
Authors: Kane Robert
Published: October 2003

It is argued on historical grounds that two criteria for free will have led people to suppose it must be incompatible with determinism. The first and most commonly discussed of these criteria is the requirement of avoidability or “alternative possibilities” (AP) (that one who acts from free will must have the power to do otherwise or “could have done otherwise”). The second criterion is less commonly discussed, but I argue that it is the more important and central requirement for free will: “ultimate responsibility” (UR), being the ultimate originator or creator of one's own purposes, character, and achievements. This obscure, but pivotal, notion of ultimate responsibility, and the related notion of ultimate origination, are analyzed and their relation to the historical problem of free will is explained.
Alternative Possibilities
Authors: Kane Robert
Published: October 2003

This chapter analyzes the latest arguments for and against the claim that determinism is incompatible with free will that rely on the first criterion for free will – alternative possibilities (AP), or the “power to do otherwise.” The chapter begins by considering the most discussed argument for the incompatibility of free will and determinism based on AP, called the “Consequence Argument” by Peter van Inwagen. Current debates about this Consequence Argument are thoroughly canvassed; and in the process, various views are critically discussed concerning the meaning of power, ability, “can,” “could have done otherwise,” laws of nature, changing the past, and other notions. Compatibilist analyses of these notions (analyses that would render free will compatible with determinism) are critically examined.
Efforts, Purposes, and Practical Reason
Authors: Kane Robert
Published: October 2003

The task of constructing an indeterminist account of free will without appeal to obscure or mysterious notions of agency or causation (begun in Ch. 8) is continued in this chapter. The theory is extended to additional topics beyond free choices in moral and prudential contexts, for example, to “efforts of will sustaining purposes” that may be involved in different human activities where resistance in the will must be overcome, to acts of attention, to self‐control and self‐modification, practical deliberation, creative problem solving and changes of intention in action. Along the way, a number of other topics are discussed: evolution and rationality, the role of chance in problem solving, self‐deception, the role of “effort” in Eastern philosophies, such as Taoism, and the relation of incommensurability of values to free will.
Conclusion
Authors: Kane Robert
Published: October 2003

This chapter considers the broader philosophical and cultural implications of the ideas and theory of free will presented in this book. Topics discussed include: social and political freedoms, value pluralism, free will and the moral law (with comparisons to Kant's views), utopias and totalitarianism, behavioral engineering and control, the theories of American pragmatism, value empiricism, John Stuart Mill on liberty and happiness, the influence of birth and upbringing on freedom and responsibility, criminal responsibility, modernity and its discontents.
The Lord's Day
Authors: Tucker Karen B. Westerfield
Published: October 2003

From the earliest days, Methodists debated the virtues of freedom of liturgical expression versus uniformity in worship achieved by adherence to standard patterns. The issue never resolved; rather, Methodists chose to live with the tension. Worship for morning, afternoon, and evening on the Lord's Day could therefore be a simple and informal service of the word, or it could have fuller content with a more complex and formal shape. Over the generations, denominationally approved orders of worship became increasingly elaborate. Such was the case even for Sunday School worship, which often imitated the shape of the morning worship service.
The Lord's Supper
Authors: Tucker Karen B. Westerfield
Published: October 2003

Methodism arguably became a separate denomination in response to the desire for the “constant communion” advocated by John Wesley. Yet, the frequency of reception varied over the years because of theological, social, and geographical factors. Even though the eucharistic rite inherited from Wesley was left largely unaltered until the twentieth century, Methodists debated other matters related to the Lord's Supper. These included the presence of Christ in the sacrament, admission to the table (“open” versus “close” communion), the composition of the communion elements (e.g., wine or grape juice), and the method of reception.
The Music of Methodist Worship
Authors: Tucker Karen B. Westerfield
Published: October 2003

Singing and meditating upon hymns has been a characteristic of Methodism since its beginning. Hymnals functioned both as prayer books and as theological primers; changing patterns and emphases in the organization of the official hymnals testify to shifts in perspectives, piety, and practices. The evolution of the hymn books, tune books, and music practices also reveal a tendency to adapt to the broader culture, though these changes did not come without controversy. Prohibitions against the use of choirs (in favor of congregational singing) and musical instruments were soon relaxed, and various popular musical styles were adopted.
A House for Worship
Authors: Tucker Karen B. Westerfield
Published: October 2003

