Perennial Pedagogy
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1.1 Biblical Wisdom
JOB, ECCLESIASTES, AND THE MECHANICS OF WISDOM IN OLD ENGLISH POETRY by KARL ARTHUR ERIK PERSSON B. A., Hon., The University of Regina, 2005 M. A., The University of Regina, 2007 A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE AND POSTDOCTORAL STUDIES (English) THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA (Vancouver) February 2014 © Karl Arthur Erik Persson, 2014 Abstract This dissertation raises and answers, as far as possible within its scope, the following question: “What does Old English wisdom literature have to do with Biblical wisdom literature?” Critics have analyzed Old English wisdom with regard to a variety of analogous wisdom cultures; Carolyne Larrington (A Store of Common Sense) studies Old Norse analogues, Susan Deskis (Beowulf and the Medieval Proverb Tradition) situates Beowulf’s wisdom in relation to broader medieval proverb culture, and Charles Dunn and Morton Bloomfield (The Role of the Poet in Early Societies) situate Old English wisdom amidst a variety of international wisdom writings. But though Biblical wisdom was demonstrably available to Anglo-Saxon readers, and though critics generally assume certain parallels between Old English and Biblical wisdom, none has undertaken a detailed study of these parallels or their role as a precondition for the development of the Old English wisdom tradition. Limiting itself to the discussion of two Biblical wisdom texts, Job and Ecclesiastes, this dissertation undertakes the beginnings of such a study, orienting interpretation of these books via contemporaneous reception by figures such as Gregory the Great (Moralia in Job, Werferth’s Old English translation of the Dialogues), Jerome (Commentarius in Ecclesiasten), Ælfric (“Dominica I in Mense Septembri Quando Legitur Job”), and Alcuin (Commentarius Super Ecclesiasten). -
Wisdom Literature
Wisdom Literature What is Wisdom Literature? “Wisdom literature” is the generic label for the books of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes (=Qoheleth) and Job in the Hebrew Bible. Two other major wisdom books, the Book of Ben Sira (=Ecclesiasticus) and the Wisdom of Solomon, are found in the Apocrypha, but are accepted as canonical in the Catholic tradition. Some psalms (e.g. 1, 19, 119) are regarded as “wisdom psalms” by analogy with the main wisdom books, and other similar writings are found in the Dead Sea Scrolls. The label derives simply from the fact that “wisdom” and “folly” are discussed frequently in these books. The designation is an old one, going back at least to St. Augustine. Wisdom is instructional literature, in which direct address is the norm. It may consist of single sentences, proverbial or hortatory, strung together, or of longer poems and discourses, some of which tend toward the philosophical. From early times, wisdom was associated with King Solomon. According to 1 Kings 4:29-34, God gave Solomon very great wisdom, discernment, and breadth of understanding as vast as the sand on the sea-shore, so that Solomon’s wisdom surpassed the wisdom of all the people of the east, and all the wisdom of Egypt . .He composed three thousand proverbs, and his songs numbered a thousand and five. He would speak of trees, from the cedar that is in the Lebanon to the hyssop that grows in the wall; he would speak of trees, from the cedar that is in the Lebanon to the hyssop that grows in the wall; he would speak of animals, and birds, and reptiles, and fish. -
Copyright by Noah Phillips 2012
Copyright By Noah Phillips 2012 Imperialism, Neo-colonialism and International Politics in Aldous Huxley’s Island By Noah Phillips, B.A. A Thesis Submitted to the Department of English California State University Bakersfield In Partial Fulfillment of the Degree of Masters of English Spring 2012 Signature Page Imperialism, Neo-colonialism and International Politics in Aldous Huxley's Island By Noah Phillips This thesis of project has been accepted on behalf of the Department of English by their supervisory committee: ' Dr. Charles C. MacQuarrie Committee Member TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION: Imperialism, Neo-colonialism and International Politics in Aldous Huxley’s Island…………………………………………………….