Bwiti et christianisme : Approche philosophique et théologique (Etudes africaines) (French Edition)

The lyre is important for Apollo, but neither the description in the catalogue nor illustrations of similar coins offers any reason to call the figure Apollo, let alone Apollo Lairbenos. Apollo Archegetes, however, is shown with a lyre, 95 and as a sun god with radiate head. It may simply depict some other patron god of Hierapolis or represent the city itself deified. A coin in the British Museum catalogue bears on the obverse a head of Augustus and on the reverse a serpent- entwined double-axe that is surmounted by a radiate head of Helios.

One is a small marble votive stele which shows Lairbenos riding a horse. The horse moves to the right but Lairbenos has turned his 66 Kevin M. Miller face toward the viewer. He carries a double-axe over his left shoulder and wears a tunic and flowing cape. Robert believes that a stele from Badinlar" also bears a likeness of Lairbenos. Rays from the head indicated that he was a sun god.

Stock equipment was common to several deities, and what were probably ready-made votive reliefs offered standard representations. Moreover, different cults of the same god used the iconographic themes common to that god. Apollo Ar- chegetes appears on coins of Hierapolis as a sun god, and a relief and its dedication to Apollo Bozenos from Satala in Lydia provide a close parallel to Apollo Lairbenos. The relief shows a horse moving to the right and bearing a rider who carries a double-axe in his left hand.

The offender had trespassed on the sacred territory. A portico was on the west end. The roof was tiled and the ceiling was gilded and coffered. There may have been a room used as a treasury, and a small building with benches and an arched roof lay west of the temple. On the north side of the temple were inscribed altars and statue pedestals which bore statues of Apollo Alexikakos, of Apollo Lairbenos, and of Victories. Apollo Lairbenos 67 Connected with the temple was a sacred precinct where one could not go in an impure condition without suffering divine retribution which often appeared as a physical ailment.

From the fact that no thanks was expressed in the confessions one may infer that the afflictions were still present. We do not know whether there were any permanent residents at the sanctuary, but the inscriptions show that there was quite a stream of visitors from Motella, Blaundos, Dionysopolis, and Hierapolis.

If children had to be present at xocTOcypacpou they must have been frequent visitors, along with parents and foster parents of both sexes. Appearing in dreams, he ordered parents or foster parents to xaxaypacpeiv their children, he ordered people to erect votive statues, and he even ordered a man to free a slave. Thus Apollo Lairbenos was especially concerned with obedience to his injunctions, with the breaking of oaths, with stealing, and, in some respect, with the status of children.

In addition to punishing shortcomings in these matters, he was capable of afflicting his followers when they tried to shirk a responsibility or simply wished to do something which was forbidden. A god with these concerns and with the power to punish people and to extract money from their purses is, as the stelai advise, not to be taken lightly. Department of Classical Studies, Kevin M.

I am grateful for his guidance and encouragement. Princeton University Press, , II, Miller 3 Barclay V. Arnaldo Forni, , lxvi. Hereafter cited as BMC. Georg Reimer, , Hereafter cited as AH. Hereafter cited as CB. Harvard University Press, , IV, Edith Clay ; rpt. Trustees of the British Museum, , Press, , IV, p. Hereafter cited as MAMA. Apollo Lairbenos 69 44 Ibid.

Hirzel, , II, no. Bretschneider, , Brill, , III, 53, note Press, , Pageant Books, , IV, Brill, , III, It is significant that there is no hint that Trophime, the woman in question, was or ever had been a slave. Brill, , , note Clarendon Press, , III, pp. Miller 11 Millar, Alfred Holder, , I, p. Verlagsanstall, , IV, nos. Mann, , IX, plate , nos. Press, , VI, plate 12, no. Einar Munksgaard, , I, plate 13, nos. For other coins similarly described see Mionnet, IV, nos. Smith I This is a paper on beginnings. In the beginning I will be concerned with two key notions of excess which regulate the Vedic metaphysical economy; two ideas which provide the limits and boundaries of the conceptual space inside of which all true being, all ontological formations are located.

I then will turn attention to a group of cosmogonic myths which feature Prajapati, the creator god par excellence of Vedic ritualism. These myths articulate a prototypical blueprint which also is replicated at the human level. Patterns of universal creation are repeated in Vedic passages dealing with the structure of human beginnings. As cosmic creation is not cosmogony, so too is human reproduction not the production of a true human being. In Vedic texts, the word is applied in various contexts. In all cases, however, it is the unproductivity of excessive resemblance and undifferentiation that is denoted.

This is brought out with clarity in a passage from the Jaiminlya Brahmana which likens jami to homosexual union: Devoid of pairing amithuna and productivity aprajanana is jami, as is the fruitless coupling of two men or two women That, on the other hand, which is devoid of jami is a true pairing mithuna , a true generation prajanana JB 1. Sacrifice and Being 73 If productivity requires a mitigation of excessive resemblance and undifferentiation, it also assumes a modification of the state of total distinction and utter separation.

Jami precludes production of true being because there are no sufficiently distinct parts to connect; prthak does so because there are no connections possible between overly distinct parts. This creative act engenders not a cosmos, however, but a cosmic problem: It is, in other words, either jami or prthak and in neither case a cosmogony. In one set of myths of this kind, Prajapati emits creatures who are formless by virtue of their excessive cohesiveness or in- 74 Brian K.

Smith distinguishable because they are too much alike. Or, as another text relates, the cosmic particles thus procreated are chaotic because they are equal, left in a post-creative existence characterized by discord, rivalry, and cannibalism: Furthermore, Prajapati himself is described as totally spent, dissipated, and broken down after his procreative emission. He was unable to rise with his joints disjointed SB 1.

Cosmogony, the production of an ordered universe out of a generated potential, is a secondary act in the Prajapati myths. He saw the forty-nine day sacrificial session. Thereupon, this creation became separated: Here the origins of universal form and order are specifically said to be effected by the morphological power of ritual, subsequent to and counteracting the creative emission. Cosmos arises out of ritual construction of the fragmentary emitted parts.