The space where praise and prayer are offered not only signifies shelter from the elements but also represents an integral aspect of the worship itself. Methodist liturgical spaces evolved as denominations grew in membership and liturgies developed; attention to architecture and aesthetics coincided with interest in “enriched” worship. Stone and wood edifices designed according to popular architectural styles soon replaced plain preaching houses and log chapels. Pew rentals were sometimes – albeit controversially – established to cover the expense. The interior disposition might be longitudinally oriented and pulpit‐centered or designed according to an auditorium plan or divided chancel arrangement. Rites for the laying of a cornerstone and for the consecration or dedication of buildings were formulated. These had a practical function, yet they also identified Methodist understandings of the purpose of a house for worship.
Singing the Body of God
Authors: Hopkins Steven Paul
Published: October 2003

This is the first full‐length study of the devotional poetry and poetics of the fourteenth‐century poet–philosopher Vedåntadeóika, one of the most outstanding and influential figures in the Hindu tradition of àrâ‐Vaióïavism (the cult of Lord Vishnu and his consort Lakómâ or àrâ), a tradition that affirms both vernacular Tamil poems of ninth‐ and tenth‐century saint‐poets (the Çôvårs) and the Sanskrit Vedas as an Ubhaya or “dual” Vedånta. Long after his death, Vedåntadeóika was claimed as the founding Çcårya (sectarian preceptor) of the Vaìakalai or “Northern School” of àrâvaióïavism, associated with the holy city of Kåñcâpuram.

Singing the Body of God is a comparative study of the Sanskrit, Prakãit, and Tamil poems composed by Vedåntadeóika in praise of important Vaióïava shrines and their icons – poems that are considered to be the apogee of South Indian devotional literature. This book examines the varied ways in which Vedåntadeóika, the philosopher and logician, works his thought through the distinctive – at times antithetical – medium of the poem. It also gives particular attention to the poems’ emotional and visionary center of gravity: the different temple images of Lord Vishnu, referred to by the poet simply as the various “lovely bodies” of God. Singing the Body of God brings to light a unique example of the creative synthesis of the Sanskrit and Tamil traditions in Medieval Tamil Nadu, and makes an important contribution to our understanding of intellectual and religious vernacularism and “cosmopolitanism” in pre‐modern South Asia.
Between Two Dynasties
Authors: Hopkins Steven Paul
Published: October 2003

After an account of a typical popular narrative about Vedåntadeóika told around the precincts of a temple, Chapter Two discusses the traditional sacred biographies (prabhåvams), temple chronicles, narrative stotras, the drama (nåìya) of Kalidasa, Bhavabhäti, and Vedåntadeóika, and important inscriptional sources that give us a sense of the poet‐philosopher's place in history between two of the most important South Indian dynasties of the “late medieval” period, that of the Cêöas and Vijayanagar. The analysis uses various methodological sources, from Robert Alter and Hayden White, to the work of D.C. Sircar and V.N. Hari Rao, to speak about the importance of inscriptions, “sacred biography,” and the theme of “history” in pre‐modern South Asian sectarian traditions

This chapter relates how Vedåntadeóika was a politically transitional figure. Though he is emphatically seen by his tradition as a sacred “temple” and not a secular “court” poet, we see, at least in two àrâraígam inscriptions attributed to him as well as in his relationship with a young Telugu prince, that he put some of the weight of his religious authority behind the emerging Vijayanagar empire. His praise of a victorious brahman general of Vijayanagar at àrâraígam after the Muslim raids of the South anticipates alliances of secular and religious power commonplace among Çcåryas of his own community a generation later..
The Tears of Brahmā
Authors: Hopkins Steven Paul
Published: October 2003

After a brief survey of the history of vernacular bhakti literature in South India, Hindus, Jains, and Buddhists and the Tamil “cosmopolitan vernacular,” this chapter attempts to assess the riches of Vedåntadeóika's Tamil writing by looking at a long prabandham, the Meyviratamåúmiyam (“The Splendor of the City of True Vows”), a narrative account of the creator god Brahmå's building of the shrine at Kåñcâ and his grand sacrificial ritual performed for the sake of a vision of “Kaïïaú,” Vishnu‐Krishna, the Lord Varadaråja Perumåö at Kåñcâpuram. Chapter also includes analysis of Vedåntadeóika's maïipravåöa auto‐commentary on this poem (the Attikiri Måhåtmyam), which sheds light on the intimate relationship between poetry and commentary in the work of Vedåntadeóika. In this and in the following chapter, the study attempts to locate Deóika's poetics of devotion by using traditional Dravidian categories of feeling: the puõam, or “external,” “public” realm of heroic discourse, and the akam, or “interior,” “private” realm of love.

