Jens Schlieter | Bern University (original) (raw)
Papers by Jens Schlieter
Cas-e Blog, 2024
The practices of brahmavihara and dhyana meditation, well established in almost all major Buddhis... more The practices of brahmavihara and dhyana meditation, well established in almost all major Buddhist traditions, show underlying philosophical
conceptions of consciousness which presuppose a mind capable of
radiating empathy, love and compassion, thus, concepts of a mind
actually reaching other people's minds. These aspects, in conflict with Western readings of "protestant Buddhism," allow to illustrate philosophical views on consciousness, reality, and the "monadic self," which diverge from Western views on the limits of the mind and its subjective cognitive emotions.
Intentional Transformative Experiences, 2024
Drawing on various works that are crucial for the analysis of intentional transformative experien... more Drawing on various works that are crucial for the analysis of intentional
transformative experiences, such as L.A. Paul, Taves, and Wierzbicka, this chapter argues for the relevance of religiosity for the understanding of what is it that makes experiences life changing. My thesis is that an understanding of the finite, mortal existence as (actually) ultimately infinite, immortal or part of a meaningful whole constitutes the quintessential transformative experience. Only such experiences can be understood as truly transformative and life changing. Furthermore, such experiences should always be
framed in an autobiographical background, which integrates them into a long line of earlier autobiographical experiences. Using various case studies, this chapter shows how intentionality and a pre-existing expectation of the transformation often play a crucial role in the evaluation of potentially transformative experiences. From this it concludes that even religious experiences—often believed to be instantaneous and unintentional—can always be traced back to an individual’s biography. Transformative experiences in this regard should be seen as resulting from accumulated knowledge (throughout one’s life) rather than being singular, one-time extraordinary events.
Argos, 2024
In this contribution, I discuss under the heading "inversed hermeneutics" a process wherein the c... more In this contribution, I discuss under the heading "inversed hermeneutics" a process wherein the conceptual, classificatory terms of a foreign knowledge system are used to interpret one's own concepts and their underlying assumptions. A key function of "inversed hermeneutics" is to induce a deliberate alienation and thus momentarily placing the cognizing subject into a liminal state of "unfamiliarity." This method should help to introduce and probe new ways of classifying things.
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion, 2022
Summary In the wake of the globalization of modern Western biomedicine and bioethics, Buddhist... more Summary
In the wake of the globalization of modern Western biomedicine and bioethics, Buddhists felt the need for moral action-guides that provide orientation in ethical dilemmas posed by modern biomedicine. Thus, in the 1980s, Asian Buddhists began to develop distinct Buddhist moral action-guides on issues of selective abortion, stem cell research, genetic enhancement, brain death and organ transplantation from brain-dead donors, and physician-assisted suicide. From the 1990s onward, they were joined by a growing number of Western scholars. Buddhist ethicists emphasize the importance of starting from venture points considerably distinct from Western bioethics: Firstly, they are traditionally less concerned with human dignity and human rights. Instead, with a focus on salvific cultivation, karma, and nonviolence, they predominantly reflect the moral quality of the actor’s intentions, leading to additional suffering in this life or the next. Secondly, bioethics, in harmony with Buddhist ethics in general, is understood as moral cultivation, which puts less emphasis on justification of ethics than on the quality of actual actions. Thirdly, on the one hand Buddhist bioethical reasoning includes aspects such as the harmful “self-centeredness,” while on the other hand it declares compassion to be the core value, including an awareness of the universal interdependence of all forms of sentient existence.
In the 1980s, pioneering scholars of Buddhist bioethics Shōyō Taniguchi and Pinit Ratanakul began to outline ethical foundations of Buddhist bioethics. While both suggested that Buddhist ethics are in principle capable of providing orientation in all forms of bioethical dilemmas, their approaches differed considerably, for example regarding the duty of doctors to disclose fatal diagnoses. Dissent on this duty, which is emphasized by Ratanakul but relativized by Taniguchi, reflects not only cultural differences but also the latter’s inclusion of Mahāyāna Buddhist ethics of the bodhisattva’s “skillful means.” Based on a famous Western approach, Ratanakul was the first to outline a system of four principles or duties of Buddhist bioethical reasoning: veracity, noninjury to life (ahiṃsā), justice, and compassion (karuṇā). However, it was a Western scholar, Damien Keown, who in 1995 presented the first book-length treatise to cover almost all major bioethical issues, from embryo research to euthanasia for the terminally ill. Keown argued for a neo-Aristotelian virtue-ethics approach and distilled three basic goods from Buddhist canonical texts. This helped to modernize and transform Buddhist ethics into an operational system of Buddhist bioethics. It is argued that there is an equivalent to human dignity in Buddhism, namely the infinite capacity to participate in goodness, or the potential to reach buddhahood. In this vein, the function of human rights lies in providing a suitable environment for individuals to gradually realize this potentiality. Well into the new millennium, more works on Buddhist ethics appeared in which Western scholars of Buddhism included Tibetan Mahāyāna ethical reasoning (Karma Lekshe Tsomo), reconstrued Buddhist ethics as consequentialism (Charles Goodman), or explored the global variety of Buddhist ethical reasoning (Peter Harvey). Probably the most important contemporary controversy in Buddhist bioethics pertains to the question whether killing out of compassion can in certain circumstances be justified. According to a traditional evaluation of cetanā (intention), it has been argued that the intention to kill cannot coexist with a compassionate intention, whereas others concluded that in regard to both embryonic life and the treatment of terminally ill patients there is room for ethically justifiable options. During the 2010s the global as well as Buddhist discourse on bioethics saw a certain consolidation, but will likely gain momentum again—for example, should genome-edited babies become common practice.