When Prajapati had fallen into pieces vyasramsata , his breath and energy gone out from him, he falls down. With the agnihotra the twice-daily sacrifice they healed that joint which is the two junctures of day and night, and joined it together samadadhuh. With the new and full moon sacrifices they healed that joint which is between the waxing and waning lunar half-months, and joined it together. And with the caturmasyas they healed that joint which is the beginning of the seasons, and joined it together SB 1.

In the first place, to divide, and in the second to reunite. He being One, becomes or is made into Many, and being Many becomes again or is put together again as One. The cosmogonic myths indicate that for the Vedic ritualists what is immediately given is inherently defective; what is subsequently formed, constructed, and connected is the on- tologically real. This process of making order and synthesis out of the original, procreated disorder or fragmentation is repeated at the level of human reproduction. The cosmic emission of Prajapati is replicated by the emission of semen in the act of human procreation.

When emitted into the womb of the woman, it is as if the self of the procreator has been wholly reproduced in the form of the embryo: In a person this one the microcosmic atmari becomes first an embryo. That which is semen is the luminous power tejas extracted from all the parts of the man. In the self, truly, one bears another self. When he pours this in a woman, then he begets it. The self is transmitted and perpetuated through the offspring, but the product is redundant. The foetus thus created is merely a reduplication of the father, a redundant product that must be recast.

Individuation begins as the foetus in the womb is shaped by its mother: It comes into individual self-becoming atma-bhuya with the woman, just as a limb of her own. Therefore it does not injure her. She nourishes this self of his that has come to her AitU 2. The dual emission produces an independent and sufficiently distinct third entity.

The excessively undifferentiated semen is thus to be counteracted in some way in order to avoid the sterility of jami. A different theory of human origins is also expounded, one which turns on the opposite problem of excessive differentiation. He thought himself drained riricana He who sacrifices creates offspring.

The transmutation of semen to person within the womb, and the process of further refining a human from a procreated offspring, are accomplished by the ritual activities called samskaras. In later life, Vedic rituals performed by or for the adult sacrificer, th t yajamana, continue the progressive realization of the human form. Barua comments with reference to this text, The substance with potentialities or possible forms is given as a work of Art Divine and the methodical realization of those possibilities is the achievement of human skill and intelligence Art consists in the intelligent working up of a desired form on a natural material, making manifest what is hidden or potential.

The portrait is both complete in itself at any particular sacrificial performance and Sacrifice and Being 81 filled out over time. It is at once an index and a projection, a gauge of the relative actualization of the self in this world and the other world. Sacrifice constitutes being, both cosmic and human, by a process that is equally one of construction and discovery; a process of realization of potentiality. Staal writes, The sacrifice can now be interpreted as one of the modes of human being which constitutes being. This ontological interpretation enables us to see how it was possible ontically, as Heidegger would say that such importance was attached to the ritual act Every human is cast into this condition originally.

Some persons and groups are considered permanently faulty and incomplete. Still others are temporarily returned to the aboriginal circumstance through illness. All are, at death, placed into an ontological limbo complementary to that of the procreated foetus. The uninitiate is likened to those persons permanently excluded from Vedic rituals and thus permanently defective, the members of the sudra or servant class: They do not put any restrictions on the acts of a boy before the initiation; for he is on the level with a sudra before his second birth through the Veda BDhS 1.

The sudras live in a state of inherited and perpetual irresponsibility, a child-like condition of natural deficiency that members of the 82 Brian K. Smith other classes pass through but also pass out of when brought into relation with the sacrifice. According to Manu Such is not the case, however, for the other three classes who are expected to progress out of the state of in-born incompleteness and realize themselves, in different ways and to various degrees, through ritual action.

A member of the Brahmin, ksatriya , of vaisya class is born defective 21 but also with inherent proclivities that should be exploited. No one should initiate such men, nor teach them, nor perform sacrifices for them, nor have intercourse with them A person whose ancestors through three generations have been patita-savitrikas is permanently excluded from the samskara of initiation and from being taught the Veda PGS 2. The patita-savitrika falls into such a state through negligence. His strength went asunder vyarchat in every direction. The gods searched for an expiation for him, but none would please him.

Only the strong soma rite tivra-soma pleased him and restored him to strength. He should perform this rite for one who drinks soma only to have it pass through him soma-atipavita. Ruptured, as it were, is he whose soma passes through him. The performance of the strong soma rite serves to block up, to rectify the rupture. He should perform it for a king who is expelled from his kingdom.

The subjects pass through him who has been expelled from his kingdom. It should be performed by one who wants offspring. He should perform it for one who is ill in any way timayavin. The vital breaths pass through him who is ill. The performance of the strong soma rite serves to block up, to rectify the rupture PB Finally, we may turn to the case of the recently deceased who is betwixt and between a former life as a man and a future existence as an ancestor.

The dead man does not immediately after his death and without more ado join the number of the ancestors who are worshipped; on the contrary fixed ceremonies are necessary for elevating the deceased to the rank of ancestors. The once integrated constituents of the human body are dissolved into their parts and redistributed throughout the cosmos: Smith Man is decomposed into his natural and dispersed elements precisely as the Cosmic One must first become multiple before a new reformation can emerge out of the recomposition of the parts.

The child, the sudra, the patita-savitnka , the sick man, and the newly dead—all these states are similar regressions to the original human condition of defectiveness. The remedy for illness, ritual reconstruction and reintegration, is but a special case of the remedy applied to all faulty beings. Sacrifice is in Vedism the ontological medicine for all deficient creations, and thus also the means for repairing debilitated forms.

And rituals must be regularly repeated to protect against the natural inclination of structured entities to deconstruct into their atomistic constituents. The very set of circumstances the ritual is meant to overcome is that which plagues it. The sacrifice is subject to the potential for its acts and elements to fall apart. As it is said in the Vedic ritualistic texts, sacrifice is the expiation of the sacrifice.