…………………4 CHAPTER ONE: A Review of the Scholarship of Island………………………………………………………….7 CHAPTER TWO: International Politics and 20th Century History in Island: A Historicist Approach to Plot and Character………………………………………………..22 CHAPTER THREE: An Application of Dependency Theory and World Systems Analysis to the Political and Economic Arguments of Island………………………………………………………………...43 CHAPTER FOUR: CONCLUSIONS: Aldous Huxley, Political Philosopher, Novelist………………………….61 BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………………………………........67 3 INTRODUCTION Imperialism, Neo-colonialism and International Politics in Aldous Huxley’s Island The purpose of this thesis is to understand and analyze Aldous Huxley’s presentation of neo-colonialism in his utopian novel Island. Particular attention will be given to his portrayal of economic relations between first world powers and the third world in this novel. Furthermore, his fictional rendition of military intervention and foreign policy by the United States and Britain and the role it has played in the developing world during the 20th century will be the central focus of this thesis. Huxley’s claims and critique presented in Island of the process by which first world powers dominate international politics, world markets and peripheral economies through the use of military intervention and foreign policy will be supported by historical accounts. -
Growing the Tree: Early Christian Mysticism, Angelomorphic Identity, and The
ABSTRACT (Re)growing the Tree: Early Christian Mysticism, Angelomorphic Identity, and the Shepherd of Hermas By Franklin Trammell This study analyzes the Shepherd of Hermas with a focus on those elements within the text that relate to the transformation of the righteous into the androgynous embodied divine glory. In so doing, Hermas is placed within the larger context of early Jewish and Christian mysticism and its specific traditions are traced back to the Jerusalem tradition evinced in the sayings source Q. Hermas is therefore shown to preserve a very old form of Christianity and an early form of Christian mysticism. It is argued that since Hermas’ revelatory visions of the Angel of the Lord and the divine House represent the object into which his community is being transformed, already in the present, and he provides a democratized praxis which facilitates their transformation and angelomorphic identity, he is operating within the realm of early Christian mysticism. Hermas’ implicit identification of the Ecclesia with Wisdom, along with his imaging of the righteous in terms of a vine and a Tree who are in exile and whose task it is to grow the Tree, is shown to have its earlier precedent in the Q source wherein Jesus and his followers take on an angelomorphic identity with the female Wisdom of the Temple and facilitate her restoration. Hermas’ tradition of the glory as a union of the Son of God and Wisdom is also shown to have its most direct contact with the Q source, in which Wisdom and the Son are understood to be eschatologically united in the transformation of the people of God. -
Research Article
Research Article Journal of Global Buddhism 2 (2001): 139 - 161 Zen in Europe: A Survey of the Territory By Alione Koné Doctoral Candidate Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Science Sociales (Paris) [email protected] © Copyright Notes Digitial copies of this work may be made and distributed provided no charge is made and no alteration is made to the content. Reproduction in any other format with the exception of a single copy for private study requires the written permission of the author. All enquries to [email protected] http://jgb.la.psu.edu Journal of Global Buddhism 139 ISSN 1527-6457 Zen in Europe: A Survey of the Territory By Alioune Koné Doctoral Candidate Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales (Paris) [email protected] Zen has been one of the most attractive Buddhist traditions among Westerners in the twentieth century. Chinese, Vietnamese, Korean, and Japanese teachers have created European organizations in the past forty years, and some of their students have started teaching. While their American counterparts are well documented in the growing literature on the making of a Western Buddhism, the European groups are less known.(1) This paper aims at highlighting patterns of changes and adaptations of Zen Buddhism in Europe. It proposes an overview of European Zen organizations and argues that an institutional approach can highlight important aspects of the transplantation of Zen Buddhism into a new culture. A serious shortcoming of such an endeavor was pointed out in a 1993 conference held in Stockholm. A group -