Stepping Back and Looking Ahead: Twelve Years of Studying Religious Contact at the Käte Hamburger Kolleg Bochum, 2023
This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the CC BY-NC 4.0 license.
Atheism in Five Minutes, 2022
Although there is no direct equivalent of “atheism” in pre-modern Asian languages, early and medi... more Although there is no direct equivalent of “atheism” in pre-modern Asian languages, early and medieval Indian sources of the Hindu traditions declare Buddhism to be “non-theistic,” and, indeed, Buddhists themselves declared that God, or gods, are largely irrelevant if the aim is to reach final liberation from suffering. This harmonizes with the philosophical view of Buddhist scholars that reality, and even the reality of Gods, is illusionary and inaccessible. On the other hand, in various Buddhist traditions gods or other supernatural beings have significance. So, why has Buddhism been declared to be atheistic? The contribution will move on to look into the early European missionary sources that declared Buddhism to be a “cult of nothingness,” followed by some remarks on European philosophers’ comments of Buddhism as atheism. Finally, in the surge of Western empirical sciences, Buddhist converts and Asian Buddhist modernists themselves declared Buddhism to be atheism, or, at least, compatible with a scientific naturalism. The latest move are Western Buddhists that explicitly aim to transform Buddhism into a belief-free “Atheism” (e.g.,Steven Batchelor), which will subsequently be contrasted with less ambitious or confrontative projects of Eastern Buddhist modernists such as the current Dalai Lama.
Handbuch Angewandte Ethik, ed. Christian Neuhäuser · Marie-Luise Raters · Ralf Stoecker, Metzler, 2022
The Occult Nineteenth Century, 2021
In the 19 th century, Western Esotericism emphatically received reports of experiences near death... more In the 19 th century, Western Esotericism emphatically received reports of experiences near death in which the " experiencers " described a " panoramic life review " – namely, to recall or re-experience scenes, acts, and thoughts of their lives in a highly condensed and accelerated form. For Spiritualists, Occultists, Mesmerists and Transcendentalists, these narratives gained currency as key evidence for the soul's capacity to enter after its separation from the body into state of " total recall, " a timeless self-presence and full awareness of everything experienced in the current life, or even former lives, respectively. In this view, death is a form of spiritual " awakening. " In several narratives of the " panoramic life review, " there were, however, still Jewish-Christian elements alluding to the " book of deeds, " to be opened (again) in " final judgment. " I will argue, however, that the idea of a " total recall " at death could only be fully established by combing these ideas with drug experiences, " magnetic sleep, " new technologies of panoramic images and photography, and practices of autobiographical writing developed in the modern, autonomous self. Accordingly, its absence in antique, late antique, or medieval authors is not astonishing. The conclusion will discuss the significance of the discourse as such.
Religion, Brain & Behavior, 2022
Commentary -- see Target Article: Explaining the rise of moralizing religions: a test of competi... more Commentary -- see Target Article:
Explaining the rise of moralizing religions: a test of competing hypotheses using the Seshat Databank, by
Peter Turchin, Harvey Whitehouse, Jennifer Larson, et al.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/2153599X.2022.2065345?src=
Big Gods and big science: further reflections on theory, data, and analysis
Peter Turchin, Harvey Whitehouse, Jennifer Larson et al.,
https://doi.org/10.1080/2153599X.2022.2065354
Testing the Big Gods hypothesis with global historical data: a review and “retake”
Harvey Whitehouse et al., https://doi.org/10.1080/2153599X.2022.2074085
Religion, 2022
The paper outlines the hypothesis of material abstract signs for the departed, or signs for absen... more The paper outlines the hypothesis of material abstract signs for the departed, or signs for absence, being the foundational semiotic affordance of religion. The concept of “affordance” implies that an object or artifact may enable a certain variety of uses that lie within the object (Davidsen 2016, 523). A semiotic affordance of religion, accordingly, takes place if a sign affords a religious understanding or religious use. Abstract and arbitrary material signs, I argue, co-evolved with the aim to refer to the dead, indicating an absence. This function could be realized with abstract Saussurean signs because indexical or iconic signs, in contrast, refer to something present or something ‘not here, but elsewhere.’ The co-evolution of intensive collective intentional states made the absence of deceased members of an ingroup a shared emotion. Memorial practices found their hold in lasting material signs of absence, such as reworked or intentionally placed large stones. These stones and rock-formations likely emerged with burial rites, and might additionally have been used as sites of collective mourning, or as auspicious sites of assumed protection in times of crisis.