Barnard College, Brian K. Harcourt, Brace and World, Inc. Vrin, , p. My thanks to David Carpenter for leading me to this extremely important and often overlooked study. Banerjea, Studies in the Brahmanas Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, , pp. The Christian Mission Press, Dover Publications, , pp. University of Chicago Press, , pp. Socio-Religious Study of the Hindu Sacraments , 2nd ed.

Motilal Banarsidass, , p. Sacrifice and Being 87 20 J. Staal, Advaita and Neoplatonism: University of Madras, , p. Reynolds and Earle H. The visits in of the Pope to East Asia and of the Daila Lama to Great Britain was a fitting time for these two eminent figures to show this, through their cordial visits to local leaders of the other tradition. Historically, though, this generally friendly relationship may be thought, with some initial justification, to be only a recent 20th century indeed post phenomenon. During the Mongol dominance of Asia, various Western missionaries had travelled in Asia, and had recorded their meeting with Buddhists during the 13th and 14th centuries.

What will emerge is that the discernible responses on the part of Christian writers towards Buddhism almost seem to forshadow some of the modern responses in the recent decades of inter-faith dialogue. The earliest Christian notice of Buddhism comes c. First in its ranks were Some, too of the Indians obey the precepts of Boutta, whom on account of his extraordinary sanctity they have raised to divine honours. Of all the places in the Roman Empire it was cosmopolitan Alexandria, with its direct trading links with the west coast of India, the Indus valley, and through that with Bactria, which could realistically hope to pick up information on religious developments in the East.

The samanaeans from Bactria refer to the Buddhist sramanas wanderers , the Boutta in India to the Buddha. The analogy between the Greek sophia and the Buddhist prajha forms of wisdom seems to have been sensed by Clement, thus providing an unexpected early antecendent to modern studies by scholars like Conze. Among the early Church Fathers Clement figures as one of the prominent apologists who attempted to explain Christianity to a non-Christian world. In the Mediterranean milieu apologetics had been mostly concerned with Hellenic philosophy and with the rival 90 David Scott deities of Antiquity.

Among these apologist writers e. A further notice on Buddhism is contained in the Contra Jovianus 1. Concerning Indian religions he had heard how: The opinion is authoratively handed down that Buddha the founder of their religion had his birth through the side of a virgin. Rome itself was sacked in and W.

Europe descended into its Dark Age for the next few centuries. The rise of Islam in the 7th century directly cut across previous links between India and the Mediterranean. Thus it was that Buddhism dropped out of the consciousness of Christianity. Although Buddhism was to be lost to Christian literature in the West, this was not to be the end of our story.

Furthermore Christianity started to go yet further eastwards, out of the Zoroastrian orb into areas in Central Asia that were dominated by Buddhism. At a very direct practical level Christianity had to respond to Buddhism. How was it to respond? On the one hand it could dismiss Buddhism as mere idolatry. In this vein we have the following statement made by the Persian bishops to Khusro I concerning the work of the Logos, or Word: What attitude did the Nestorian Christians take to their by now increasingly familiar local Buddhist neighbours?

As in the West, two strands already existed within the Christian tradition vis-a-vis other encountered traditions. As we have seen, from the earliest days the more appreciative treatment of Greek philosophy by Apologists like Clement had been matched by strong denunciations of rival deities. II trompe les paiens de toute espece avec les noms de leurs dieux imaginaires et faux. The earliest evidence of this comes from Alopen, who arrived in from Mesopotamia to head the fledgling Christian community. In 92 David Scott his Jesus Messiah Sutra we find the transcendance of God being stressed, and the buddhas being considered more like angels: All the buddhas as well as kinnaras and the superintending-devas and arhans can see the Lord of Heaven.

No human being, however, has ever seen the Lord of Heaven. The person of the Lord of Heaven is in brightness, joyous and peaceful and dwells in Heaven in comfort. All the buddhas flow and flux by virtue of this very wind, while in this world, there is no place where the wind does not reach. Ever since the time when heaven and earth were created in co-operation, the divine dignity of God has never been but manifested, and it has never been but the cause of immortality enjoying everlasting happiness.

Man, therefore, in extremity, will always do honour to the name of Buddha. Should it be dismissed as merely a bad Nestorian translation, due to the Buddhist scribe that Alopen was initially dependant on? One notices some particularly interesting overlaps between the trikaya doctrines that were prevalent in Mahayana circles on the one hand, and certain incoming Christian ideas. Thus when Alopen equated God with Buddha, which aspect kaya of the Buddha was he equating? Was it to the Nirmanakaya the historical aspect, i.

Shakyamuni , Sambhogakaya the celestial blissful aspect, i. It would in fact make quite good sense if Alopen was equating the Christian God with the latter aspect of Dharmakaya, Godhead being equated with Buddhahead. Incidentally a similar approach has also been advocated in recent years in Christian-Buddhist dialogue. In a sense we could say that the trikaya Christian responses to Buddhism in pre-medieval times 93 theory of Buddha-nature was being accepted and applied through equation to analogous Christian levels.

Such ignorance could not maintain itself for, as the text immediately continues: The Lord of Heaven, however, gives man mind and wisdom. Therefore, whoever wants to return for the charity-favour of Buddha should have, by reflection and self examination a clear comprehension of his own sins and wicked deeds. However such actions needed to be allied with a belief in God: They are, in reality, traitors! Again it should be noted that this was no mere syncretic mess.

Instead there are clear adaptations from Buddhism, but contained within an overall Christian framework. Whilst the historical aspects of the Christian message were strictly adhered to, a flexible approach was followed in the more metaphysical aspects which were approximated in various cases to Buddhist thought. The interesting point to emerge is that the approximations made did have some real functional and thematic overlapping. This process can be followed in other works attributed to Alopen.

In the Discourse on Monotheism the theme of sunyata emptiness that had been propounded by writers like Nagarjuna and indeed in the whole prajha-paramita literature, was adopted by Alopen to show that ultimately God was beyond all human categories for: Elsewhere in that piece Alopen lamented how because of the work of the devil: The term used for alms-giving was the Chinese Buddhist character pu-shih which was a translation of the Sanskrit dana , which invokes the six paramitas that the Buddhist had to master, and of which dana- paramita was traditionally the first.

