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Śākya Mchog Ldan (1428–1507), Yaroslav Komarovski

Department of Classics and Religious Studies: Faculty Publications

gSer mdog Paṇ chen Śākya mchog ldan was an influential Tibetan scholar who developed a novel approach to the key systems of Buddhist thought and practice. While he is renowned as one of the most famous Sa skya thinkers, his approach has never become accepted as the mainstream within the Sa skya due to his espousal of the views of other-emptiness, as well as critical inquiry into the views of Sa skya paṇḍita Kun dga’ rgyal mtshan, the supreme authority of the Sa skya tradition. Besides involvement in his own Sa skya tradition, Śākya mchog ldan also maintained connection with …

Where “Philosophy” And “Literature” Converge: Exploring Tibetan Buddhist Writings About Reality, Yaroslav Komarovski

Department of Classics and Religious Studies: Faculty Publications

It is well known that the Buddha presented his teachings not just as a philosophical system, but as a raft to cross the ocean of saṃsāra and reach the other shore of nirvāṇa; that he did not answer certain philosophical questions because they were not essential for achieving that goal; and that he likened musings about some philosophical issues to inquiries about the origins and nature of the poison by a person shot with a poisonous arrow. On the other hand, we also know that all such statements about what the Buddha said or said not and why are liable …

“There Are No Dharmas Apart From The Dharma-Sphere”: Shakya Chokden’S Interpretation Of The Dharma-Sphere, Yaroslav Komarovski

Department of Classics and Religious Studies: Faculty Publications

As is well known to contemporary scholarship and demonstrated by the works contained in the present volume, the Tibetan term zhentong (gzhan stong, being empty of other) refers not to any one unanimous view or system of thought but to a wide variety of philosophical theories formed primarily in India and Tibet. Those theories are often contrasted with rival rangtong (rang stong, being empty of self)¹ theories in their interpretations of reality, buddhahood, path, and other elements of the Buddhist worldiew. While many of those elements are equally open to the zhentong and rangtong interpretations, …

Matĕj Of Janov: Corpus Mysticum, Communionem, And The Lost Treatise Of His Regulae, Stephen E. Lahey

Department of Classics and Religious Studies: Faculty Publications

The Bohemian theologian Matěj of Janov (d.1393) is little known outside of Czech Hussite scholarship, yet his Regulae Veteris et Novi Testamentum is arguably as important an influence on the genesis and development of Hussitism, as is the thought of John Wyclif. The chief Hussite theologian Jakoubek of Střibro relied on his works, and his emphasis on the need for daily Eucharist for all Christians seems to have been central to the utraquist ideal central to Hussitism. This article describes the structure and content of Matěj’s Regulae, a carefully constructed sustained argument of the threat of Antichrist facing the …

Hercules, Mummius, And The Roman Triumph In Aeneid 8, Matthew P. Loar

Department of Classics and Religious Studies: Faculty Publications

Book 8 of the Aeneid opens with Aeneas finally reaching the future site of Rome, where he meets Evander and the Arcadians sacrificing to Hercules in a grove near the banks of the Tiber. Evander invites the Trojans to share the Arcadians’ feast, and after he sates his guests with food and wine he recounts the origins of the Arcadians’ ritual, relating how Hercules vanquished the robber-monster Cacus, erstwhile landlord of the Aventine. Evander’s initial description of Hercules reveals a triumphant hero, a victor arriving in Rome with the spolia from his prior conquest in tow (8.200–204):

attulit et nobis …

Śākya Chokden, Yaroslav Komarovski

Department of Classics and Religious Studies: Faculty Publications

During his long writing and teaching career, Śākya Chokden (1428-1507) developed a novel, and in many respects unusual approach to the key systems of Buddhist thought and practice. A recurrent theme given special attention in his numerous works is the question of the relationship between conflicting conceptual models of ultimate reality and the means of its realization on the one hand, and practical outcomes of utilizing those models in contemplative practice on the other. The position he articulates based on critical comparison of several Buddhist systems of thought and practice, is that despite their different, and often conflicting, conceptual approaches …

“If Apprehending Occurs, It Is Not The View” — Sakya Thinkers On The Madhyamaka View Of Freedom From Proliferations, Yaroslav Komarovski