Imaginations of Death and the Beyond in India and Europe, 2018
heir who could have led the Muslim community after his death. His immediate successors were calle... more heir who could have led the Muslim community after his death. His immediate successors were called Caliphs, i.e. Successors of the Messenger of God. Under the Umayyads' rule, a shift happened, according to which the head of the Islamic state, the Caliph, was considered as the "Deputy of God." According to the predominant view in medieval Islamic political thought, the Caliph, as the legitimate successor of the prophet, ultimately controls all things and assures that right religion becomes the principle on which society runs.
Marburg Journal of Religion, 2004
Sei es als Verstehen fremder Auserungen, fremder Kultpraktiken oder fremder Uberzeugungssysteme, ... more Sei es als Verstehen fremder Auserungen, fremder Kultpraktiken oder fremder Uberzeugungssysteme, sei es, dass man sich der Fremdheit bewusst aussetzt, oder ihr ungeplant begegnet: Die Problematik des Verstehens des Fremden ist nicht nur fur die Arbeitspraxis der Religionswissenschaftler, sondern auch fur religionswissenschaftliche Theoriebildung selbst von unmittelbarer Bedeutung. Doch nicht nur im engeren religionswissenschaftlichen Kontext, auch durch die Globalisierung und Ihre Folgen wird es immer mehr zur ‚xenologischen’ Herausforderung, als fremd erfahrene Uberzeugungs- und Glaubenssysteme soweit als moglich zu verstehen: auch unter den erschwerten Bedingungen eines von Misstrauen bestimmten Kontextes. Gibt es aber in der westlichen Theoriebildung ein angemessenes Modell zum Verstehen des Fremden, das sich den Schwierigkeiten stellt, ohne angesichts dieser nur noch die ‚Nicht-Verstehbarkeit’ des Fremden zu konstatieren?
Peter Harveys ‚Einfuhrung’ zur buddhistischen Ethik – angesichts des Umfangs des Werkes und der F... more Peter Harveys ‚Einfuhrung’ zur buddhistischen Ethik – angesichts des Umfangs des Werkes und der Fulle der prasentierten Quellen hatte der Titel auch gut auf die Worte „An Introduction to“ verzichten konnen – kann in der Tat fur sich in Anspruch nehmen, den Leser umfassend in die Ethik der buddhistischen Traditionen einzufuhren. Dieses Werk hier zu besprechen, obwohl sein Erscheinen inzwischen gut dreieinhalb Jahre zuruckliegt, speist sich vor allem aus der Motivation, ein Werk vorzustellen, zu dem bislang im deutschsprachigen Raum kein Pendant vorliegt. Ein Blick in das Inhaltsverzeichnis zeigt unmittelbar, dass Harvey die buddhistische Ethik nicht nur als Korpus von Handlungsanweisungen versteht, die in den fruhbuddhistischen Texten als Ordensregeln niedergelegt sind, sondern auch aktuelle Fragestellungen etwa der applied ethics , der Bioethik, der Wirtschaftsethik oder der gender studies aufgreift und diskutiert. Ein solches Werk ist angesichts der allgemeinen Bedeutung der Themen...
Oxford Scholarship Online, 2018
The first Western translation of the Tibetan Book of the Dead by Walter Y. Evans-Wentz (1927) pla... more The first Western translation of the Tibetan Book of the Dead by Walter Y. Evans-Wentz (1927) played a central role for the emerging belief that experiences near death are prevalent in non-Western cultures too. Especially noteworthy is the Tibetan Buddhist description of “Clear Light of Pure Reality,” but also frightening experiences of consciousness in the afterlife realm, and the necessity of a “guide.” The chapter describes how Theosophical preconceptions led to a view that Tibetan Buddhism corroborates premortal and postmortal out-of-body experiences or rebirth doctrines. As such, it became highly influential for C.G. Jung and other scholars of the “psyche,” paranormal experiences, and religion, allowing them to argue for a transcultural dimension of experiences near death, and experiences after death.
Oxford Scholarship Online, 2018
This chapter outlines how the term “out-of-the-body experience” emerged in spiritualist and parap... more This chapter outlines how the term “out-of-the-body experience” emerged in spiritualist and parapsychological literature. As is shown, “psychical researchers” such as Frederic W. Myers and William James made a significant contribution. The chapter also deals with the “filter” theory or “transmission” theory, i.e., the idea of the brain as a means for the inhibition of consciousness. This theory, as is shown, has been developed in close interaction with phenomena “near death”—in particular, the “panoramic life review.” The filter theory, discussed in subsequent chapters 2.6. and 2.7, too, is still favored by many recent protagonists of near-death experiences (e.g., Moody). Finally, the chapter turns to the increase of autoscopic out-of-body experiences, discussed as a phenomenon attesting a changing relationship of the disembodied consciousness toward its own body.
Cas-e Blog, 2024
The practices of brahmavihara and dhyana meditation, well established in almost all major Buddhis... more The practices of brahmavihara and dhyana meditation, well established in almost all major Buddhist traditions, show underlying philosophical
conceptions of consciousness which presuppose a mind capable of
radiating empathy, love and compassion, thus, concepts of a mind
actually reaching other people's minds. These aspects, in conflict with Western readings of "protestant Buddhism," allow to illustrate philosophical views on consciousness, reality, and the "monadic self," which diverge from Western views on the limits of the mind and its subjective cognitive emotions.