Another line of enquiry that may be followed fruitfully is with the Christian response to the Bodhisattva figure of Avalokitesvara, who was considered in Mahayana circles as the very embodiment of compassion karuna , and the one who manifested himself everywhere in answer to the cries of the suffering, and who ap- Christian responses to Buddhism in pre-medieval times 95 peared in China in the more female form of Kuan-Yin lit. Regarder of the Cries of the World. After all was it not stated in all the Gospels Matthew 9. Nestorian awareness and usage of such Buddhist themes centred around Kuan-Yin can be seen in the famous stele erected at Hsian-fu in , by one Yazedbouzid who at the end of the inscription said that his father Milis had been a priest from Balkh in present day N.

Afghanistan, and at that time a Buddhist stronghold. He then took an oar in the Vessel of Mercy and ascended to the Palace of Light. In the former sense we have her eulogy in the Liturgy of Kuan-Yin: Great compassionate Kwan-shai-yin, Oh! The answer to this was because: But some statements go deeper than mere imagery.

Meditating on the various devices and plans of salvation is what other sects would do. But in the teaching of the Lord of the Universe our prayer is all that is needed to have our desire completely fulfilled. Therefore, you who have already embraced the faith, or you who do all kinds of meritorious deeds, or who will walk in his way with an honest heart, shall all enter heaven and remain in that abode of happiness for ever and ever.

Indeed we find our Nestorian friend Adam helping a Buddhist monk, one Prajna who Christian responses to Buddhism in pre-medieval times 97 had come to China from Kapisa in present-day Afghanistan, to translate into Chinese a Buddhist text. As the Buddhist Chen-yuan- hsin-ting-shih-chiao mu-lu reported of Prajna: Such an ethically- orientated piece would have been the type of Buddhist literature that was most acceptable to local Christians.

In short Buddhism was for Adam a familiar face, and so his decision to help the Buddhist monk Pra- jna translate a Buddhist text has a very deliberate air to it. The fact that the character of this text was concerned with high standards of behaviour such as would no doubt be acceptable to Adam, gives his decision a further air of deliberateness and of appropriateness: Commenting on Matthew The Antichrist had said: II pousse a la perdition tous les autres peuples lointains avec les noms qui sont veneres chez eux The difference between the two texts may well be situational.

The Nestorians in China were actually encountering Buddhists in the flesh. What does emerge from the available Nestorian material in China is a curious echoing of the previous initial approach implied by Clement of Alexandria at the start of the third century.

Moreover, by their utilization of Buddhist themes connected with ethical behaviour, wisdom and compassion, the Nestorians may also appear as fore-runners to contemporary Christian initiatives and forms of dialogue. Dumoulin, for one, is struck by the Buddhist theme of compassion as being a fruitful entry point for modern dialogue. Christian responses to Buddhism in pre-medieval times 99 2 A separate study is forthcoming on this medieval situation. Wilson, The Writings of Clement of Alexandria, 2 vols. General survey of such early contacts and images in J.

Sedlar, India and the Greek World, Totowa, Lilia, Clement of Alexandria, London, ; C. Letters and Selected Works, Oxford, , pp. This rejected Manichaean-Buddha was not linked by such writers to the earlier notices by Clement and Jerome, to Buddhism, or to India, and so is not really relevant for our particular study here.

General survey by J. Fundamental repository of source material given in P. Cumont, Les Mages Hellenises, Paris, , vol. Dom Aelred Graham, Conversations: Christian and Buddhist, London, , pp. Sangharakshita, A Survey of Buddhism, 4th ed. Luk, London, , p. Bidez and Cumont, op. Dumoulin, Christianity meets Buddhism , La Salle Illinois , , where he takes what he calls a Johannite position with emphasis on the creative presence of the Logos throughout the world, which leads onto specific treatment on themes of in particular compassion and meditation. Johnston, Christian Zen, Dublin, Interestingly he also noted the closeness of the Buddhist epitome of compassion Kuan-Yin and the Sermon on the Mount, p.

He also starts on p. Yet has not something of this been shown for those very earliest Christian encounters with Buddhism that we have looked at? The Walam Olum is a long narrative poem beginning with the Creation and recording the wanderings of the Delaware Indians through many generations; its text was preserved by C. The sole issue of this paper is whether Joseph Smith profited from the Walam Olum as it was recorded by Rafinesque.

A new Religion or sect has been founded upon this belief! Supposed to be written in gold letters more than years ago by Mormon],] leader of the American Jews. This Book which no one has seen nor read but the founder of the sect, the probable writer thereof, has been made the Bible of a new sect. As shown in the most comprehensive discussion of the subject, 4 the Walam Olum came to Rafinesque in two stages while he was living in Kentucky.

In brief, a "Dr. Therefore, this manuscript must be a recension from two earlier sources—neither of which has been found—since it contains the pictographs, the Lenape words of the language of the Delawares, and the English equivalents of these words. Rafinesque finally published his English version in with a sample of the Lenape text but without the pictographs. Joining his friend Professor Amos Eaton, who was conducting a scientific field trip for his students from the Renssaelaer School on the newly completed Erie Canal, Rafinesque traveled with the group, which passed through Palmyra, N.

But we know that Smith was not in Palmyra on this date, scanty as the documentation is for many of his early years. If Joseph Smith was aware of the substance of the Walam Olum before he published the Book of Mormon in his knowledge must have come through some source other than Rafinesque. Although no evidence has ever been advanced that Smith was in fact familiar with the Creation myth and migration record of the Lenape people, the source of the story most likely available to him would have been the paraphrased account of it printed by John Heckewelder in By including the names of chiefs number- Charles Boewe ing more than four score, each in succession to the others, it implies a time span of at least a millennium.

In so doing, if the stories are true, he became, in a measure, one of the ancestors of Mormonism; for it is said that his suggestion that the Indians came from Asia by way of Siberia, and were perhaps the descendants of the ten lost tribes of Israel, gave the first suggestion to Solomon Spa[u]lding, on which he built his book of the prophet Mormon.

