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Roger Haight, S.J., Christian Spirituality For Seekers: Reflections On The Spiritual Exercises Of Ignatius Loyola, And Spirituality Seeking Theology, Pasquale T. Giordano

Budhi: A Journal of Ideas and Culture

Roger Haight, S.J., Christian Spirituality for Seekers: Reflections on the Spiritual Exercises of Ignatius Loyola, and Spirituality Seeking Theology

How Are We To Think About The Knowledge That We Should Know?, RaúL Fornet-Betancourt

Budhi: A Journal of Ideas and Culture

As a precondition of philosophical dialogue among different cultures, this essay forwards a series of questions regarding the epistemological presuppositions of the current dominant knowledge culture, which is characterized by a capitalistic, technological, and colonial ethos. By stating its presuppositions, situating these in the historical context of its development, and drawing their consequences, the essay opens up the possibility of overcoming this dominant ethos of knowledge through the recuperation of epistemological plurality by way of exchanges among a multiplicity of knowledge cultures. The essay proposes that it is philosophy’s task today to resist the dehumanization of knowledge by asking what …

How Does A Foreign Religion Thrive In An Indigenous Culture? A Comparative Study Of The Spread Of Foreign Religions In The Chinese-Speaking Cultural Sphere, Wei-Ding Tsai

Budhi: A Journal of Ideas and Culture

Religion can be considered, on one hand, to be a human practice dependent on its own culture. On the other hand, religion is also a system of beliefs with a dogmatic character. Because religion has the tendency to preserve its cultural form, it therefore encounters a paradoxical problem of adaptation when it spreads within a foreign cultural area: How can an extending religion retain both its own cultural core as well as be adaptable and modifiable, in order to be accepted by other foreign cultures? Through a comparison of the history of the spread of Buddhism, Christianity, and Islam within …

The Search For Authentic Understanding And The Birth Of Radical Hermeneutics, Tran Van Doan

Budhi: A Journal of Ideas and Culture

This paper argues that it is the human search for authentic understanding that gives birth to radical hermeneutics, and not the reverse. Radical hermeneutics in the "contemporary" sense begins with Martin Heidegger's critical reinterpretation of Immanuel Kant's answer to the question of "What is the man?" (Was ist der Mensch?), and continues with his reflection on Being as the foundation of hermeneutics. Hans-Georg Gadamer has developed Heidegger's thesis into what he termed philosophical hermeneutics, while Jacques Derrida seized Heidegger's Kehre as the momentum to launch a typically Nietzschean interpretation, that is, to "return" to understanding in its genetic stage. Despite …

Becoming-Religion: Re-/Thinking Religion With A.N. Whitehead And Keiji Nishitani, Kenneth C. Masong

Budhi: A Journal of Ideas and Culture

For Whitehead and Nishitani, a rethinking of religion necessitates a rethinking of the metaphysics that underlie one’s concept of religion. The dynamism of religion is unveiled only within the metaphysical grounding of an ontology that accommodates the philosophical preference of “becoming” as an ultimate category of reality. The novelty of Whitehead’s theory of religion lies in the process metaphysics that is presupposes. For him, religion, like the whole of reality, is inherently developing and evolving. What Nishitani offers is a rethinking of Western understanding of religion by way of an Asian speculative approach grounded in Zen Buddhism. He argues that …

"Transcendence" Between Anthropology And Metaphysics: A Concept In Need Of Rethinking, Lorenz B. Puntel

Budhi: A Journal of Ideas and Culture

"Transcendence" Between Anthropology and Metaphysics: A Concept in Need of Rethinking

From Birmingham To Angkor Wat: Demarcations Of Contemporary Cultural Studies, E. San Juan Jr.

Kritika Kultura

The radical inspiration of Cultural Studies has been betrayed, declares E. San Juan, Jr. In this timely essay, he argues that this betrayal springs from the postmodernist temperament, the “metaphysical turn,” of contemporary Cultural Studies. By exaggerating “the possibility of liberation over the established fact of domination,” Cultural Studies has abandoned fundamental categories such as class and nation in favor of race and gender, among others. The frivolous has overcome the political: commercial icons and rituals are now fantasized to topple the very system that makes their condition possible. “In what sense can this still inchoate and contested terrain called …

Lukas Kaelin, Strong Family, Weak State: Hegel's Political Philosophy And The Filipino Family, Anton Luis Sevilla

Budhi: A Journal of Ideas and Culture

Lukas Kaelin, Strong Family, Weak State: Hegel's Political Philosophy and the Filipino Family

How To Leave Modernity Behind: The Relationship Between Colonialism And Enlightenment, And The Possibility Of Altermodern Decoloniality, Britta Saal

