Dynamics in the History of Religions Between Asia and Europe Dynamics in the History of Religions

Dynamics in the History of Religions between Asia and Europe Dynamics in the History of Religions Editors-in-Chief Volkhard Krech Marion Steinicke Ruhr-University Bochum, Germany Advisory Board Jan Assmann – Christopher Beckwith – Rémi Brague José Casanova – Angelos Chaniotis – Peter Schäfer Peter Skilling – Guy Stroumsa – Boudewijn Walraven VOLUME 1 Dynamics in the History of Religions between Asia and Europe Encounters, Notions, and Comparative Perspectives Edited by Volkhard Krech Marion Steinicke LEIDEN • BOSTON 2012 Th is book is printed on acid-free paper. ISSN 1878-8106 ISBN 978 90 04 18500 5 (hardback) ISBN 978 90 04 22535 0 (e-book) Copyright 2012 by Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, Th e Netherlands. Koninklijke Brill NV incorporates the imprints Brill, Global Oriental, Hotei Publishing, IDC Publishers, Martinus Nijhoff Publishers and VSP. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission from the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items for internal or personal use is granted by Koninklijke Brill NV provided that the appropriate fees are paid directly to Th e Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 910, Danvers, MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. CONTENTS Introduction ...................................................................................... 1 Marion Steinicke Dynamics in the History of Religions – Preliminary Considerations on Aspects of a Research Programme .............. 15 Volkhard Krech PART ONE THE FORMATION OF THE MAJOR RELIGIOUS TRADITIONS THROUGH INTER-RELIGIOUS CONTACT Dynamic Approaches to Antique Religions in the East and West. Beyond Centres and Boundaries .................................................... 73 Peter Wick Religious Formations and Intercultural Contacts in Early China ................................................................................... 85 Victor H. Mair A comment on Victor H. Mair’s “Religious Formations and Intercultural Contacts in Early China” .................................. 111 Heiner Roetz Kings, Ascetics, and Brahmins: The Socio-Political Context of Ancient Indian Religions ............................................................ 117 Patrick Olivelle Did the Buddha Emerge from a Brahmanic Environment? The Early Buddhist Evaluation of “Noble Brahmins” and the “Ideological System” of Brahmanism .............................. 137 Jens Schlieter The History of Religions as a Subversive Discipline: Comparing Judaism, Christianity and Islam ................................ 149 Guy G. Stroumsa vi Contents Whirlpool Effects and Religious Studies. A Response to Guy G. Stroumsa .................................................... 159 Sarah Stroumsa PART TWO CONTACTS BETWEEN THE MAJOR RELIGIOUS TRADI- TIONS DURING THEIR EXPANSION Contacts between the Major Religious Traditions during their Expansion. An Introduction .................................... 165 Nikolas Jaspert The Jewish Reaction to the Islamic Conquests ............................ 177 Michael Lecker Christian Reactions to Muslim Conquests (1st–3rd Centuries AH; 7th–9th Centuries AD) ....................................................................... 191 John Tolan Intercultural Encounter in the History of Political Thought Christian Wolff, Chŏng Yag-yong and Matteo Ricci .................. 203 Eun-jeung Lee Jesuit Mission in Korean Studies. A Response to Eun-jeung Lee ........................................................ 217 Michael Lackner The Expansion of Buddhism in South and Southeast Asia ....... 223 Stephen C. Berkwitz Response: The Expansion of Buddhism in South and Southeast Asia ........................................................................... 235 Sven Bretfeld PART THREE THE NOTION OF RELIGION AND RELIGIOUS SEMANTICS IN A CROSS-CULTURAL PERSPECTIVE Religion to the Power of Three ....................................................... 243 Lucian Hölscher Contents vii World Religions and the Theory of the Axial Age ...................... 255 Jan Assmann Chinese History and Writing about ‘Religion(s)’: Reflections at a Crossroad ............................................................... 273 Robert Ford Campany A Response to Robert Ford Campany’s “Chinese History and its Implications for Writing ‘Religion(s)’” ............................. 295 Russell T. McCutcheon Terminology and Religious Identity: Buddhism and the Genealogy of the Term Zongjiao ................ 307 Tim H. Barrett and Francesca Tarocco Canon and Identity in Indian Esoteric Buddhism as the Confluence of Cultures ........................................................ 