“Zen Has No Morals!” - the Latent Potential for Corruption and Abuse in Zen Buddhism, As Exemplified by Two Recent Cases
“Zen Has No Morals!” - The Latent Potential for Corruption and Abuse in Zen Buddhism, as Exemplified by Two Recent Cases by Christopher Hamacher Paper presented on 7 July 2012 at the International Cultic Studies Association's annual conference in Montreal, Canada. Christopher Hamacher graduated in law from the Université de Montréal in 1994. He has practiced Zen Buddhism in Japan, America and Europe since 1999 and run his own Zen meditation group since 2006. He currently works as a legal translator in Munich, Germany. Christopher would like to thank Stuart Lachs, Kobutsu Malone and Katherine Masis for their help in writing this paper. 1 “Accusations, slander, attributions of guilt, alleged misconduct, even threats and persecution will not disturb [the Zen Master] in his practice. Defending himself would mean participating again in a dualistic game that he has moved beyond.” - Dr. Klaus Zernickow1 “It is unfair to conclude that my silence implies that I must be what the letters say I am. Indeed, in Japan, to protest too much against an accusation is considered a sign of guilt.” - Eido T. Shimano2 1. INTRODUCTION Zen Buddhism was long considered by many practitioners to be immune from the scandals that occasionally affect other religious sects. Zen’s iconoclastic approach, based solely on the individual’s own meditation experience, was seen as a healthy counterpoint to the more theistic and moralistic world-views, whose leading proponents often privately flouted the very moral codes that they preached. The unspoken assumption in Zen has always been that the meditation alone naturally freed the accomplished practitioner from life's moral quandaries, without the need for rigid rules of conduct imposed from above. -
The Perennial Philosophy and the Recovery of a Theophanic View of Nature
The Perennial Philosophy and the Recovery of a Theophanic View of Nature Jeremy Naydler The Forgotten Tradition We suffer from a peculiar kind of cultural amnesia today. Since the time of the Reformation and the Scientific Revolution, we have increasingly lost awareness of the rich wisdom tradition that for hundreds of years nourished the inner life of contemplatives and seekers of truth. This wisdom tradition is often referred to as the philosophia perennis or ‘perennial philosophy’. In both the West and East it is articulated in manifold works of spiritual philosophy, visionary poetry and mystical literature, harboured within pagan, Judaeo-Christian, Islamic, Hindu, Buddhist and Taoist worldviews, and in the oral traditions of many indigenous peoples. While it is expressed in distinctive and different ways, the perennial philosophy articulates truths that are essentially universal and timeless, which help us to understand our place in the cosmos and the deeper purpose of human life. Central to the perennial philosophy is the recognition that there is a spiritual dimension of existence that is the primary reality from which all of creation derives. All creatures seek to express in their own way this reality, and all of creation seeks ultimately to unite with it. The perennial philosophy reminds us that our fundamental orientation as human beings should be towards spirit, that we should revere the natural world as the manifestation of the divine, and that we should affirm the possibility of an ever more conscious union between ourselves and the spiritual source of existence. It is important to understand that the perennial philosophy is not a ‘philosophical system’ produced by abstract reasoning. -
The Traces of the Bhagavad Gita in the Perennial Philosophy—A Critical Study of the Gita’S Reception Among the Perennialists