Intentional Transformative Experiences, 2024
Drawing on various works that are crucial for the analysis of intentional transformative experien... more Drawing on various works that are crucial for the analysis of intentional
transformative experiences, such as L.A. Paul, Taves, and Wierzbicka, this chapter argues for the relevance of religiosity for the understanding of what is it that makes experiences life changing. My thesis is that an understanding of the finite, mortal existence as (actually) ultimately infinite, immortal or part of a meaningful whole constitutes the quintessential transformative experience. Only such experiences can be understood as truly transformative and life changing. Furthermore, such experiences should always be
framed in an autobiographical background, which integrates them into a long line of earlier autobiographical experiences. Using various case studies, this chapter shows how intentionality and a pre-existing expectation of the transformation often play a crucial role in the evaluation of potentially transformative experiences. From this it concludes that even religious experiences—often believed to be instantaneous and unintentional—can always be traced back to an individual’s biography. Transformative experiences in this regard should be seen as resulting from accumulated knowledge (throughout one’s life) rather than being singular, one-time extraordinary events.
Argos, 2024
In this contribution, I discuss under the heading "inversed hermeneutics" a process wherein the c... more In this contribution, I discuss under the heading "inversed hermeneutics" a process wherein the conceptual, classificatory terms of a foreign knowledge system are used to interpret one's own concepts and their underlying assumptions. A key function of "inversed hermeneutics" is to induce a deliberate alienation and thus momentarily placing the cognizing subject into a liminal state of "unfamiliarity." This method should help to introduce and probe new ways of classifying things.
Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Religion, 2022
Summary In the wake of the globalization of modern Western biomedicine and bioethics, Buddhist... more Summary
In the wake of the globalization of modern Western biomedicine and bioethics, Buddhists felt the need for moral action-guides that provide orientation in ethical dilemmas posed by modern biomedicine. Thus, in the 1980s, Asian Buddhists began to develop distinct Buddhist moral action-guides on issues of selective abortion, stem cell research, genetic enhancement, brain death and organ transplantation from brain-dead donors, and physician-assisted suicide. From the 1990s onward, they were joined by a growing number of Western scholars. Buddhist ethicists emphasize the importance of starting from venture points considerably distinct from Western bioethics: Firstly, they are traditionally less concerned with human dignity and human rights. Instead, with a focus on salvific cultivation, karma, and nonviolence, they predominantly reflect the moral quality of the actor’s intentions, leading to additional suffering in this life or the next. Secondly, bioethics, in harmony with Buddhist ethics in general, is understood as moral cultivation, which puts less emphasis on justification of ethics than on the quality of actual actions. Thirdly, on the one hand Buddhist bioethical reasoning includes aspects such as the harmful “self-centeredness,” while on the other hand it declares compassion to be the core value, including an awareness of the universal interdependence of all forms of sentient existence.
In the 1980s, pioneering scholars of Buddhist bioethics Shōyō Taniguchi and Pinit Ratanakul began to outline ethical foundations of Buddhist bioethics. While both suggested that Buddhist ethics are in principle capable of providing orientation in all forms of bioethical dilemmas, their approaches differed considerably, for example regarding the duty of doctors to disclose fatal diagnoses. Dissent on this duty, which is emphasized by Ratanakul but relativized by Taniguchi, reflects not only cultural differences but also the latter’s inclusion of Mahāyāna Buddhist ethics of the bodhisattva’s “skillful means.” Based on a famous Western approach, Ratanakul was the first to outline a system of four principles or duties of Buddhist bioethical reasoning: veracity, noninjury to life (ahiṃsā), justice, and compassion (karuṇā). However, it was a Western scholar, Damien Keown, who in 1995 presented the first book-length treatise to cover almost all major bioethical issues, from embryo research to euthanasia for the terminally ill. Keown argued for a neo-Aristotelian virtue-ethics approach and distilled three basic goods from Buddhist canonical texts. This helped to modernize and transform Buddhist ethics into an operational system of Buddhist bioethics. It is argued that there is an equivalent to human dignity in Buddhism, namely the infinite capacity to participate in goodness, or the potential to reach buddhahood. In this vein, the function of human rights lies in providing a suitable environment for individuals to gradually realize this potentiality. Well into the new millennium, more works on Buddhist ethics appeared in which Western scholars of Buddhism included Tibetan Mahāyāna ethical reasoning (Karma Lekshe Tsomo), reconstrued Buddhist ethics as consequentialism (Charles Goodman), or explored the global variety of Buddhist ethical reasoning (Peter Harvey). Probably the most important contemporary controversy in Buddhist bioethics pertains to the question whether killing out of compassion can in certain circumstances be justified. According to a traditional evaluation of cetanā (intention), it has been argued that the intention to kill cannot coexist with a compassionate intention, whereas others concluded that in regard to both embryonic life and the treatment of terminally ill patients there is room for ethically justifiable options. During the 2010s the global as well as Buddhist discourse on bioethics saw a certain consolidation, but will likely gain momentum again—for example, should genome-edited babies become common practice.