Creative but careful use of these traditional categories reveals in a way no other mode of analysis can the richness of Vedåntadeóika's devotional vocabulary in Tamil — a richness that also pervades his work in other genres and other languages. A close thematic and philological reading and poetic translation of the Meyviratamåúmiyam reveals this poem as dominated by motifs of the puõam genre, one that emphasizes the royal, “external”/heroic/public, historical, and “majestic” aspects of this form of Vishnu. Vishnu not as lover, but as King.
A God from Toe to Crown
Authors: Hopkins Steven Paul
Published: October 2003

Chapter Five considers an example of Vedåntadeóika's Sanskrit style by way of his dhyåna‐stotra modelled after the Tamil poem of the Untouchable saint‐poet Tiruppåïåôvår. It focuses on a particular type of poetic writing in Tamil and in Sanskrit, the pådådikeóa anubhava or “limb‐by‐limb” “enjoyment” of the body of God, with related examples from Kålidåsa, the gadyas of Råmånuja and Tantra texts. This focus on the anubhava reveals another facet of Deóika's devotional poetics, from the Sanskrit side, and shows more concretely how his poetic voice compares with that of an Çôvår. The anubhava also reveals the cultic context of so many of Vedåntadeóika's poems: here you have a supreme example of the temple icon viewed devotionally as the living “body of god,” and the successive descriptive form of the poem as a kind of “icon of an icon.” Along with an analysis of these poems, exploration of the themes of bhakti as kåma (desire, passion) and the erotics of “double‐entendre” (óleóålaõkåra), the chapter takes a close look at some commentarial texts, both on Vedåntadeóika and by Vedåntadeóika himself on Tiruppåï's poem.
The Dark Blue Flame of the Sacrifice
Authors: Hopkins Steven Paul
Published: October 2003

After a discussion of the place of the Tamil Çôvårs in his Sanskrit stotras, Chapter Six is a close thematic reading of selections from Vedåntadeóika's Varadaråjapañcåóat in Sanskrit to Varadaråjaperumåö in Kåñcâpuram. The reading treats the stotra as a “theology in miniature,” treating various themes, from self‐effort, the experience of helplessness or worthlessness (akiñcanatvam), “tender love without pretext” (avyåja vatsalyam) and the “rival” theology of the Teúkalai Çcåryas, tensions between poetry and philosophy, the temple icon as the “body of god,” the uses of double‐entendre, and a theology of “beauty untouched by thought.” The chapter also contains a reading of images from the esoteric ritual texts, the Påñcaråtra Çgamas, and how they operate within the semantic registers of the poem. Ultimately, this praise of Varadaråja in Sanskrit follows closely the vision of the Tamil “Splendor,” studied in Chapter Three: Varadaråja emerges as a God‐King, with royal imagery, to be venerated from a distance, and not like Devanåyaka, the intimate Beloved who Himself draws the poet into a love drama.
An Ornament for Jewels
Authors: Hopkins Steven Paul
Published: October 2003

After recalling themes of “emotional” bhakti in the Tamil poems for Devanåyaka at Tiruvahândrapuram, Chapter Seven is a close reading of selected passages from Vedåntadeóika's Sanskrit and Måhåråóìrâ Pråkrit poems to Devanåyaka, the Devanåyakapañcåóat and the Acyutaóatakam, respectively. We see in these Sanskrit and Pråkrit poems for Devanåyaka what we saw in his Tamil poems for the same god: how creatively Deóika transforms the resources of a secular poetics of love — in this case, the many valences of óãígåra rasa, or the aesthetic experience of the erotic — into hymns praising the beautiful body of god. This chapter's close reading also provides a recapitulation of the main themes of the book, including the theology of place and the “real presence” of Vishnu in the shrine and icon, the anubhava as “verbal icon” of the body of the god, the erotics of bathing, surrender (prapatti) and “worthlessness” (akiñcanatvam), salvific beauty, and the linking of the “emotional” and “intellectual” in Vedåntadeóika's bhakti poetics.
Conclusion
Authors: Hopkins Steven Paul
Published: October 2003