Though the Spaulding thesis has since been exploded, 15 Jordan betrays his ignorance of Mormon affairs even further by appearing to attribute the Book of Mormon itself to Spaulding rather than to Joseph Smith. Nor is there any evidence in his pamphlet that Orson Pratt had ever heard of the Walam Olum. Seeking to defend the Book of Mormon, had either Pratt or Smith known about the Walam Olum it is likely Pratt would have cited it, for, as subsequent scholarship has shown, its parallels with the narrative of the Book of Mormon are far more striking than the flimsy evidence Pratt was able to derive from the Rafinesque source known to him.

Pratt concludes by saying that "most of the Book of Mormon was written from side to side, like the Egyptian. Indeed, it was written in the ancient Egyptian [language], reformed by the remnant of the tribe of Joseph. Although Rafinesque took his illustration from a book published a decade earlier, he was also personally in touch with explorations going on at the time he wrote. It was, of course, the Lenapes who are alleged to have retained the memory of this migration in their epic, the Walam Olum.

None of this, however, is germane to the issue of Walam Olum influence on the Book of Mormon. The author of several hundred titles, Rafinesque is best known to historians of science since the bulk of his writing consists of taxonomic contributions to the life sciences. I am grateful to Glenn N. Stuart, National Geographic Society, for Mayanist materials. Weslager, The Delaware Indians: A History [New Brunswick, ], p. This issue is addressed by William W. The quoted passage is prefatory to a published letter addressed to the Rev. This volume also contains a photographic reproduction of the entire Rafinesque manuscript.

Well that it does, for in recent years the manuscript itself has disappeared from the University of Pennsylvania library. In his autobiography Rafinesque also mentions visiting Palmyra, without giving the exact date. A Life of Travels [Philadelphia, ], p. The Life of Joseph Smith 2nd. Brinton, one of the earliest students of the subject, understood the text to mean that the Lenape originated in Labrador. The Book of Mormon has the people travel in eight vessels. The plate serves as a frontispiece for No. In addition, Rafinesque had struck off separately 1, copies of the plate, which may therefore have received relatively wide distribution, for only copies of No.

As identified in the plate used as a frontispiece, they were in fact from the pen of J. Waldeck and hence are contemporaneous with the publication of the book. In both versions there appears a lengthy extract from a letter by Rafinesque to Corroy, the holograph of which has not been found.

There is, however, the holograph of a twelve-page letter by Corroy to Rafinesque, 20 August , preserved at the American Philosophical Society in Philadelphia. Rafinesque printed a brief portion of a letter sent him by Waldeck 30 January in his Bulletin No. There is no evidence to indicate whether he was aware that his correspondent Waldeck drew the glyphs on which he based his study of the Mayan language. Vogt y Alberto Ruz L. One of his last publications where such speculation appears is the pamphlet The Ancient Monuments of North and South America Philadelphia, ; there he says succinctly p.

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In fand ein Colloquium iiber das Gebet statt, an dem etwa 25 Spezialisten aus Lowen und Liittich und vier Gaste beteiligt waren. Und in trafen wiederum Wissenschaftler aus Liittich und Lowen mit Gasten zusammen; diesmal war das Thema der Mythos. Drei Bande bilden das reiche Ergebnis: Auch Gebet und Mystizismus, Renaissance und Reformation werden beriicksichtigt. Das zweite Buch erortert die Vorstellungswelt der Apokalyptik, die Literaturgattung Apokalypse, die soziologischen Voraussetzungen der Apokalyptik und die Funktion der Apokalypsen.

Es soli als ein richtiges Handbuch der Apokalyptikforschung betrachtet werden. Die drei Volumen stellen der Religionswissenschaft, und nicht nur ihr, eine ippige Ernte zur Verfiigung. The members are shown to disagree about belief and practice while being urged to unity: The continuous argument that emerges flows through a rounded ethnography with vignettes of recognizable individuals acting in everyday life, through finely documented historical analysis, and through subtle translations of the imagery in song, dance, sermon and, indeed, in all the activities which qualify the space of ritual among Fang.

Fernandez rightly warns against the gross error of typing Bwiti as a separatist sect or independent form of Christianity. Bwiti is not Christocentric. The crucifixion is held to have laid a curse or debt upon mankind, rather than salvation. Yet Jesus Christ is a saviour, vital in Numen, Vol. He is understood in the light of a traditional figure, the nganga , who is a clairvoyant healer, able to see the unseen and thus able to save by guiding mankind to find the Path. What is envisioned and enacted in Bwiti is, most crucially, a ritual passage from despair, confused wandering and cold loneliness, the sought- for end being the recovery of tranquility and oneheartedness.

The direction of religious borrowing needs to be stressed, perhaps even more than Fernandez suggests. Bwiti is itself the name of an ancestral cult which Fang took from southerners and first modified around the time of the First World War. It would be a mistake , however, to infer from this that in Bwiti Fang simply turn their backs on modernity when they pursue a quest for a primordial state of being. The book is divided into three parts. One important suggestion, among others, concerns a disturbance in what was a traditional consonance between the body, Book reviews house-structure, sex roles and cosmic order.

This disturbance undermined the sense of the self as a unity and exacerbated the experience Fang came to have of a decentered universe. Later Fernandez clarifies how Bwiti achieves a new consonance and a moral movement to a fuller self. Viewed as a whole, Bwiti is a major contribution to our understanding of the aesthetics of religious experience.

University of Manchester R. Bulletin Signaletique , Histoire et Sciences des Religions 38 , 1, 2, 3, 4, tables annuelles; 39 , 1. Byzantinoslavica 44 , 2; 45 , 2. Folklore 95 , 1,2. Monumenta Nipponica 39 , 2, 3, 4; 40 , 1. Religion 14 , 1, 2, 3, 4. Revue de FHistoire des Religions , 2, 3, 4. Revue theologique de Louvain 15 , 2, 3, 4. Saeculum 34 , 2, ; 35 , 1, 2. Theologische Zeitschrift 40 , 2, 3, 4. Books Listing in this section does not preclude subsequent reviewing Boal, Barbara M.

