The English Presbyterian minister, medical practioner, and later deist, Thomas Morgan, lived from 1671/2 till 1743. He participated in the pamphlet war around the Salters' Hall conference, was... Show moreThe English Presbyterian minister, medical practioner, and later deist, Thomas Morgan, lived from 1671/2 till 1743. He participated in the pamphlet war around the Salters' Hall conference, was dismissed by his congregation in Marlborough in 1724, and turned fully to medicine in Bristol from 1727. He published two medical works, which had a ready national and international sale. In London he published in 1737 his principal work: The Moral Philosopher, in which he called himself a Christian Deist, critizising the Bible and especially the Old Testament. He received many criticisms for this work. Morgan stands in a line of Christian theology, which disparages the Jewish part of Scripture, and which is of present interest until to-day. Show less
This is a study of the mandalas that depict the teachings of the Liqujing (Guiding Principle Scripture), which was translated from Sanskrit to Chinese by the Esoteric Buddhist master Amoghavajra ... Show moreThis is a study of the mandalas that depict the teachings of the Liqujing (Guiding Principle Scripture), which was translated from Sanskrit to Chinese by the Esoteric Buddhist master Amoghavajra (705–774). These mandalas were prescribed in his Liqushi (Explanation on the Guiding Principle Scripture). Amoghavajra considered this scripture, its commentaries, and mandalas to be crucial works in a new Esoteric Buddhist system he called the Yoga of the Adamantine Crown. I examine the set called the Liqujing shibahui mantuluo (Mandalas of the Eighteen Assemblies of the Guiding Principle Scripture) in Kyoto’s Daigo Temple. The Shingon school claims that the iconography is based upon Amoghavajra’s Liqushi. A systematic investigation of the Liqushi, the mandalas it prescribes and the iconography of the Daigoji set has not been done by Asian or Western scholars. I assign responsibility for the iconographical and iconological changes seen in the Daigoji set to the transmission of the Chinese master Faquan (c. 800–870), whose transmission has not yet been studied. I investigate the transmissions of Amoghavajra and the Chinese Esoteric Buddhist masters who followed him, especially Faquan. Such an investigation reveals the concerns of these masters and the Chinese assimilation and transformation of Indian Esoteric Buddhism. Show less