Department of Classics and Religious Studies: Faculty Publications

The Sakya thinkers whose views were addressed in this paper are consistently in agreement regarding what freedom from proliferations is, how it is utilized in contemplative practice, and how it is located within the broader universe of non-tantric and tantric Buddhism. Freedom from proliferations is not an object, and transcends all categories of existence, nonexistence, etc. Consequently, it cannot be approached and described in the same way we understand and describe colors, tastes, ideas, etc. Yet, it is also not a nonexistent thing similar to rabbit horns and other types of falsely imagined phenomena. It can be realized, but only …

‘If Apprehending Occurs, It Is Not The View’: Sakya Thinkers On The Madhyamaka View Of Freedom From Proliferations, Yaroslav Komarovski

Department of Classics and Religious Studies: Faculty Publications

This paper addresses several key elements of Sakya thinkers’ approach to Madhyamaka, with the primary focus on their understanding of ultimate reality described as ‘freedom from proliferations’ (spros bral). It first provides a short summary of the general Sakya approach, then addresses works of several early Sakya masters, and finally explores writings of Gowo Rapjampa Sönam Senggé (go bo rab ’byams pa bsod nams seng ge, 1429-1489)— Gorampa (go rams pa) for short—whose position is accepted as representative of the mainstream within the Sakya tradition. Sakya thought in general, and its approach to Madhyamaka in particular, is based largely on …

From The Three Natures To The Two Natures: On A Fluid Approach To The Two Versions Of Other-Emptiness From 15th Century Tibet, Yaroslav Komarovski

Department of Classics and Religious Studies: Faculty Publications

In recent years there has been a surge of scholarly interest in diverse systems of Buddhist thought and practice that Tibetan thinkers characterize as “other-emptiness” (gzhan stong), contrasting them with systems of “self-emptiness” (rang stong). While the theories of such exponents of other emptiness as Dölpopa Sherap Gyeltsen (dol po pa shes rab rgyal mtshan, 1292–1361)1 are relatively well known, those of other Tibetan thinkers are only beginning to receive scholarly attention. This paper addresses one such lesser-known other-emptiness theory that was developed by the seminal Tibetan thinker Serdok Penchen Shakya Chokden (gser …

Review Of Ian Levy, Philip Krey, And Thomas Ryan, The Bible In Medieval Tradition: The Letter To The Romans., Stephen E. Lahey

Department of Classics and Religious Studies: Faculty Publications

Paul’s Letter to the Romans is the fullest account of Paul’s overall theology, and hence is the primary document for understanding the earliest Christian thought. Commentaries on the Letter to the Romans generally provide theologians the perfect venue with which to depict their understanding of the basic elements of Christianity, and it would follow that students and proponents of medieval scripture exegesis and theology should have ready access to Romans commentaries in translation. Thomas Aquinas’s commentary has recently become more widely available, and a translation of William of St. Thierry was published by Cistercian Publications in 1980, but until this …

A Symposium On The Legacy Of Frank Moore Cross: Introduction, Walter E. Aufrecht, Sidnie White Crawford

Department of Classics and Religious Studies: Faculty Publications

The papers following these remarks were presented in November 2013 at a symposium jointly sponsored by the Society of Biblical Literature and the American Schools of Oriental Research. Frank Cross was a president of both of these organizations, and so it seemed desirable to conduct a retrospective of his scholarly work under their aegis. Cross’s life and career was superbly highlighted in this journal by Peter Machinist (2013), and they need no further rehearsal here. Rather, our goal is to begin the evaluation of his work and its influence on the scholarly world.

Frank Moore Cross’S Contribution To The Study Of The Dead Sea Scrolls, Sidnie White Crawford

Department of Classics and Religious Studies: Faculty Publications

This paper examines the impact of Frank Moore Cross on the study of the Dead Sea Scrolls. Since Cross was a member of the original editorial team responsible for publishing the Cave 4 materials, his influence on the field was vast. The article is limited to those areas of Scrolls study not covered in other articles; the reader is referred especially to the articles on palaeography and textual criticism for further discussion of Cross’s work on the Scrolls.