religions Article The Traces of the Bhagavad Gita in the Perennial Philosophy—A Critical Study of the Gita’s Reception Among the Perennialists Mohammad Syifa Amin Widigdo 1,2 1 Faculty of Islamic Studies, Universitas Muhammadiyah Yogyakarta, Yogyakarta 55183, Indonesia; [email protected] 2 Wonderhome Library, Yogyakarta 55294, Indonesia Received: 14 April 2020; Accepted: 28 April 2020; Published: 6 May 2020 Abstract: This article studies the reception of the Bhagavad Gita within circles of Perennial Philosophy scholars and examines how the Gita is interpreted to the extent that it influenced their thoughts. Within the Hindu tradition, the Gita is often read from a dualist and/or non-dualist perspective in the context of observing religious teachings and practices. In the hands of Perennial Philosophy scholars, the Gita is read from a different angle. Through a critical examination of the original works of the Perennialists, this article shows that the majority of the Perennial traditionalists read the Gita from a dualist background but that, eventually, they were convinced that the Gita’s paradigm is essentially non-dualist. In turn, this non-dualist paradigm of the Gita influences and transforms their ontological thought, from the dualist to the non-dualist view of the reality. Meanwhile, the non-traditionalist group of Perennial Philosophy scholars are not interested in this ontological discussion. They are more concerned with the question of how the Gita provides certain ways of attaining human liberation and salvation. Interestingly, both traditionalist and non-traditionalist camps are influenced by the Gita, at the same time, inserting an external understanding and interpretation into the Gita. -
Le Syndrome Perroquet
JEAN-NOËL BLANCHETTE, M.A. Le syndrome perroquet Explorations critiques de la dimension spirituelle des arts martiaux japonais dans la culture francophone occidentale Thèse présentée à l'Université Laval comme exigence partielle du doctorat en théologie offert à l'Université de Sherbrooke en vertu d'un protocole d'entente avec l'Université Laval pour l'obtention du grade de Philosophiae Doctor (PH.D.) FACULTÉ DE THÉOLOGIE, D'ÉTHIQUE ET DE PHILOSOPHIE UNIVERSITÉ DE SHERBROOKE Octobre 2003 © Jean-Noël Blanchette, 2003 RÉSUMÉ Les arts martiaux japonais proposent différentes approches dont l’une vise le développement spirituel de l’être. Or, en s’acculturant, cette vision originale des arts martiaux n’aurait-elle pas dû s’ouvrir à d’autres horizons spirituels, tel le christianisme, par exemple? Ce n’est malheureusement pas le cas. Dans la culture francophone occidentale, l’approche spirituelle repose sur un rapport exclusif entre l’art martial et la tradition religieuse japonaise, dont le zen. L’objectif de cette recherche est d’amorcer une réflexion critique sur ce type de rapport exclusif. Pour atteindre cet objectif, après avoir exploré certaines avenues, nous avons choisi de référer à un exemple représentatif: Roland Habersetzer. Auteur de nombreux ouvrages sur les arts martiaux, Habersetzer se distingue plus particulièrement dans le domaine du karaté, où il est passé maître. Dans l’un de ses ouvrages, il oriente le discours spirituel du karaté dans un rapport exclusif avec le bouddhisme zen. Nous contestons la thèse d’Habersetzer en nous appuyant sur une relecture de la dimension spirituelle des arts martiaux japonais. À cet effet, nous avons postulé que la dimension spirituelle des arts martiaux est une création culturelle, l’aboutissement d’une tension dynamique entre deux pôles de la culture japonaise: le profane et le sacré. -
P Int Primary Volume 33 • Number 1 • Spring 2016
PRIMARY POINT® Kwan Um School of Zen 99 Pound Rd Cumberland, RI 02864-2726 CHANGE SERVICE REQUESTED Primary Primary P int P Volume 33 • Number 1 • Spring 2016 2016 Spring • 1 Number • 33 Volume Summer Kyol Che 2016 July 9 - August 5 Silent retreats including sitting, chanting, walking and bowing practice. Dharma talks and Kong An interviews. Retreats Kyol Che Visit, practice or live at the head YMJJ 401.658.1464 Temple of Americas Kwan Um One Day www.providencezen.com School of Zen. Solo Retreats [email protected] Guest Stays Residential Training Rentals PRIMARY POINT Spring 2016 Primary Point 99 Pound Road IN THIS ISSUE Cumberland RI 02864-2726 U.S.A. Telephone 401/658-1476 The Moment I Became a Monk www.kwanumzen.org Zen Master Dae Jin .....................................................................4 online archives: Visit kwanumzen.org to learn more, peruse back Biography of Zen Master Dae Jin ............................................5 