The Conclusion takes note, in a discursive way, with an eye to methodological issues, of some of the most important themes the book has touched upon, summarizing what might be termed the patterns of Deóika's devotional poetics in Tamil, Sanskrit, and Pråkrit, and placing his work within south Indian bhakti literatures. Themes include Sanskrit and the “cosmopolitan vernacular” (Tamil and Pråkrit), the “philosopher as poet,” bhakti themes of the shrine and its sacred locale, icon, temple and päjå (temple ritual veneration), anubhavas, a theology of beauty, divine absence and “emotionalism,” Vedåntadeóika's creative synthesis of philosophy and poetry, and his affirmation of the distinct powers of his three working languages.
God's Hiddenness, Freedom to Believe, and Attitude Problems
Authors: McKim Robert
Published: October 2003

Some propose that God must be hidden if we are to exercise control over whether we believe that God exists and that our ability to exercise such control is an important good of mystery. All versions of this proposal assume volitionalism, the view that we are able to exercise some control over whether we believe. The more plausible versions assume indirect volitionalism, the view that this control is indirect. Some versions say that it is especially valuable for people to believe that God exists in conditions in which there is religious ambiguity – conditions in which both belief and unbelief are rational. The most plausible versions of this proposal add that there are certain attitudes that inhibit theistic belief, whereas other attitudes facilitate it.
Trust and Other Goods of Mystery
Authors: McKim Robert
Published: October 2003

It is unlikely that trust in God is an important good of mystery. Various other putative goods of mystery also are unpromising. These include the alleged good of our engaging in a search for the truth about the existence of God and the alleged good of religious diversity – the point in the latter case being that if the facts of the matter with respect to religion were plain for all to see, there would not be the current rich variety of traditions. The same goes for the claim that God is worthy of worship only if God is hidden. More promising is the possibility that there are “unknown goods of mystery” – goods of mystery that we do not know of, perhaps because we are unable to comprehend them.
Religious Diversity
Authors: McKim Robert
Published: October 2003

Religious traditions disagree deeply about religious matters. And in many religious traditions there are to be found wise people who think carefully and judiciously, who are intelligent, clever, honest, reflective, serious, and so on. This is a fact of religious disagreement. This disagreement is in fact part of the evidence for the religious ambiguity of the world. In addition, disagreement about an issue or area of inquiry provides reason to think that each side has an obligation to adopt the “Critical Stance” with respect to that issue or area of enquiry. The Critical Stance has two main components: the “E‐principle,” which states that each side has an obligation to examine their beliefs, and the “T‐principle,” which states that, given disagreement, each side should hold its beliefs tentatively.
The Critical Stance I
Authors: McKim Robert
Published: October 2003

Tentative belief involves recognition that the belief in question may need revision and may even be false. It is sometimes said that religious faith requires complete confidence and that religious belief is incompatible with the critical self‐scrutiny that I am advocating. However, tentative religious belief is sufficient to sustain many important forms of religious commitment.
The Critical Stance II
Authors: McKim Robert
Published: October 2003

The religious ambiguity of the world provides reason to adopt the Critical Stance. In addition, we display respect for others, and appreciation of them as people who acquire and hold their beliefs in a responsible fashion, by adopting the Critical Stance with respect to whatever religious beliefs we may hold.
Alston on Religious Experience
Authors: McKim Robert
Published: October 2003

The analysis of perceptual religious experience proposed by William Alston does not undermine the case for the Critical Stance. On the contrary, religious diversity is a more serious problem for his doxastic practice epistemology than he recognizes. In general, the outputs of doxastic practices that are functioning in conditions of ambiguity, and in conditions in which there is disagreement, ought to be viewed with some suspicion, even by those who engage in the practices in question.
Revenge & Justice
Authors: Schimmel Solomon
Published: October 2003