The Development Of Tibetan Scholasticism: Shakya Chokden’S History Of Madhyamaka Thought In Tibet, Shakya Chokden, Matthew T. Kapstein, Yaroslav Komarovski

Department of Classics and Religious Studies: Faculty Publications

Serdok Paṇchen Shakya Chokden (1428–1507) stands out as one of the most remarkable thinkers of Tibet. The enormous body of his collected works is notable for the diversity and originality of the writings it contains, and for their exceptional rigor. One of the few Tibetan intellectuals affiliated with both the Sakyapa and Kagyiipa orders, which were often doctrinal and political rivals (see chapters 7 and n), he was also among the sharpest critics of Jé Tsongkhapa (chapter 16), the founder of the Gelukpa order that would come to dominate Tibet under the Dalai Lamas. For this reason Shakya Chokden’s works …

How To Throw A Spear On A Sling, Thomas Nelson Winter

Department of Classics and Religious Studies: Faculty Publications

When javelin throwers are told to be ready, Xenophon's phrasing appears, for instance, "He ordered the targeteers to carry javelin on strap, and the bowmen to hold arrow on string" (Anabasis 5.2, Rouse tr.). This context shows that the spear-throwers' readiness to throw, paralleling the archer with arrow nocked, was some preparation with a strap, sling, or thong. In addition to the warfare usage, Greek hunters also used a sling with their hunting spears. The hunter in Achilles Tatius 2.34 narrates, "I wound the thongs on my javelin ... " (Winkler tr.)

I owe to my former student Donald …

The Strange Career Of The Biblia Rabbinica Among Christian Hebraists, 1517–1620, Stephen G. Burnett

Department of Classics and Religious Studies: Faculty Publications

The Rabbinic Bible became a standard reference tool, above all for Protestant Hebraists during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. It contained not only the Hebrew Bible text, but also Aramaic-language Targums (periphrastic translations of the biblical text, mostly dating from before 500) and Jewish biblical commentaries written between ca. 1100 and 1500. To use these works required that a Christian Hebraist know not only the language of the Bible, but also Targumic Aramaic and medieval Hebrew, which was rather different from biblical or mishnaic Hebrew. For Christian scholars who mastered these languages and were able to read these different texts, …

Buddhist Contributions To The Question Of (Un)Mediated Mystical Experience, Yaroslav Komarovski

Department of Classics and Religious Studies: Faculty Publications

In this article, I address divergent Buddhist positions on conceptual and non-conceptual understanding of reality and the process of transition from the former to the latter. My discussion is anchored in the context of a well-known problematic issue in the field of religious studies, namely, the question of (un)mediated mystical experience. Connecting uniquely Buddhist philosophical and contemplative perspectives with the questions debated in contemporary studies of mysticism, I argue that Buddhism can make significant contributions to that field. Not only does it provide refined models of mind, contemplative processes, and other elements that help us understand certain mystical experiences, but …

Lutheran Christian Hebraism In The Time Of Solomon Glassius (1593-1656), Stephen G. Burnett

Department of Classics and Religious Studies: Faculty Publications

Lutheran Hebrew scholarship in the era of Orthodoxy has suffered the same kind of scholarly neglect as theology from this period. A few Hebraists such as Wilhelm Schickard or Wolfgang Ratke have been the subjects of monographs or collections of articles, while others receive mention in university histories or books related to Jewish-Christian relations in early modern Germany. Only within the past decade have scholars addressed this facet of Reformation-era Christian Hebraism. Johann Anselm Steiger examined the use that Johann Gerhard and Solomon Glassius made of post-biblical Jewish literature, while Kenneth G. Appold has stressed the pivotal role that Hebrew …

Shakya Chokden’S Interpretation Of The Ratnagotravibhāga: “Contemplative” Or “Dialectical”?, Yaroslav Komarovski

Department of Classics and Religious Studies: Faculty Publications

This reconciliation of the dialectical and contemplative approaches to the buddha-essence is related to and closely resembles Shakchok’s reconciliation of the two approaches to ultimate reality advocated respectively by Nihsvabhāvavāda (ngo bo nyid med par smra ba, “Proponents of Entitylessness”) system of Madhyamaka and Alīkākāravāda (rnam rdzun pa, “False Aspectarians”) system of Yogācāra. These approaches in turn are connected respectively to the explicit teachings (dngos bstan) of the second dharmacakra (chos ’khor, “Wheel of Dharma”) and the definitive teachings (nges don, nītārtha) of the third dharmacakra that he also presents in a reconciliatory …

Why Not License Referees?, Thomas Nelson Winter

Department of Classics and Religious Studies: Faculty Publications

The referee system in scholarly publishing offers us many benefits and also carries with it attendant problems. The problems need to be addressed. Referees are arguably the linchpins of academic scholarship: they do the heavy lifting for editors, they provide editors with vicarious expertise, and they monitor the gateway to publication and thus to tenure and promotion. Their presence in the editorial process is the guarantee to deans and program directors that scholarship is scholarship. Referees are also, however, the bottleneck of the publication system. Dilatory or slothful referees idly and thoughtlessly put careers on hold.