321 Ronald M. Davidson The Christian Canon in a Comparative Perspective. A Response to Ronald M. Davidson ............................................. 343 Markus Zehnder The Christian-Muslim Encounters on the Question of Jihad ... 363 Muhammad Aslam Syed PART FOUR RELIGION IN THE AGE OF GLOBALIZATION Shrinking World, Expanding Religion? The Dynamics of Religious Interaction in the Times of Colonialism and Globalization .............................................................................. 381 Marion Eggert On Resilience and Defiance of the Īlamtamil Resistance Movement in a Transnational Diaspora ....................................... 391 Peter Schalk Observing Religion in a Globalized World: Late Twentieth-Century Transformations .................................... 413 Peter Beyer viii Contents Religion in a Globalised World: Comments and Responses ..... 435 Ian Reader Religion, Secularization, and Sacralization ................................... 453 José Casanova MULTI-MEDIA PERFORMANCE Reflecting Religious Dynamics. Echoes from Ancient East-West Encounters ................................ 463 Heinz Georg Held Bibliography ....................................................................................... 491 Index ................................................................................................... 523 INTRODUCTION Marion Steinicke This volume documents the opening conference of the Interdiscipli- nary Consortium for Research in the Humanities “Dynamics in the History of Religions between Asia and Europe”, which took place from 15 to 17 October 2008 in the Ruhr University Bochum’s conference centre. The Bochum consortium is the result of an initiative by Prof. Dr Volkhard Krech, who submitted a corresponding bid to the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. This bid was approved in November 2007. By April 2008 the consortium was already able to start work. It is thus one of the first of the now ten consortia of this funding format, which is designed to create a “free space” for outstanding scholars specifically for their interdisciplinary research by exempting them from other university commitments. Overall, the funding from the Federal Ministry of Education and Research aims to intensify the work in humanities disciplines and raise the profile of their achievements nationally and internationally. Thanks to interdisciplinary topics, whose study provides a sound theoretical basis and at the same time is empirically and analytically differentiated, the consortia are intended to bolster interdisciplinary cooperation at universities and thus contribute to the further development of methodology in the humanities. To support this initiative, up to ten visiting scholars from around the world can be invited annually to take part in a one-year research stay. Beyond this, the project has the medium and long-term aim of fostering an intense exchange and sustained cooperation with foreign research institutions. In honour of the late philologist, literature scholar and philoso- pher Käte Hamburger, who passed away in 1992, the Interdisciplinary Consortia for Research in the Humanities were renamed the “Käte Hamburger” Consortia in 2010. Käte Hamburger is one of the most significant 20th century German scholars in the humanities. Her work “Die Logik der Dichtung” (The Logic of Literature), published in 1957, is considered a standard reference work for interdisciplinary narra- tology. During her lifetime, the author examined overarching ques- tions of philosophy, aesthetics and the history of literature, notably the relationships between literature and ethics, development trends in 2 Marion Steinicke contemporary theatre and the new medium of film and – at a time in which this was considered reprehensible rather than desirable in academic circles – always went beyond the confines of the individual specialist disciplines. As a staunch humanist and child of the Enlight- enment, she countered the dehumanisation of Western culture and a political mystification of the “German fate” – popular for a long time as a way of relieving the burden of the past – with objective, histori- cally backed and at the same time sophisticated analyses. Due to anti- Semitic tendencies and gender-specific scepticism before and after the Second World War, which Käte Hamburger spent in Swedish exile, the Jewess born in Germany was never able to establish her- self at a German University. She nonetheless untiringly continued her research. Her name reminds us that excellent research was often only possible outside of institutional and political sponsorship, and perhaps even still is, but that we should all strive to prevent scholarship in the humanities being pushed to the margins of society where the necessary

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