Stepping Back and Looking Ahead: Twelve Years of Studying Religious Contact at the Käte Hamburger Kolleg Bochum, 2023
This is an open access chapter distributed under the terms of the CC BY-NC 4.0 license.
Atheism in Five Minutes, 2022
Although there is no direct equivalent of “atheism” in pre-modern Asian languages, early and medi... more Although there is no direct equivalent of “atheism” in pre-modern Asian languages, early and medieval Indian sources of the Hindu traditions declare Buddhism to be “non-theistic,” and, indeed, Buddhists themselves declared that God, or gods, are largely irrelevant if the aim is to reach final liberation from suffering. This harmonizes with the philosophical view of Buddhist scholars that reality, and even the reality of Gods, is illusionary and inaccessible. On the other hand, in various Buddhist traditions gods or other supernatural beings have significance. So, why has Buddhism been declared to be atheistic? The contribution will move on to look into the early European missionary sources that declared Buddhism to be a “cult of nothingness,” followed by some remarks on European philosophers’ comments of Buddhism as atheism. Finally, in the surge of Western empirical sciences, Buddhist converts and Asian Buddhist modernists themselves declared Buddhism to be atheism, or, at least, compatible with a scientific naturalism. The latest move are Western Buddhists that explicitly aim to transform Buddhism into a belief-free “Atheism” (e.g.,Steven Batchelor), which will subsequently be contrasted with less ambitious or confrontative projects of Eastern Buddhist modernists such as the current Dalai Lama.
Handbuch Angewandte Ethik, ed. Christian Neuhäuser · Marie-Luise Raters · Ralf Stoecker, Metzler, 2022
The Occult Nineteenth Century, 2021
In the 19 th century, Western Esotericism emphatically received reports of experiences near death... more In the 19 th century, Western Esotericism emphatically received reports of experiences near death in which the " experiencers " described a " panoramic life review " – namely, to recall or re-experience scenes, acts, and thoughts of their lives in a highly condensed and accelerated form. For Spiritualists, Occultists, Mesmerists and Transcendentalists, these narratives gained currency as key evidence for the soul's capacity to enter after its separation from the body into state of " total recall, " a timeless self-presence and full awareness of everything experienced in the current life, or even former lives, respectively. In this view, death is a form of spiritual " awakening. " In several narratives of the " panoramic life review, " there were, however, still Jewish-Christian elements alluding to the " book of deeds, " to be opened (again) in " final judgment. " I will argue, however, that the idea of a " total recall " at death could only be fully established by combing these ideas with drug experiences, " magnetic sleep, " new technologies of panoramic images and photography, and practices of autobiographical writing developed in the modern, autonomous self. Accordingly, its absence in antique, late antique, or medieval authors is not astonishing. The conclusion will discuss the significance of the discourse as such.
Religion, Brain & Behavior, 2022
Commentary -- see Target Article: Explaining the rise of moralizing religions: a test of competi... more Commentary -- see Target Article:
Explaining the rise of moralizing religions: a test of competing hypotheses using the Seshat Databank, by
Peter Turchin, Harvey Whitehouse, Jennifer Larson, et al.
https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/2153599X.2022.2065345?src=
Big Gods and big science: further reflections on theory, data, and analysis
Peter Turchin, Harvey Whitehouse, Jennifer Larson et al.,
https://doi.org/10.1080/2153599X.2022.2065354
Testing the Big Gods hypothesis with global historical data: a review and “retake”
Harvey Whitehouse et al., https://doi.org/10.1080/2153599X.2022.2074085
Religion, 2022
The paper outlines the hypothesis of material abstract signs for the departed, or signs for absen... more The paper outlines the hypothesis of material abstract signs for the departed, or signs for absence, being the foundational semiotic affordance of religion. The concept of “affordance” implies that an object or artifact may enable a certain variety of uses that lie within the object (Davidsen 2016, 523). A semiotic affordance of religion, accordingly, takes place if a sign affords a religious understanding or religious use. Abstract and arbitrary material signs, I argue, co-evolved with the aim to refer to the dead, indicating an absence. This function could be realized with abstract Saussurean signs because indexical or iconic signs, in contrast, refer to something present or something ‘not here, but elsewhere.’ The co-evolution of intensive collective intentional states made the absence of deceased members of an ingroup a shared emotion. Memorial practices found their hold in lasting material signs of absence, such as reworked or intentionally placed large stones. These stones and rock-formations likely emerged with burial rites, and might additionally have been used as sites of collective mourning, or as auspicious sites of assumed protection in times of crisis.
Imaginations of Death and the Beyond in India and Europe, 2018
heir who could have led the Muslim community after his death. His immediate successors were calle... more heir who could have led the Muslim community after his death. His immediate successors were called Caliphs, i.e. Successors of the Messenger of God. Under the Umayyads' rule, a shift happened, according to which the head of the Islamic state, the Caliph, was considered as the "Deputy of God." According to the predominant view in medieval Islamic political thought, the Caliph, as the legitimate successor of the prophet, ultimately controls all things and assures that right religion becomes the principle on which society runs.