Budhi: A Journal of Ideas and Culture

Starting from the fact that we all share modern history while at the same time having very different and sometimes contrasting experiences of what modernity is, I’d first like to look at the connection between colonialism and Enlightenment, because the modern norms and values developed then are still discussed very actively on the global scale. One of the major problems that constrain the transcendence of the colonial impact of these norms and values is the colonized mind. It is very clear that it is necessary to decolonize both the colonized and the colonizer’s minds. Here the project of conceptual decolonization, …

Agenda For A South-South Philosophical Dialogue, Enrique Dussel

Budhi: A Journal of Ideas and Culture

The intercultural dialogue that has been developing since the beginning of the 21st century as a cultural and political priority should have an inter philosophical global dialogue as its epistemological and ontological foundation. However, given the asymmetric relation between the Global North and the Global South, it is necessary that this global dialogue begin with an inter philosophical dialogue among the world’s post-colonial communities. This essay argues that it is imperative for philosophers of the South to come together to define and claim for themselves a philosophical practice—generating its topics and methods from its own historical, socio-economic-political realities and traditions—that …

Gender Perspectives In Contemporary Eco-Theology, Metti Amirtham

Budhi: A Journal of Ideas and Culture

Despite several decades of research and education programs, humanity continues to deplete natural resources and pollute the ecosystem of the planet at an alarming rate. Given the widespread secular engagement with environmental issues, i am conscious of the crucial need for Christian theologians to take on board the scale and extent of the development of eco-theology right across the globe from within their own traditions. in this process of brewing theology, gender perspectives play a vital role, because, gender is an integral component of every aspect of the lives of individuals and societies. Moreover, there are important connections between the …

Diaphany: A Disseminar On Carapace, J. Pilapil Jacobo

Budhi: A Journal of Ideas and Culture

If Philippine cinema, during a time of dictatorial duress, has indeed gathered into its fold allegories of a certain social texture, then contemporary critique must also provide a rather thick notion of allegory itself, in order to describe the quality of the metonymic membranes which make possible the emergence of substance through eloquent surface. In this essay, I propose a critical elaboration of Laura Mulvey’s category “carapace,” and a subtle yet significant declension of surface, “diaphane,” in an attempt to intervene in the understanding of film as a plastic form with the tensile capacity to surpass its flatness by choosing …

Why Share A Language Or Tradition? Gadamer And Davidson In Dispute, Bart Vandenabeele

Budhi: A Journal of Ideas and Culture

That the ideal way to communicate and reach understanding is by speaking the same language, is a widespread view: it is rarely questioned in debates concerning language, (intercultural) communication, and interpretation. I shall argue that Hans-Georg Gadamer, too, suffers from this common language “syndrome.” Donald Davidson is one of the few philosophers who explicitly uttered qualms about the necessity of a common language. Davidson critiques Gadamer’s common language idea, and rightly claims that a common language is not needed for communication and understanding. I show that Davidson has been unable to develop this insight fruitfully and underestimates the importance of …

Oppositional Communities As Locations Of Grace: Karl Rahner And Postcolonial Theories In Dialogue, Michael J. Liberatore

Budhi: A Journal of Ideas and Culture

Discussions amongst theologians about the relationship between faith and culture often operate from an impoverished and presumptive understanding of culture rooted in European modernity, and complicit in the history of colonization and exploitation that emanates from it. Postcolonial theorists interrogate the meaning of culture and its varied manifestations and reveal how power has been used to frame and define cultures with an aim towards coercive manipulation. These critiques create space for oppositional communities to coalesce and resist identity co-optation and oppression. However, the tendency amongst postcolonial theorists toward deconstruction without positing a reconstructed alternative rooted in subjectivity, creates a challenge …

Jose Rizal And The Birth Of The Social Sciences In The Philippines, Resil B. Mojares

Budhi: A Journal of Ideas and Culture

The paper narrates jose Rizal’s sojourn in Berlin in 1887 as a defining moment in the emergence of the social sciences as a Filipino discipline. it situates this moment in a much wider history, in which such factors as the expansion of the economy, civil bureaucracy, education, and nationalism gave rise to the first Filipino writings in such fields as history, anthropology, sociology, economics, and political science. in recalling Rizal and his time, the paper argues that there is a longer history of the disciplines in the Philippines than is usually acknowledged.