The system needs changing. …

Review Of Katharina Galor, Jean-Baptiste Humbert, And Jürgen Zangenberg (Eds.), Qumran, The Site Of The Dead Sea Scrolls: Archaeological Interpretations And Debates; Proceedings Of A Conference Held At Brown University, November 17-19, 2002, Sidnie White Crawford

Department of Classics and Religious Studies: Faculty Publications

The contributions in the volume include “Foreword,” by John J. Collins (p. vii); “Introduction: Qumran Archaeology in Search of a Consensus,” by Katharina Galor and Jürgen Zangenberg (pp. 1-9); “Some Remarks on the Archaeology of Qumran,” by Jean-Baptiste Humbert (pp. 19-39); “The 1996 Excavations at Qumran and the Context of the New Hebrew Ostracon,” by James F. Strange (pp. 41-54); “Back to Qumran: Ten Years of Excavation and Research, 1993–2004,” by Yizhak Magen and Yuval Peleg (pp. 55-113); “Hedging the Holy at Qumran: Walls as Symbolic Devices,” by Joan Branham (pp. 117-31); “Kh. Qumran in Period III,” by Joan E. …

Book Review: Living Together, Living Apart: Rethinking Jewish-Christian Relations In The Middle Ages, Stephen G. Burnett

Department of Classics and Religious Studies: Faculty Publications

The theme of Jonathan Elukin’s elegant and well-argued book is Jewish-Christian coexistence in medieval Europe—how was it possible given Christian prejudice and anti-Jewish violence? Older medieval Jewish history stressed the themes of “scholars and suffering,” embodying what the late Salo Baron termed a “lachrymose” view of Jewish history. In recent years historians have stressed how medieval Europe became a “persecuting society,” following the work of R. I. Moore, The Formation of a Persecuting Society (1987), and David Nirenberg, Communities of Violence (1996). Elukin argues for a different approach to medieval Jewish experience, eschewing a “one-dimensional narrative of victimization” (p. 4) …

Review Of Kenneth Liberman, Dialectical Practice In Tibetan Philosophical Culture: An Ethnomethodological Inquiry Into Formal Reasoning, Yaroslav Komarovski

Department of Classics and Religious Studies: Faculty Publications

Chapters 4–9 are the most important part of the book. Here Liberman displays his interpretive skills to the fullest. He explores various aspects of directly observed, live debate processes, drawing on the work of Schutz, Husserl, Durkheim (to mention just a few), as well as Buddhist thinkers Nagarjuna, Sakya Pandita, Tsongkhapa, and others. Liberman exhaustively explains the organization and mechanics of debates, the public nature of reasoning, negative dialectics employed by debaters, strategies and techniques such as absurd consequences, hand-claps, ridicule, and repetition, and other matters.

Review Of Duckworth Companions To Greek And Roman Tragedy, Anne Duncan

Department of Classics and Religious Studies: Faculty Publications

Duckworth's series, 'Companions to Greek and Roman Tragedy', is an excellent resource for students as well as for their teachers. The overall quality of the volumes in the series is high. Many of the volumes, in addition to being valuable textbooks, offer much to interest scholars. On the whole, the volumes in the series are written in clear, accessible prose, with technical and theoretical terms defined. They are a suitable length (generally around 130 pages of text) for use alongside either a translation of the given play or the play's text in Greek. Most volumes begin with a chapter on …

Jüdische Vermittler Des Hebräischen Und Ihre Christlichen Schüler Im Spätmittelalter, Stephen G. Burnett

Department of Classics and Religious Studies: Faculty Publications

Bruder Konrad Pellikan, ein Franziskanermönch, war das heroische Beispiel eines christlichen Autodidakten der hebräischen Sprache. Im Jahre 1499 fing er sein Studium des Hebräischen auf der Basis seiner Analyse des hebräischen Bibeltextes mit einer wortwörtlichen lateinischen Übersetzung der späteren Prophetenbücher und auch mit den transkribierten Versen von Jesajas, die sich in Petrus Nigris Stella Messiae befanden, an. Im Juli des folgenden Jahres hatte er bei einem Besuch in Tübingen von Reuchlin eine Erklärung der Nennform (Infinitiv) des Verbs bekommen. Im August besuchte er den Ulmer Priester Johannes Böhm. Dieser stellte ihm zwei handschriftliche Fragmente von Moses Kimhis Grammatik zur Verfügung, …