Mai verstarb in Brussel Mgr. Er wurde am November in Dinant Belgien geboren. Sein Vater Georges Lamotte war President des dorti- gen Gerichtshofs und gleichzeitig als Historiker wissenschaftlich ta- A tig.

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An- schliefiend bezog er die Universite Catholique de Louvain Leuven. Hier widmete er sich zunachst dem Studium der klassi- schen Philologie und der Philosophic, spater auch der Indologie und der Indogermanistik. A Anschliefiend widmete sich Etienne Lamotte theologischen Stu- dien in der belgischen Erzbischofsstadt Mechelen, leistete den vor- geschriebenen Militardienst ab und setzte dann seine theologischen Studien an der Universita della Sapienza in Rom fort. In dieser Zeit wurde er zum romisch-katholischen Geistlichen geweiht. Neben seiner Lehrta- tigkeit fiihrte er seine friiher begonnenen orientalischen Studien an der Universitat in Leuven fort.

Wie er mir selbst einmal erzahlte, hatte der Erzbischof damals weitreichende Plane fur seine Zukunft als Geistlicher; doch blieb er seinem eigenen Ziel treu, die orientali- A stischen Studien in Leuven fortzusetzen. In Paris erhielten die Interessen Etienne Lamottes jene Ausrich- tung, durch deren konsequente Weiterfiihrung er spater selbst zum bedeutendsten Buddhismusforscher seiner Generation werden soll- te. Entscheidende Anregungen fur seine wissenschaftlichen Ar- beitsmethoden erhielt er von dem Altmeister der Buddhismusfor- schung Louis de La Vallee Poussin , unter dessen Lei- tung er nach seiner Riickkehr aus Paris seine Studien fortsetzte.

Hier hatte er wegen des flamisch-wallonischen Sprachenstreits seine planmafiige Lehrtatigkeit eingestellt und sich nun ausschliefilich seinen wissenschaftlichen Arbeiten gewid- met. Etienne Lamotte wurde sein letzter personlicher Schuler. Im Jahre wurde er zum ordentlichen Professor ernannt. Etienne Lamotte ist auch von seiten der kirchlichen Autoritaten voile Anerkennung seiner wissenschaftlichen Leistungen und vor allem auch seines Beitrags zur Verstandigung zwischen Christen und Buddhisten zuteil geworden.

Auch mehrere wis- senschaftliche Preise sowie hohe belgische und franzosische Orden wurden ihm verliehen. Als er in der Zeit vom 7. Oktober auf Einladung der Japan Foundation Vortrage an mehreren japanischen Universitaten hielt, bereiteten ihm japanische Buddhisten einen geradezu triumphalen Empfang. Als ich fiinf Jahre spater Japan besuchte, wurde mir noch genau be- richtet, wo er gewohnt und wo er Vortrage gehalten hatte, war er damals doch bereits von vielen Buddhisten als eine der bedeutend- sten Autoritaten fur das richtige Verstandnis ihrer Religion aner- kannt.

Freunde und Schuler veroffentlichten zu seinem Sein erstes Buch, die schon erwahnte Dissertation Notes sur la Bhagavadgita war zwar noch Fragen der hinduistischen Obituary Philosophic- und Religionsgeschichte gewidmet, die ihn wahrend seiner friihen Studienjahre beschaftigt hatten, doch schon in seiner zweiten Monographic hat er sich dem Themenkreis zugewandt, der fur den Rest seines Lebens im Mittelpunkt seiner Interessen stehen sollte: Melanges chinois et bouddhiques IV, , S.

Kumarajiva schrieb das Werk dem Nagarjuna zu, doch darf man davon ausgehen, dafi der Upadesa nicht ein Werk des beriihmten Nagarjuna gewesen ist, den wir als Autor der Mulamadhyamaka- karika und mehrerer anderer philosophischer Grundwerke der Sunyavada- oder Madhyamika-Schule kennen. Der Upadesa ist nach Lamottes Feststellungen vielmehr im 4.

Jahrhundert im Nordwesten Indiens entstanden. Es handelt sich um eine umfassen- de Darstellung des Mahayana-Buddhismus in seiner geistigen Aus- einandersetzung mit den Lehren des Sravakayana Hlnayana , also der Lehre der Anhanger der alten Schulen, und zwar in erster Linie mit dem Sarvastivada. Das Werk darf als eine wirkliche Enzyklopa- die des Buddhismus gelten, in der die traditionellen Lehren, wie sie vor allem im Abhidharma und in der Sutra-Literatur der Sarvasti- vadin zu finden sind, in grofier Ausfiihrlichkeit vorgestellt werden.

Es ist gewifi kein Zufall, dafi sich mit Etienne Lamotte ein Gelehrter mit beispiellosem enzyklopadischem Wissen uber den Buddhismus der Aufgabe gewidmet hat, dieses Werk zu erschliefien. Die funf Bande sind durch die Beifiigung von Tausen- den ausfiihrlicher Anmerkungen zu einer umfassenden Informa- tionsquelle fur die friihe und die klassische buddhistische Uberliefe- rung geworden.

Es wird uns die Fiille des in diesen Banden verborgenen Wissens erst voll erschliessen. Auch dieses Werk hat noch nicht die Beachtung gefunden, die ihm zukommt. Bereits drei Jahre nach diesem grofien Kompendium legte Etienne Lamotte seine Ubersetzung des Vimalaklrtinirdesa L En- seignement de Vimalakirti , Louvain vor, eines der bedeutend- sten Werke der indischen Mahayana-Literatur, wiederum mit Obituary iiberaus reicher Kommentierung und unter sorgfaltigstem Ver- gleich der — abgesehen von einigen kleinen Bruchstucken des Ur- textes — allein erhalten gebliebenen chinesischen und tibetischen Versionen.

