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03/06/2014: “Names Are The Guest Of Reality”: Apophasis, Mysticism, and Soteriology in Daoist Perspective

KomjathyWEBLecture by Louis Komjathy, Assistant Professor of Chinese Religions and Comparative Religious Studies, University of San Diego

Thursday, March 6, 7:30 p.m., Cowles Library Reading Room

How does one speak the unspeakable, say the unsayable, name the unnameable? How does one subvert the human tendency to become mired in intellectual constructs, philosophical rumination, and psychological confusion, especially with respect to matters of ultimate concern? This talk examines Daoist uses of “apophatic discourse” and “grammars of ineffability,” or the way in which (apparent) negation is central to Daoist approaches. In addition to providing a foundational introduction to Daoism in general and the Zhuangzi (Book of Master Zhuang) in particular, Komjathy will explore Daoist meditation and mystical experience, with attentiveness to representative modes of expression and description. In the process, he suggests that one must understand Daoist contemplative practice and mystical experience as the root of “Daoist philosophy.” Daoist apophatic discourse presupposes a contemplative and mystical perspective on being and sacrality. It is a praxis-based and experiential perspective. Daoist views of language in turn reveal alternative uses of linguistic expression, beyond mere communication and description. We may begin to imagine “soteriological linguistics.”

Louis Komjathy (Ph.D., Religious Studies; Boston University) is Assistant Professor of Chinese Religions and Comparative Religious Studies at the University of San Diego. A leading scholar of Daoism (Taoism), his particular interests include contemplative practice and mystical experience. He is also founding Co-chair (2004-2010) of the Daoist Studies Group of the American Academy of Religion, founding Co-chair (2010-present) of the Contemplative Studies Group of the American Academy of Religion, and manager of the Contemplative Studies website. He has published widely on Daoist religious practice, including the recent The Way of Complete Perfection (State University of New York Press, 2013) and The Daoist Tradition: An Introduction (Bloomsbury Academic, 2013). Beyond his academic work, he is a member of the advisory board for Monastic Interreligious Dialogue and founding Co-director of the Daoist Foundation, a non-profit religious and educational organization dedicated to fostering authentic Daoist study and practice.

Listen to audio of Komjathy’s talk:

Or view his presentation:

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02/13/2014: After Silence, That Which Comes Nearest

BellmanJonathan Bellman,
Professor of Music History & Literature, University of Northern Colorado

Response by Eric Saylor,
Associate Professor of Music History & Musicology, Drake University

Thursday, February 13 at 7:00 p.m.

St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Student Center, 1150 28th Street

Poets and philosophers have long agreed about music’s ability to express the inexpressible. The kinds of music to which they imputed this elevated capability, though, varied widely. By the mid-nineteenth century, the expressive vocabulary of western music was highly developed and well understood; today, though, its subtleties are largely forgotten. As a result, what to us might seem like an evocation of the Infinite might in its own time have been an expression of something far more explicit or even everyday in nature. Thus, musical expressions of the ineffable and thoroughgoingly effable are far closer than we might suspect. Much of music’s ability to reach beyond verbal language, then, is granted by and relies upon the expectations of the listener, rather than being inherent in the music itself.

Jonathan D. Bellman is a Professor of Music History and Literature and Head of Academic Studies in Music at the University of Northern Colorado. He earned piano performance degrees from the University of California, Santa Barbara and the University of Illinois, and a Doctor of Musical Arts in Piano Performance Practices at Stanford University in 1990. His most recent book, Chopin’s Polish Ballade: Op. 38 as Narrative of National Martyrdom, was published by Oxford University Press in 2010. His articles have appeared in journals including The Journal of Musicological Research, Musical Quarterly, Nineteenth-Century Music, Early Music, Historical Performance, and The Journal of Musicology. His research interests include musical style in general, musical exoticism, the music and performance practices of Frédéric Chopin, and the concert music of George Gershwin.

Listen to audio of the lecture: 

Download a PDF of Bellman’s talk

Prof. Saylor’s response (PDF)

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Student Comparisons and Evaluations (Spring 2013 Philosophy of Religion Course)

Professor Knepper’s Spring 2103 Philosophy of Religion course first examined religious responses to suffering in the abolitionist movement, post-Holocaust Judaism, and medieval Zen Buddhism. They also familiarized themselves with the religious responses to suffering that the Fall 2012 Comparative Religions class studied: the Sikh khalsa, Abd el-Kader’s jihad against the French, and Lakota responses to the Wounded Knee massacre. Below are some of their final papers in which they compare, explain, and evaluate many of these religious responses to suffering:

Anonymous student’s paper
Liz Kuker’s paper
Julien Lamberto’s paper

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Student Comparisons (Fall 2013 Comparative Religions Course)

Professor Knepper’s Fall 2103 Comparative Religions course studied discourses of ineffability in Indian Buddhism (especially the Vimalakirti Sutra) and Christian Mysticism (especially Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite). Below are some of the final papers in which they compare these different discourses of ineffability and use them to assess the claims of perennial psychologists (such as Robert Forman) or philosophers (such as John Hick) that all religions possess a common ineffable experiential core or point to the same ineffable transcendent reality:

Cassie Doody’s comparative paper
Erin Mercurio’s comparative paper
Weston Pickhinke’s comparative paper

 

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