Rizal And Science: A Struggle For Faith, Reason, And Knowledge, Michael L. Tan

Budhi: A Journal of Ideas and Culture

Much of what has been written about Jose Rizal focuses on his political thinking, with side references to his numerous accomplishments in the arts and letters, in science, technology, and medicine. in this essay, i choose to focus on Rizal the scientist, both in the sense of someone searching for knowledge as well as someone employing scientific methods to the study of society. i use Rizal’s writings, including correspondence with family and friends and a former Jesuit mentor, Father Pablo Pastells; his “letter to the Women of Malolos”; his essay “indolence of the Filipinos”; and his novel Noli Me Tangere …

The Geopolitical Configuration Of Okinawa In Post-War Japan: Focusing On Tatsuhiro Ōshiro’S The Cocktail Party, Yeonhee Woo

Kritika Kultura

Okinawa, located at the southernmost tip of Japan, has greater proximity to Taiwan than its home country, Japan, as well as a unique historical character. After being forcibly incorporated into Japan in 1879, the island was devastated by the Battle of Okinawa which was waged against Japan by the United States in 1945. After Japan was defeated in the Pacific War, Okinawa was separated from the mainland and held under the occupation of the US military. In particular, the 1960s was a time when the “return to the mainland” movement, which advocated a return to Japan after escaping from the …

The Importance Of Bearing Witness In Edwin Cameron’S Witness To Aids (2005), Oscar Ortega Montero

Kritika Kultura

Edwin Cameron’s memoir Witness to AIDS (2005) was the first HIV/AIDS memoir published in South Africa in the midst of the worst years of the epidemic. The narrative discloses essential facts about his experience living with the virus. In this paper, I argue that Edwin Cameron’s intellectually savvy and powerful testimony opened up a widespread national debate on citizen participation in policy-decision making and public accountability in South Africa. My analysis revolves on the interplay between whiteness, privilege, and access to life-saving drugs in the on-going construction of democratic and transparent post-Apartheid South Africa. Edwin Cameron’s position of privilege as …

Rituals And Magic On The Transition Of Sacredness In Folk Religion In Central Vietnam, Dang Huu Nguyen

Kritika Kultura

This article examines the dynamics of sacredness in Central Vietnamese folk religion. It utilizes a qualitative approach, specifically ethnographic fieldwork and in-depth interviews in the community of Danang estuary in Central Vietnam, to study rituals and magic, specifically those involved in purifying, de-sanctifying, and re-sanctifying religious artifacts. The findings of this study demonstrate that the concept of sacredness is not fixed; rather, it continuously fluctuates between states of sanctification and de-sanctification. Additionally, the dynamics of the sacred is subject to change and is attributed with different values when transferred across cultural contexts. Based on these observations, this article emphasizes the …

Using Catholic Social Thought And The Normativity Of The Future In Responding To The Super Wicked Problem Of Climate Change, Stephanie Ann Yu Puen

Theology Department Faculty Publications

The climate crisis has been dubbed a “super wicked problem”—one where there is a sense of urgency, complicity in the problem by those who wish to solve it, and difficulty in sacrificing the short term for the long term. To respond to the difficulty of long-term thinking in addressing super wicked problems as part of SDG 13 (Climate Action), there is a need to pay attention to the narratives, norms, and values at work, and how we employ these categories in climate action. This paper discusses how Catholic social thought and the concept of the normativity of the future can …

Editor's Introduction, Michael D. Pante

Philippine Studies: Historical and Ethnographic Viewpoints

No abstract provided.

Locating The Ilokano Baglan In The Gender And Sexuality Continuum, Aurelio Solver Agcaoili

Budhi: A Journal of Ideas and Culture

The article is an attempt to recover the baglan tradition of ritual healing among the Ilokano people. Currently, only pejorative comments exist about this baglan tradition whose practices represent the continuum of sex, sexuality, and gender among these groups of people in the Northern Philippines. The argument presented leads to a critique of knowledge formation in colonial Ilocos and unmasks the problem of reproduced versions of the truth about the baglan and their role in the definition of the healthy human being and the healthy community. The ungendered baglan, is, in fact, the person that is all-gender, all-sex, and all-sexuality, …

Editor's Introduction, Michael D. Pante

Philippine Studies: Historical and Ethnographic Viewpoints

No abstract provided.

Political Constructions Of People Who Use Drugs In The Philippines: A Qualitative Content Analysis, Gideon Lasco

Development Studies Faculty Publications

Background

This paper examines the political constructions of people who use drugs in the Philippines throughout the presidency of Rodrigo Duterte (2016–2022), during which the government engaged in a ‘war on drugs’ and promoted a punitive drug regime.

Methods

Building on and drawing inspiration from the global drug policy scholarship that has looked at the ways in which drugs are framed and problematised in various domains, this study used qualitative content analysis to review 96 documents from national government agencies - including strategic action plans, directives, memorandums, guidelines, annual reports, and legislative measures.