Philosemitism And Christian Hebraism In The Reformation Era (1500-1620), Stephen G. Burnett

Department of Classics and Religious Studies: Faculty Publications

Jonathan Israel argues in his seminal work European Jewry in the Age of Mercantilism (1985) that the early modern period marked a distinctive phase in the historical experience and consciousness of the Jews of Western Europe. He contends that the key factor that paved the way for these changes was the "political and spiritual upheaval which engulfed European culture as a whole by the end of the sixteenth century", above all what he terms the "Catholic-Protestant deadlock". The Protestant Reformation, which began in Wittenberg but quickly divided into several competing forms of Protestantism, evoked a Catholic Reformation in response. Polemicists …

You Can't Get There From Here: The Story Of The Third Conjugation, Thomas Nelson Winter

Department of Classics and Religious Studies: Faculty Publications

How does a student go from tetigit in the text to tango in the dictionary? Verbs in the third conjugation often prove difficult even for intermediate and advanced Latin students. The other conjugations all form the perfect stem with a v infix, with or without the thematic vowel. Third conjugation verbs form their perfect stem in five ways. Three of these ways correspond to Greek; the fourth way is with the standard u/v infix; and the fifth way is with no stem-change at all. A complete overview of these five types may preemptively spare your students time and grief.

Sample Editions Of The Oxford Hebrew Bible: Deuteronomy 32:1-9, 1 Kings 11:1-8, And Jeremiah 27:1-10 (34 G), Sidnie White Crawford, Jan Joosten, Eugene Ulrich

Department of Classics and Religious Studies: Faculty Publications

The following sample editions illustrate the theory and method of the Oxford Hebrew Bible. The Deuteronomy sample, edited by Sidnie White Crawford, concerns a text with one ancient edition, while the Kings sample, edited by Jan Joosten, and the Jeremiah sample, edited by Eugene Ulrich, concern texts with two ancient editions. The arguments that justify the editorial decisions are presented in the apparatuses and text-critical commentaries. (The detailed introductory chapters are not included.) The critical texts, following the conventions discussed in the previous article, contain the following sigla: a superlinear circlet to indicate an entry in the apparatus where the …

Later Christian Hebraists, Stephen G. Burnett

Department of Classics and Religious Studies: Faculty Publications

Christian Hebrew scholarship as an academic discipline was born during the sixteenth century. The founding of chairs of Hebrew language at European universities, the emergence of Hebrew presses to supply the needs of Christian customers, the willingness of some Jewish experts to instruct Christian pupils, and above all the humanist motivation for a return to the sources of the Christian faith together made Hebrew education possible for greater numbers of Christian scholars than ever before. The majority of these scholars had only a smattering of Hebrew, and those such as Conrad Pellican, and Paul Fagius who could read and understand …

An Analytical Directory Of The Latin Endings, Thomas Nelson Winter

Department of Classics and Religious Studies: Faculty Publications

What reader of Latin has not paused while consciously trying the various possibilities on a final -a ending? Or marched in place momentarily while deciding that a final -is was nominative, not genitive? While English shows meaning by position-in-sequence, Latin shows meaning by case-ending and circumstance: where case-ending fails, circumstance is left.

This book deals with the circumstance. It is, then a backwards grammar. It assumes some familiarity with Latin, and familiarity with the cases. Its intended audience is intermediate Latin students, and teachers of intermediate Latin students.

This is a chapter from an unpublished work, Odds on Latin, a …

The Mechanical Problems In The Corpus Of Aristotle, Thomas Nelson Winter

Department of Classics and Religious Studies: Faculty Publications

This is a translation of the Mechanical Problems from the TLG Greek text. That it survives in the corpus of Aristotle has been prima facie evidence that Aristotle was the author, although there are many problems with this attribution. At many places I found indications that the date of the work was apt for Aristotle. But eventually, I saw a connection in Vitruvius (as described in the brief essay included here as “Who Wrote the Mechanical Problems in the Corpus of Aristotle”) that led to a conviction of the author's true identity. To “cut to the chase,” I conclude that …