Examines the emotion of revenge from biological, psychological, biblical, Jewish, Christian, and philosophical perspectives, and the relationship between revenge, retribution, and justice. The author explores the dual ethic, which condemns vengeance against members of one's own group but not against “the other”, and discusses the relationship between the desire for vengeance and the Christian concept of Hell. The chapter concludes with a discussion of “grudge theory” – why we maintain grudges, and the benefits and liabilities of doing so for the grudge holder.
Forgiving Oneself & Forgiving God
Authors: Schimmel Solomon
Published: October 2003

This chapter analyzes two special cases of forgiveness, forgiving oneself and forgiving God, from logical, moral, and psychological perspectives. The author presents arguments that have been put forward in favor of and in opposition to encouraging people who have wronged others, and who experience guilt for having done so, to forgive themselves. The author finds the arguments against self‐forgiveness to be more compelling than those in favor of it, except where the wrongdoer's sense of guilt is out of proportion to the injuries he caused, or when he has sincerely repented and done what is within his capacity to make reparation for or rectify the harm he caused, and is hence entitled to be forgiven.

With respect to forgiving God, when an individual is angry at God for what appears to be unjustified suffering he or she has experienced, the author distinguishes between abstract conceptions of God, as transcendent, just, benevolent, omnipotent, and often inscrutable, which would make anger at God and forgiving him conceptually meaningless, and the phenomenology of experiencing God as immanent, and as a personality with emotions and with whom one can have a personal relationship, in which case anger at God and forgiving him are psychologically understandable and meaningful emotional reactions, even though they are not necessarily logically tenable.
The Essence of Repentance
Authors: Schimmel Solomon
Published: October 2003

This chapter traces the development of the concept and religious value of repentance in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament) as applied to human‐divine and to human–human relationships. The chapter then focuses on repentance in interpersonal relationships, analyzing the psychological aspects of repentance, including acknowledgment of wrongdoing, remorse, and guilt, and its behavioral requirements, such as apology and reparation. It compares and contrasts the understandings of repentance in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, and uses Shakespeares's Macbeth and other literary works to help illuminate its emotional and psychological dimensions. Other topics discussed are repentance as a transformation of one's character and value system, why it is so difficult to repent, how to get oneself to repent, and the role that repentance, as a religious or as a secular value, can play in psychotherapy.
Knowing People
Authors: Dalmiya Vrinda
Published: October 2003

Makes a case for redirecting epistemology by basing it on a virtue approach and the method of care. According to virtue epistemology, what confers epistemic value are properties of the epistemic subject: his or her epistemic character, belief‐forming habits, and cognitive dispositions. The method of care is a complex, interactive process of acquiring justified beliefs or knowledge, a process that integrates the subject into a social and ethical context. Starting out with a discussion of knowledge of other minds, the writer moves on to an examination of the role the knowing self plays within the kind of epistemology she wishes to advocate. One important element of that kind of epistemology is epistemic responsibility, understood not as epistemic duty fulfillment but instead as the endeavor to cultivate and reinforce attitudes that are deemed admirable in the epistemic community.
Shenoute and the Women of the White Monastery
Authors: Krawiec Rebecca
Published: October 2003

Analyzes the evidence for the lives of women living in the White Monastery, located in upper Egypt, under its third abbot, Shenoute, who served from 385–464 c.e. Several of Shenoute's letters, which were written in Coptic and survive in fragmentary form, address periods of conflict either between female monks or between the female community and Shenoute. As a result, they differ in genre from any other evidence of female monasticism in late antiquity and so present a unique corpus of material for investigation. A key issue pertains to Shenoute's efforts to establish his monastic authority over the women's community, which was physically separate from the men's, and the evidence for the women's acceptance and resistance to that expansion. I then argue that gender analysis reveals that Shenoute regarded his efforts as part of the creation of a universal monasticism, which had uniform requirements for male and female monks, including the controversial subject of corporal punishment. It simultaneously reveals, however, points of gender asymmetry, and so inequity, within monastic authority and practices, some promoted by Shenoute and some by the women themselves. Finally, Shenoute's use of the family as a model for the monastery helped him create kinship bonds among all monks, both those who had left their families and those who brought their relatives with them. Like gender, with which the family is intimately connected, this model also allows Shenoute to negotiate tensions and contradictions using egalitarian language while simultaneously constructing patriarchal authority.
Gender and Monasticism in Late Antiquity
Authors: Krawiec Rebecca
Published: October 2003