Der Vimalaklrtinirdesa gehort bis heute zu den grund- legenden religiosen Bekenntnisschriften aller Formen des Mahaya- na. Dies gilt fur die Ausfiihrungen zur buddhistischen Hermeneutik in der Festschrift J. Gleichwohl hat er sich nur an we- nigen Stellen seines gewaltigen Lebenswerkes zur Frage des Ver- haltnisses von Christentum und Buddhismus geaufiert.

Diesem Thema war sein Akademievortrag La bienveillance bouddhique gewidmet, in dem die in der Literatur aufierst unterschiedlich beur- teilte Frage erortert wird, wie sich die buddhistische maitri zur christlichen Nachstenliebe verhalte. Andererseits hat Hermann Ol- denberg in seinem grundlegenden Buddha-Buch die Ansicht vertre- ten, dafi die buddhistische und die christliche Konzeption der Obituary Nachstenliebe wenig miteinander gemeinsam hatten; einige der be- deutendsten Buddhologen wie A. Etienne Lamotte wehrt sich dage- gen, unsere eigenen Denkgewohnheiten unkritisch auf die Beurtei- lung eines Begriffs anzuwenden, der nur in seinem inneren Zusam- menhang mit den Grundvorstellungen der buddhistischen Religion richtig verstanden werden kann.

Die aufierst prazise Darstellung der Grundlehren des Buddhismus ist so formuliert, dafi sich auch der Buddhist voll damit identifizieren kann. Etienne Lamotte fiihrt uns zu der Einsicht, dafi sich die bei- den Religionen nicht etwa durch radikale Gegensatze im Bereich des religiosen Lebens oder der Mystik unterscheiden, sondern weil sie voneinander verschiedene philosophische Grundlagen haben.

Etienne Lamotte stellt hier sechs buddhistische Grundvorstellungen heraus S. Es gibt keinen Gott, der unser Schicksal bestimmt, sondern es sind allein unsere eigene Handlungen; und so ist es auch nicht Gott, der uns erlost, sondern eine bestimmte Form der Weisheit vermag unser Handeln zu neutralisieren und uns zur Erlosung zu fuhren. Diese buddhistische Weisheit besteht in der Erkenntnis der Unbestandigkeit, der Leidensnatur und der Unpersonlichkeit aller Phanomene.

Voraussetzung fur das Erlangen dieser Weisheit ist die Sammlung des Geistes. Diese dient allein dem Ziel, sich von alien Obituary Vorstellungen zu befreien; so ist auch die beste aller Meditationen diejenige, die kein Objekt hat. Man mufi es vielmehr in seiner Lehre sehen. Grundlage dieser Ethik ist es, nichts zu tun, was andere Wesen verletzen konnte. Pezzali ins Englische iibersetzt. Davon ausgehend, erscheint die buddhistische Erlosungslehre tat- sachlich weitgehend frei von metaphysischen Theorien.

Das Band- chen bildet eine meisterhafte Einfiihrung in das Verstandnis der buddhistischen Religion, wie sie nur ein Gelehrter vom Range La- mottes formulieren konnte. Auch seine Obituary letzte Abhandlung bietet eine solche zusammenfassende Darstel- lung, ebenfalls in dem fur seine Arbeiten charakteristischen prazi- sen und gleichzeitig souveranen Stil formuliert.

Etienne Lamotte hat es auf meine Bitte hin noch ubernommen, fur den Band The World of Buddhism London die Abschnitte fiber den fruhen Buddhismus und uber das Mahayana beizutragen, obwohl er da- mals bereits schwer erkrankt war. Er hat das Erscheinen dieser Arbeiten nicht mehr erlebt. Eine bemer- kenswerte Ausnahme ist sein Akademievortrag Le suicide religieux dans le bouddhisme ancien , der durch die damals bekannt ge- wordenen Selbstmorde buddhistischer Monche und Nonnen in Vietnam veranlafit war und in dem die geistigen Grundlagen dieser Selbstopferungen aufgezeigt werden.

Immer wieder kreisten seine Gedanken um die zentrale Vorstel- lung des fruhen Mahayana, jener Form des Buddhismus, in deren Tiefen er wie kein anderer eingedrungen ist: Dieses Thema zieht sich durch die meisten seiner Schriften, und, wenn er mit Freunden sprach, so liefi er es auch im Gesprach anklingen. In knapper Form hat er am 7. Lamottes bedeutendstes Vermachtnis bleiben seine Schriften, die uns eine schier unuberblickbare Fulle von Wissen und Einsich- ten in das Wesen der buddhistischen Religion vermitteln.

In sei- nem personlichen Leben trat er ganz hinter seinem Werk zuriick. Etienne Lamotte war ein iiberaus bescheidener, liebenswurdiger und grofizugiger Mensch, der den Geist der beiden grofien Religio- nen, denen er durch Beruf und Neigung verbunden war, auch in seinem eigenen Verhalten verwirklicht hat. Nach diesem Zeitpunkt erschienen noch folgende Arbeiten: Buddhist Monks and Nuns in Society and Culture , ed. Gombrich, London , S. Die Welt des Buddhismus, S. Schliefilich ist noch eine norwegische Ubersetzung des ersten Bandes von A la rencontre du bouddhisme Rom erschienen: Buddhas vei, oversatt av Per Kvaer- ne, Solum Forlag Hubert Durt, Institut du Hobogirin, Kyoto, herzlich danken.

The early stages of Indian tradition are perhaps unusual in that they afford a precise insight into the body of thought which went into its making, and in that they show rituals to be markedly rational in their claims, methods, and, perhaps, aims. Rituals are thought to work by virtue of embodying Truth, symbolizing or reproducing the structure of the world, in whole or in part. This grounding probably never was a matter of common knowledge. But it provided a satisfactory explanation for the efficacy of ritual acts.

What at some point of time appears to have been a faithful representation of the current state of an intellectual apprehension of the World subsequently came under the influence of a tendency that defeats the original purpose, if not of Ritual in the abstract, then at least of rituals and the mechanisms their effects depend upon, such as the early rationalists had conceived them to be. It seems to be in the very nature of ritual that forms, once chosen, tend to acquire hieratic rigidity. What used to mirror knowledge grew outdated, and was potentially divorced from developments in speculation or natural philosophy.