Marburg Journal of Religion, 2004
Sei es als Verstehen fremder Auserungen, fremder Kultpraktiken oder fremder Uberzeugungssysteme, ... more Sei es als Verstehen fremder Auserungen, fremder Kultpraktiken oder fremder Uberzeugungssysteme, sei es, dass man sich der Fremdheit bewusst aussetzt, oder ihr ungeplant begegnet: Die Problematik des Verstehens des Fremden ist nicht nur fur die Arbeitspraxis der Religionswissenschaftler, sondern auch fur religionswissenschaftliche Theoriebildung selbst von unmittelbarer Bedeutung. Doch nicht nur im engeren religionswissenschaftlichen Kontext, auch durch die Globalisierung und Ihre Folgen wird es immer mehr zur ‚xenologischen’ Herausforderung, als fremd erfahrene Uberzeugungs- und Glaubenssysteme soweit als moglich zu verstehen: auch unter den erschwerten Bedingungen eines von Misstrauen bestimmten Kontextes. Gibt es aber in der westlichen Theoriebildung ein angemessenes Modell zum Verstehen des Fremden, das sich den Schwierigkeiten stellt, ohne angesichts dieser nur noch die ‚Nicht-Verstehbarkeit’ des Fremden zu konstatieren?
Peter Harveys ‚Einfuhrung’ zur buddhistischen Ethik – angesichts des Umfangs des Werkes und der F... more Peter Harveys ‚Einfuhrung’ zur buddhistischen Ethik – angesichts des Umfangs des Werkes und der Fulle der prasentierten Quellen hatte der Titel auch gut auf die Worte „An Introduction to“ verzichten konnen – kann in der Tat fur sich in Anspruch nehmen, den Leser umfassend in die Ethik der buddhistischen Traditionen einzufuhren. Dieses Werk hier zu besprechen, obwohl sein Erscheinen inzwischen gut dreieinhalb Jahre zuruckliegt, speist sich vor allem aus der Motivation, ein Werk vorzustellen, zu dem bislang im deutschsprachigen Raum kein Pendant vorliegt. Ein Blick in das Inhaltsverzeichnis zeigt unmittelbar, dass Harvey die buddhistische Ethik nicht nur als Korpus von Handlungsanweisungen versteht, die in den fruhbuddhistischen Texten als Ordensregeln niedergelegt sind, sondern auch aktuelle Fragestellungen etwa der applied ethics , der Bioethik, der Wirtschaftsethik oder der gender studies aufgreift und diskutiert. Ein solches Werk ist angesichts der allgemeinen Bedeutung der Themen...
Oxford Scholarship Online, 2018
The first Western translation of the Tibetan Book of the Dead by Walter Y. Evans-Wentz (1927) pla... more The first Western translation of the Tibetan Book of the Dead by Walter Y. Evans-Wentz (1927) played a central role for the emerging belief that experiences near death are prevalent in non-Western cultures too. Especially noteworthy is the Tibetan Buddhist description of “Clear Light of Pure Reality,” but also frightening experiences of consciousness in the afterlife realm, and the necessity of a “guide.” The chapter describes how Theosophical preconceptions led to a view that Tibetan Buddhism corroborates premortal and postmortal out-of-body experiences or rebirth doctrines. As such, it became highly influential for C.G. Jung and other scholars of the “psyche,” paranormal experiences, and religion, allowing them to argue for a transcultural dimension of experiences near death, and experiences after death.
Oxford Scholarship Online, 2018
This chapter outlines how the term “out-of-the-body experience” emerged in spiritualist and parap... more This chapter outlines how the term “out-of-the-body experience” emerged in spiritualist and parapsychological literature. As is shown, “psychical researchers” such as Frederic W. Myers and William James made a significant contribution. The chapter also deals with the “filter” theory or “transmission” theory, i.e., the idea of the brain as a means for the inhibition of consciousness. This theory, as is shown, has been developed in close interaction with phenomena “near death”—in particular, the “panoramic life review.” The filter theory, discussed in subsequent chapters 2.6. and 2.7, too, is still favored by many recent protagonists of near-death experiences (e.g., Moody). Finally, the chapter turns to the increase of autoscopic out-of-body experiences, discussed as a phenomenon attesting a changing relationship of the disembodied consciousness toward its own body.
Ist der Logozentrismus, die Idee der Sprache als dem Ort der Wahrheit und die Suche nach dem voll... more Ist der Logozentrismus, die Idee der Sprache als dem Ort der Wahrheit und die Suche nach dem vollkommenen sprachlichen Ausdruck derselben, ein "Wesenszug" der europäischen Tradition? In diesem Buch wird der Versuch unternommen, diese bekannte These zunächst anhand von vier europäischen Sprachparadigmen unter dem Begriff "Versprachlichung" zu spezifizieren und sie anschliessend zu überprüfen, indem ihr die buddhistische Sprachauffassung gegenübergestellt wird.
