This study focuses on the life, exploits and ideology of Guru Wuguang (1818-2000), an eclectic and influential Taiwanese Buddhist figure who studied Daoist alchemy, multiple forms of Chinese,... Show moreThis study focuses on the life, exploits and ideology of Guru Wuguang (1818-2000), an eclectic and influential Taiwanese Buddhist figure who studied Daoist alchemy, multiple forms of Chinese, Japanese and Tibetan Buddhism, as well as biology, thermodynamics, philosophy, theology, and occulture. This is done in order to understand what happens when a tradition ‘purified’ from its ‘mythical’ elements reincorporates itself in the tension between its ‘enchanted’ past and ‘scientific’ present. Wuguang is famous throughout the Chinese-speaking Buddhist world for resurrecting Zhenyan, a school of esoteric Buddhism said to have flourished in China during the Tang Dynasty. The academic community has largely ignored Wuguang, making this the first in-depth exploration of this figure, whose influence is truly global. Building upon David McMahan’s work on Buddhist modernism, Jason Josephson’s secular-religious-superstitious trinary, scholarly discourse concerning Weberian disenchantment, and employing the Religious Economy Model, I argue that Wuguang’s teachings represent an intentionally reenchanted form of Buddhist modernism aimed at harmonizing magic with modern science and philosophy. While scholarly discourse on Asian magic in the modern world has been confined to popular religion, this study additionally focuses on ‘High-Church Buddhism’ by analyzing Wuguang’s magico-scientific interpretation of complex Buddhist doctrine. Show less
The legend of St. Aūr contained in the Naqlūn homily deals with the foundation history of the church of the archangel Gabriel at the monastery of Naqlūn in the province of Fayyum in Egypt. The... Show moreThe legend of St. Aūr contained in the Naqlūn homily deals with the foundation history of the church of the archangel Gabriel at the monastery of Naqlūn in the province of Fayyum in Egypt. The origins of this still existing monastery date back to the fifth century. After its composition in the eleventh century, the text remained in use till the present and spread all over Egypt and Ethiopia. Apart from the central date, 26 Ba’ūna, the text contains a number of other dates which reflect the liturgical calendar in use at Naqlūn. Moreover, four other homiletic texts and a hymn were identified, each related to the monastery of Naqlūn in a different way, forming evidence of the rich literary tradition that developed at this site from the eleventh century onwards. The texts recall into memory the great saints from earlier periods, such as St. Antony, the father of monasticism, and Samuel of Qalamūn, and link Naqlūn with several other monastic sites in the neighbourhood, giving Naqlūn a place in the history of Egyptian monasticism. The Middle Arabic language of all five texts, its style and its contents, are characteristic of Copto-Arabic hagiographic literature of the Middle Ages. Show less