This has by no means arrested ritual development: Protestant ideas are a long way off. In particular, there were certain patterns Bernhard Kolver that kindled religious imagination over longish periods, and it is one of them the developments of which we mean to re-trace. This is the ideas associated with the Directions of the Compass and their relations to the centre.

In its way, this is a simple and obvious image, being based upon observable fact. It still enjoys great popularity with Hindus and Buddhists alike, and we can see how step by step it extends into fields of thought increasingly remote from the initial concept. What at its inception was a model to organize and comprehend spatial relations turns into a general mode to structure experience.

To give an example I hope to develop upon another occasion. At some time, Kashmirian thinkers added a ninth item to this list, Acquiescence, santa-. This they did in spite of difficulties by no means inconsiderable: How, objectors asked, can a play be said to evoke acquiescence? I do think, then, this was the model which led to the ninth rasa being evolved: The spatial pattern had achieved a universal significance rooted in religion, and hence could be transferred to the realm of psychological description. Brahmana texts, too, aim at joining facts together; their criteria for ordering, while often plausible and clear, yet at times seem arbitrary or obscure.

Full text of "Nvmen"

A multitude of observations and interpretations begins to be organized, and this process culminates in the emergence of philosophical systems. Applications of the directional pattern follow similar techniques—but they are different in one essential respect: If this is true, it means there was a pattern in common use for organizing thoughts or concepts which is vastly different from those of logic and yet was applied to learned and abstract contexts. The chief purpose of the following pages is to give an extended example for this kind of linking.

Now, a late mediaeval Sanskrit text from Nepal contains a veritable chain of uses of this pattern. This we shall see used at a level where it tallies with fundamental assumptions, and thus may be taken to reflect the mainstream of religious thought. Yet it is well to remember the different stages it may be useful to distinguish are all attested in, and described from, the same text: The bulk of the present essay deals with heterogeneous matters and concepts, which have to be pursued at some detail in order to establish the context of a given conceptual chain.

The reader may feel wearied by the lack of cogency about the argument: The Nepalese sanctuary called Svayambhunath no doubt is the most impressive Buddhist site in the Kathmandu Valley. Its core is formed by a stupa of monumental dimensions, topping a hill and thus overlooking much of the valley, and flanked by innumerable shrines to various Buddhist and Hindu deities. The mountain is very much of a centre in the life of Buddhists not only Newar, and must have been so for quite some time: It usually goes by the name Svayambhu-Purana.

Manuscripts exist in considerable profusion, and in a number of different recensions.

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This is hardly surprising. The first odd pages are enough to put off any reader. Obviously, the printed version was compiled from a number of sources, and none too carefully; the thread of the tale is constantly in danger of getting lost; and what is printed is so full of insufficiencies and elementary mistakes and misreadings that at times one wonders whether the learned editor—who, after all, was well versed in the various scripts of Nepal—ever read it at all. For it is the only text I have seen so far which shows those variations of a single symbolic concept that one might usefully distinguish.

If compiled from a multitude of sources, a picture like to the one here drawn would be open to one fundamental objection, viz. The Purana allows us to argue from the compass of a single book. No doubt this book is a compilation: This is Lists of Holy Sites. The Purana deals with two types of them: Visiting them brings not religious merit only: This ties in well enough with those types of Tantrik worship that begin with the invocation of the deity and end with his or her dismissal. This orthodox interpretation, though, runs counter to general practice. For the year round, it is at the pith where the deity is generally worshipped by the great mass of the population.

They bear little resemblance to pedestals of metal-cast images. Crowned by a iorana , they are built around what doubtless are manifestations of deities. In the vast majority of cases, these are aniconic: It is these that worship is normally addressed to, and only during festivals they will be quite literally superseded by the orthodox figure from the The Evolution of a World Picture dyahchem , the house of god.

It is worth noting that it is only minor gods of the pantheon who are assigned a pith: Such sacred sites are often grouped together to form systems. A very frequent pattern is the circle mandala - or cakra-. Nowadays, this usually consists of eight members, ideally distributed over the cardinal and intermediate points of the compass examples are quoted below, pp. Another common, and possibly earlier, form is confined to the cardinal directions.

Readings of the Pattern If we have just spoken of the Four and Eight, we have omitted what in a sense is the most important position of all, and the clue to the entire pattern. This is the centre from which they derive their meaning and significance. The same model, though, can be used to emphasize distinctions. For different divinities can be assigned to the separate directions of the compass.

Among them, the Guardians of the Quarters dikpalas , lokapalas probably are the best known. They include some of the great gods of Vedic religion: The Mothers Matrkas used to be seven goddesses, arranged in a linear sequence. Before our eyes, they are converted into the spatial arrangement: In this form, the pattern came to be applied to another purpose, viz.

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This application is, as it were, the structural opposite of the first: The eyes on the stupa assert a universal claim; the gods who surround a territory mark a boundary. This is the gods of the directions being referred to the Centre , and being The Evolution of a World Picture taken as manifestations of a Central Deity. In its entire truth, the Ultimate Principle, the highest God, is not easily grasped, and cannot be represented in its totality. This idea remarkable in its maturity and potential of tolerance and I use the word advisedly, pace Hacker often availed itself of the spatial symbol; it overrode but never quite displaced the Guardians of the Quarters.

Thus, we find systems of shrines or statues or struts: Eight Bhairavas, or Mothers, or even Ganesas, 8 who ideally occupy the eight regions of the compass.

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There was one great advantage the spatial representation offered over the conceptual one. It allowed for circumambulation pradaksina - —i. This is, then, an indirect approach to a deity or principle otherwise well-nigh inaccessible. Each shrine in such conjunctions is part of a system, and has to be understood by reference to the centre. Bwiti et christianisme French Edition. Only 3 left in stock - order soon. Imaginaire de la maladie au Gabon French Edition.

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