Reviews: Joseph Azize, in Numen 66 (2020), 5-6, 611-5 Egil Asprem, in Journal of Contemporary... more Reviews:
Joseph Azize, in Numen 66 (2020), 5-6, 611-5
Egil Asprem, in Journal of Contemporary Religion 34 (2019), 382-4
Markus Altena Davidsen, in Reading Religion (2019), http://readingreligion.org/books/what-it-be-dead;
Gregory Shushan, in Journal of Near-Death Studies 38, 2 (2020), 101-131; Simon Cox, in Aries, 20, 2 (2020), 299-302
Bruce Wollenberg, Theology and Science, 2020, DOI: 10.1080/14746700.2020.1825198;
Michael Nahm, Journal of Parapsychology 84, 2 (2020), 314-317
Носачев Павел (Pavel Nosachev), НАРРАТИВНЫЙ ПОДХОД К ИЗУЧЕНИЮ ОКОЛОСМЕРТНОГО ОПЫТА. Рец. на: Schlieter, … (Narrative Approach to the Study of Near Death Experience: Review of …); 162-168
Schon vor über fünfzig Jahren kamen die ersten tibetischen Migrantinnen und Migranten in die Sc... more Schon vor über fünfzig Jahren kamen die ersten tibetischen Migrantinnen und Migranten in die Schweiz. Einige Studien widmeten sich dem Prozess, wie diese erste Generation ihre kulturellen und religiösen Traditionen fortführte und sich zugleich den Erwartungen und Bedingungen der Aufnahmegesellschaft anpasste. Die vorliegende Studie schliesst daran nun mit der aktuellen Frage an, wie die zweite Generation der Tibeterinnen und Tibeter in der Schweiz ihre tibetische Herkunft wie auch ihren Bezug zum Buddhismus auffasst und gestaltet. Wie verändert sich die individuelle Religiosität bei den Tibetern in der Schweiz angesichts des Generationenwechsels und der umgreifenden gesellschaftlichen Veränderungsprozesse, namentlich der religiösen Pluralisierung, der Individualisierung und der wieder erstarkenden religiösen Identitätspolitik im Zeitalter der Globalisierung?
Mitherausgeber: Jens Schlieter und Tina Lauer
Schon vor über fünfzig Jahren kamen die ersten tibetischen Migran tinnen und Migranten in die Sch... more Schon vor über fünfzig Jahren kamen die ersten tibetischen Migran tinnen und Migranten in die Schweiz. Einige Studien widmeten sich dem Prozess, wie diese erste Generation ihre kulturellen und religiösen Traditionen fortführte und sich zugleich den Erwartungen und Bedingungen der Aufnahmegesellschaft anpasste. Die vor liegende Studie schliesst daran nun mit der aktuellen Frage an, wie die zweite Generation der Tibeterinnen und Tibeter in der Schweiz ihre tibetische Herkunft wie auch ihren Bezug zum Buddhismus auffasst und gestaltet. Wie verändert sich die individuelle Religiosität bei den Tibetern in der Schweiz angesichts des Generationen wechsels und der umgreifenden gesellschaftlichen Veränderungs prozesse, namentlich der religiösen Pluralisierung, der Individualisie rung und der wieder erstarkenden religiösen Identitätspolitik im Zeitalter der Globalisierung? Prof. Dr. Jens Schlieter ist ausserordentlicher Professor für systematische Religions wissenschaft am Institut für Religionswissenschaft in Bern. Gemeinsam mit den wissenschaftlichen Mitarbeiterinnen Marietta Kind und Tina Lauer setzte er das Forschungsprojekt zur zweiten Generation der Tibeter in der Schweiz und ihrem Bezug zum Buddhismus im Rahmen des Nationalen Forschungsprogramms NFP 58 an der Universität Bern um. Die Ethnologin Dr. Marietta Kind arbeitete am Institut für Religionswissenschaft und am Völkerkundemuseum der Universität Zürich als wissenschaftliche Mitarbeiterin und Dozentin mit dem regionalem Schwerpunktgebiet Tibet und Himalaya. Mit dem von ihr gegründeten Tapriza Verein unterstützt sie eine Schule in Dolpo und setzt sich für den Erhalt der tibetischen Kultur ein. Dr. des. Tina Lauer promovierte im Rahmen des erweiterten Forschungsprojektes mit ihrer Arbeit über die Lebenswelten von Tibeterinnen und Tibetern der zweiten Generation in Indien und der Schweiz. Die ehemalige wissenschaftliche Mitarbei terin und Dozentin am Institut für Religionswissenschaft in Bern arbeitet heute als Kulturmanagerin und Kulturberaterin in Köln.
Viele Objekte in Museen werfen in Bezug auf ihre ursprünglichen religiösen Verwendungen Fragen au... more Viele Objekte in Museen werfen in Bezug auf ihre ursprünglichen religiösen Verwendungen Fragen auf. Welche Bedeutung kommt dem zu, dass diese etwa in ethnischen Traditionen Afrikas, Asiens oder Amerikas in kultischer Verwendung waren, oder sakrale Dimensionen hatten und haben («objects of veneration»)? Wie verhält es sich mit menschlichen Überresten aus Bestattungen? Und wie ist das Argument des ehemaligen kultischen Gebrauchs und der religiösen Verehrung rechtlich einzuschätzen? Werden Museen und Sammlungen erst dann aktiv, wenn konkrete Gemeinschaften ihre sakralen Objekte zurückfordern?