issues and connect with our sangha. Funeral Ceremony and Cremation Rites for Zen Master Dae Jin ...................................................................5 Published by the Kwan Um School of Zen, a nonprofit reli- gious corporation. The founder, Zen Master Seung Sahn, 78th Bodhisattva Way Patriarch in the Korean Chogye order, was the first Korean Zen Zen Master Dae Jin .....................................................................6 Master to live and teach in the West. In 1972, after teaching in Korea and Japan for many years, he founded the Kwan Um The True Spirit of Zen sangha, which today has affiliated groups around the world. He Zen Master Dae Jin gave transmission to Zen Masters, and inka (teaching author- .....................................................................8 ity) to senior students called Ji Do Poep Sas (dharma masters). -
Aldous Huxley, Representative Man Edited by Gerhard Wagner
James Hull Aldous Huxley, Representative Man Edited by Gerhard Wagner LIT TABLE OF CONTENTS General Editors' Preface i Editor's Note ii Foreword by Robin Hull iii List of Abbreviations vi INTRODUCTION 1 PART ONE I. THE PREDESTINATION OF EVENTS 6 The Early Poems 10 II. SACRED AND PROFANE LOVE 24 Limbo 26 Crome Yellow 30 Mortal Coils 35 On the Margin 39 III. GONE ABROAD 45 Antic Hay 46 i) Paradise Lost 52 ii) Betrayal 55 iii) "What's He to Hecuba?" 57 iv) The Monster 58 v) Inferno 61 vi) The Last Ride Together 63 Little Mexican 66 IV. THE SEARCH FOR A NEW DIMENSION 78 Those Barren Leaves 78 i) "An Evening at Mrs Aldwinkle's" 78 ii) "Fragments from the Autobiography of Francis Chelifer" 82 iii) "The Loves of the Parallels" 89 iv) "The Journey" 93 Along the Road 97 Two or Three Graces 104 The Spectator: Jesting Pilate 110 i) Religion 112 ii) Art and Other Matters 114 iii) The Later Stages of the Journey 117 Proper Studies 118 i) The Idea of Equality 120 ii) Varieties of Intelligence 122 iii) The Way of the Solitary 124 iv) Personality and Ideals 126 V. LIFE WORSHIP 130 Point Counter Point 130 i) Philip and Elinor Quarles 132 ii) Returning from India 137 iii) Back Home 138 iv) Predestination 141 v) Rampion and Philip 144 vi) Walter Bidlake and the Siren 146 vii) Rachel Quarles and Marjorie Carling 150 viii) Spandrell 153 ix) Rampion 155 x) The "Spiritual Thermopylae" 160 xi) The Riddle of Burlap 163 xii) The Case of John Middleton Murry 166 xiii) Little Phil's Death 169 Do What You Will 170 i) Unity and Diversity 170 ii) The Two Humilities 174 iii) "Pascal" 176 iv) "Holy Face" 184 VI. -
Jerom E Meckier CANCER in UTOPIA: POSITIVE and NEGATIVE ELEMENTS in HUXLEY's ISLAND Fur Years Aldous Huxley Regarded Utopians Wi
Jerome Meckier CANCER IN UTOPIA: POSITIVE AND NEGATIVE ELEMENTS IN HUXLEY'S ISLAND Fur years Aldous Huxley regarded utopians with disfavor. Their countries of the mind were compensatory dreams inspired by acute disappointment with reality. "My own feeling, whenever I see a book about the Future," Huxley wrote in Do What Y vu Will," is one of boredom and exasperation. What on earth is the point of troubling one's head with speculations about what men may, but almost certainly will not, be like in A.D. 20,000?" Despite the disclaimer, Huxley could not resist troubling his head about the future. The struggle between utopian and dyst opian elements in his prophecies about the world to come remained a pervasive counterpoint in his thought and art. When Island appeared in 1962, Huxley's version of the earthly paradise received harsh treatment from readers whom Brave New World and Ape and Essence had taught to be sceptical of perfectibilitarians. Yet Island was not just another pious daydream. I have argued previously1 that the novel embodies a collection of the right responses to problems that the brave new world handled badly. But there is even more to the novel than that. Unlike News f rom Nowhere, Looking Backward, and other positive views of the future, Island can be defended as· a reasonably complex novel in which a would-be utopian's attempt at optimism is challenged by the possibility that his characters inhabit a Manichean universe. If evil exists even in the earthly paradise, then utopia as one customarily imagines it is an impossibility, unless one can redefine one's conception of perfection so as to include the negative factors that appear to compromise it.