Results

Foremost, the study finds that various …

The Great Spirit In Indigenous Peoples' Lives And The Future Of Pneumatology, Jojo M. Fung Sj

Asia Pacific Mission Studies

With the unsustainability of the current global economic and financial systems that have exacerbated the ecological crises, it is timely to turn our attention to the shamanic religiosity of the indigenous peoples. The wisdomteachings of shamanic pneumatology are invaluable in helping the earth community to negotiate this critical ecological era. The first part of this paper explains the indigenous understanding and experience of the Great Spirit. The second part will delve into the future of pneumatology in terms of the three major paths: live-in dialogue, plunging into the depth of religious mystical traditions, and dialogue with modern science and cosmology.

Body And Prayer: Comparing Taoist And Christian Methods Of Meditation, Paulin Batairwa Kubuya Sx

Asia Pacific Mission Studies

This article explores the problems arising from the cross-cultural setting where these eastern and western meditative traditions meet. It further suggests that every interpretation and expansion of methods of meditation has to bear in mind the broadness and complexity of the new multicultural environment where the old techniques are being practiced. Such awareness will enable the birth of appropriate methods inspired by old traditions and yet fit for today's spiritual needs. Within overviews of the Taoist and Christian practices of meditation, we focus on the body—its role and place in meditation—to understand how Taoist and Christian meditations are related.

Ang Alamat Ng “Dong-Dong-Ay”:Ang Grupong Alamat At Angpopularisasyon Ng Tradisyonal Nakultura Ng Kordilyera Sapamamagitan Ng P-Pop, Jason Verzola

Katipunan

Nobyembre at Disyembre 2023 nang maging usap-usapan sa mundo ng social media ang awiting “Dong-Dong-Ay” ng grupong ALAMAT. Ang “Dong-Dong-Ay” ay ang panghuling awit mula sa kanilang kaunaunahang full-length album na pinamagatang Isa Puso. Ang nasabing kanta ay hango mula sa awiting salidummay na isang uri ng tradisyonal na awitin na popular sa mga katutubong mamamayan ng rehiyong Kordilyera sa Hilagang Pilipinas. Mula nang lumabas sa YouTube ang bidyo ng kanilang pagtatanghal ng “Dong-Dong-Ay” sa programang Rappler Live Jam, tila hindi na mapigilang apoy ang pagkalat ng awiting ito sa TikTok, Facebook reels, Instagram reels, YouTube shorts, at X o …

Biased Representation Of Digital Feminist Activism: A Critical Look At Cyberfeminism, Muria Endah Sokowati, Sitti Amar Azizyah Puthe Taliu

Social Transformations Journal of the Global South

The development of technology facilitated by computer networks creates ambiguity over women’s empowerment. On the one hand, the intersection of technology and women’s freedom of expression has led to the emergence of cyberfeminism. The participatory culture encourages the growth of feminist movements to facilitate public engagement and empowerment. However, several overlooked challenges persist in the representation of women’s concerns. Consequently, we undertook this study to offer critique and contemplation on digital feminist activity. This study presents a contradictory perspective, providing a counterbalance and an alternative narrative to the prevailing emphasis of previous research on the glorification of cyberfeminism and activism …

Narratives Of Utang Na Loob Among Working Panganays In The Southern Philippines, Mary Therese C. Lasanas, Kayle Erika Shayne P. Nayal, Grace Lou Marie C. Meneses, John Gabriel A. Lasquites, Nicole Rey S. Balverde, Luel Mae Z. Pilayre-Contreras, Jason O. Manaois

Social Transformations Journal of the Global South

Filipino family dynamics and culture may influence how traditional values like “utang na loob” (debt of gratitude) are understood across time. The purpose of the study is to understand the concept of utang na loob in the Southern Philippines from the perspective of working panganays (eldest children). The research investigated the narratives of the eldest child in the Filipino family regarding their experiences with utang na loob. It employed Murray’s three levels of narrative analysis as a framework and elicited themes on personal, positional, and ideological levels. Results revealed personal experiences of early maturity and filial pressure, gratitude, and fulfillment, …

Conceptualising And Enacting Pathways To Transformative Climate Justice: Examples From The Philippines, Justin See, Anne Shangrila Fuentes, Emma Porio, Brooke Wilmsen

Sociology & Anthropology Department Faculty Publications

Scholarship on climate change adaptation is increasingly moving from incremental responses to climate injustice towards transformative approaches that deliberately change systems to achieve just and equitable outcomes. A transformative understanding of climate justice is relatively new and evidence of how this could be achieved is in its infancy. In this paper, we conceptualise transformative climate justice as comprised of three subcomponents: (1) inclusive justice (seeking to ensure that no one, especially the most vulnerable, is left behind), (2) epistemological justice (drawing upon diverse knowledges and worldviews), and (3) restorative justice (healing and restoration of communities and the environment). We then …