Darüber sprachen Isabel Laack (Universität Tübingen), Jonathan Fine (Weltmuseum Wien), Samuel Bachmann (Historisches Museum Bern) und Jens Schlieter (Universität Bern) bei einem Roundtable-Gespräch im Rahmen der Ringvorlesung zum Thema Provenienzforschung an der Universität Bern.
Accounts of Near Death Experiences will no doubt be very familiar to listeners of the RSP and the... more Accounts of Near Death Experiences will no doubt be very familiar to listeners of the RSP and the broader public. From fictional accounts such as the Wizard of Oz or Flatliners, to self-reports which grew in popularity in the mid-twentieth century, many of us will be know narrative tropes such as the tunnel, the life review, and the out of body experience. Existing research has tended to, on the one hand, focus on the pathological elements of Near Death Narratives – attempting to ‘explain away’ the phenomenon in reductionistic terms – or, on the other hand, view such accounts as substantive proof of a ‘world beyond’. In today’s podcast, we showcase an approach which accepts reports of Near Death Experiences as discourse, and attempts to understand them in their social, cultural, and historical context. Further, we ask what is the relationship between these narratives and contemporary discourse on ‘religion’?
In this episode, we discuss definitions of Near Death Experiences, how one might study reports of such experiences from a critical study of religion perspective, how such reports are related to modern societal developments such as ‘secularization’, individualization, and advances in medical science, as well as the impact of ‘religious’ meta-cultures upon these reports and the potential ‘religious’ functions they appear to serve.
Conference Program "Intentional Transformative Experiences," Bern, 28.-30. August 2021
Key concepts such as world religions or syncretism have been the subject of severe criticism, inf... more Key concepts such as world religions or syncretism have been the subject of severe criticism, informed by more fundamental questions about the homogenising effect of conceptual frameworks. Should we relinquish our theoretical endeavour in favour of a multitude of individual cases? Or should we dismiss the manifold individual and social realities of religions in favour of generalising concepts and theories? Building on this constructive tension, the 2018 EASR conference will provide a forum for historical and contemporary research as well as conceptual, methodological and theoretical reflections on the plurality of both religions and religious identities. Topics include the following: self-conceptions and identity discourses • multiple religious belongings – past and present • conversion and the treatment of converts • debates on conformity and non-conformity • missionary work and religious exclusiveness • concepts of plurality • the historical regulation of religious diversity • the plurality of ritual practices • secularity, secularities and forms of non-belief • theoretical reflections on multiple religious identities Topics include the following: self-conceptions and identity discourses • multiple religious belongings – past and present • conversion and the treatment of converts • debates on conformity and non-conformity • missionary work and religious exclusiveness • concepts of plurality • the historical regulation of religious diversity • the plurality of ritual practices • secularity, secularities and forms of non-belief • theoretical reflections on multiple religious identities
Religion, Vol. 51, Issue 2, 2021, pp. 331-333.
This very impressive monograph is a detailed study of accounts of near-death experiences (NDEs) a... more This very impressive monograph is a detailed study of accounts of near-death experiences (NDEs) and how they function as esoteric religious discourse(s). Schlieter identifies six factors that coalesce to produce the NDE in the second half of the twentieth century: institutionalisation and medicalisation of death; drug experimentation to bring on psychedelic experiences; individualised religious experiences; the revival of esoteric discourses in the New Age; yoga and Indian ecstatic practices, mediated by Theosophy; and the popular “reception of the so- called Tibetan Book of the Dead” (p. xvii). Some factors are individual, but others are societal. It is more or less certain that a person’s orientation to death and any experience of being close to death is inevitably linked to their values and experiences of life. Schlieter’s argument is orderly, well-supported by research, and is presented in five sections. The primary mode of investigation is through the examination of texts that describe NDEs and similar/related instances of non-ordinary consciousness. Schlieter is very aware that accounts of experiences are not identical to the experiences, and that there is considerable latitude in the interpretation of accounts; he compensates by paying attention to “the narrative structure of the reports and the metaphors used” (p. xxxi).
Critical Research on Religion (Sage), 2020
Oliver Freiberger, Considering Comparison. A Method for Religious Studies Jens Schlieter
Eine Kulturgeschichte der Seele im 20. Jahrhundert sollte ja, wenn sie Kulturgeschichte sein will... more Eine Kulturgeschichte der Seele im 20. Jahrhundert sollte ja, wenn sie Kulturgeschichte sein will, mehr sein als eine Begriffs- oder Diskursgeschichte. Was aber genau ist eine "Kulturgeschichte" der "Seele" in der Moderne?
Journal of Contemporary Religion, 2020
Oliver Freiberger, Considering Comparison. A Method for Religious Studies. New York: Oxford Unive... more Oliver Freiberger, Considering Comparison. A Method for Religious Studies. New York: Oxford University Press, 2019. ISBN: 978-0-199-96500-7, 256 pp., hbk, $99. s,
Journal of Contemporary Religion, 2019