The coexistence of two apparently contradictory attitudes towards gender in Shenoute's monasticism engage the variety of literature describing female monastic experiences in late antiquity. This chapter describes the evidence for Egyptian monasticism, including virgins living in the cities, the desert mothers of Upper Egypt, and the female community under Pachomius; the dual monasteries of Jerome and Paula in Palestine; and a letter by Augustine written to a female monastery undergoing conflicts of leadership similar to Shenoute's. I conclude that the different nature of the various sources make a one‐to‐one comparison difficult but that, in general, Shenoute seems to have been more willing than his male counterparts to be intimately involved in the female community. I then examine another gender issue of late antique Christianity, namely, the role of eunuchs, especially those who voluntarily castrate themselves. Here I argue that Shenoute was unable to tolerate the presence of these individuals because their sexual ambiguity called into question the essentialism of gender in the construction of the self, as well as the gendered foundations of the monastery.
Women's Role in the Monastic Family
Authors: Krawiec Rebecca
Published: October 2003

I argue that in terms of both language and function, the White Monastery becomes a monastic family that replaces, in an idealized form, the families the monks are to have renounced. The use of kinship language allows Shenoute to stress egalitarian relationships, where all monks including Shenoute are “brethren,” even as he also uses particularly female metaphors of childbirth and infertility to define the proper monastic life. In addition, Shenoute's use of familial imagery allows him to create a genealogy that traces the monks’ “ancestry” to past biblical figures. I then move to an investigation of points of comparison between the Egyptian family and the monastery – that both provide food, clothing, shelter, and emotional support – to show how the family was a model for the monastery. Of particular importance is the shared expectation that the women's role in both was to provide clothing, thus allowing gendered, indeed patriarchal, aspects of the nonmonastic family to affect the monastery.
Regulating Religion
Authors: Cookson Catharine
Published: October 2003

Religious free exercise conflicts occur when religiously compelled behavior (whether action or inaction) appears to violate a law that contraindicates or even criminalizes such behavior. Fearful of the anarchy of religious conscience, the U.S. Supreme Court opted instead for authoritarianism in this church and state matter: The state's need for civil order is conclusively presumed to be achieved by enforcing uniform obedience to generally applicable laws, and thus legislation must trump the human and constitutional right to religious freedom. Rejecting the Court's unthinking rigorism, the book more appropriately views a free exercise case as a conflict of principles or “goods”: the basic constitutional and human right to freedom of conscience and religious freedom versus the societal good furthered and protected by the legislation. The book recommends an alternative analytical free exercise process grounded within the common law tradition as well as social ethics: casuistry. Casuistical reasoning requires a careful analysis of the particulars and factual context of the case, and relies upon analogies and paradigmatic illustrations to get to the heart of the principles at issue. The book furthermore explores the panoply of theories, self‐understandings, typologies, contexts, and societal constructs at play in free exercise conflicts, and in the final chapters applies casuistry to two free exercise situations, spiritual healing methods applied to children, and ingestion of sacramental peyote in Native American Church rituals.
Introduction
Authors: Cookson Catharine
Published: October 2003

Often, competing worldviews or “frameworks” (as described by political philosopher Charles Taylor) are at the heart of free exercise conflicts. This chapter uses the trope or myth of “wilderness” as a tool for understanding how the same concept can be interpreted in contrary ways: wilderness as a holy place of purification, as an empty place to cultivate and make bloom, or as a dangerous, licentious, uncontrolled place where anarchy rules. The myth enables us to understand how people can approach the same activity/phenomenon with such drastically different unexamined assumptions, and how there may be different ramifications, meanings, and consequences depending upon the framework in which the religious behavior is initially and intuitively viewed.
The Process of Casuistry
Authors: Cookson Catharine
Published: October 2003

Examines and describes in detail the casuistical method of conflict resolution, noting the importance of principles, paradigms, presumptions, analogies, and “the particulars.” Casuistry is neither a technical loophole, nor a laxity born out of sympathy, nor anarchical relativism. These criticisms (which also include fear of the “abuse of casuistry” and of the “slippery slope”) are directly addressed. The chapter concludes that the process of casuistry achieves principled justice between the competing goods at issue in free exercise conflicts.