Religious Traditions: A New Journal in the Study of Religion / Journal of Studies in the Bhagavadgita

Front matter

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Naturally, contributions from places other than this one will be encouraged, indeed, sought. There could be no other way to promote a more wide understanding of Religion in Australia, than this. Religious Traditions journal in other words, though meant in part to be the product of a need felt among Australian "religionists", must, by dint of that very fact, take its place besides other international Journals in the field.

Interpenetration and Shingon Ritual Practice

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My monograph in the previous issue of Religious Traditions outlined the Shingon Buddhist doctrine of interpenetration (muge). This article develops the same theme as it relates to Shingon ritual practice.

The Importance of Historical Accuracy in Assessing the Claims of Nichiren

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It has been claimed that "the timeless truths of Buddhism" are more important than its historicity. In this paper I am not discussing the general validity of this claim. I am concerned only with its validity in relation to Nichiren Buddhism, particularly as expressed by members of the "True" Sect of Nichiren (Nichiren and its lay movement, S6ka Gakkai. In the Translator's Note to the English edition of The Living Buddha, by Ikeda Daisaku (third President of Soka Gakkai from 1960) we find this statement:

Religions like Judaism, Christianity and Islam lay great stress upon certain unique historical events or personages, and as a consequence are vitally concerned with the question of historicity. Buddhism however, emphasises the Dharma, or body of religious truth itself, rather than the particular time, place or person by whom it was preached. What is important, as Mr Ikeda himself notes, is not the distinction between historical truth and legend in the accounts of Sakyamuni's life but the degree to which both fact and legend embody the timeless truths of Buddhism and are meaningful to us today.

Are Historians of Religions Necessarily Believers?

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As defined by leading practitioners like Mircea Eliade, the history of religions, like the phenomenology of religion, purports only to describe, not to endorse, the believer's view of the origin, function, and meaning of religion. I argue that historians, whether or not phenomenologists, in fact commit themselves to endorsing the believer's view.

Beyond Religious Symbols and Insight: Understanding Religious Life as Processes of Valuation

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A continuing central question in the comparative study of religion is how to understand the nature of religious life in light of both the ultimate claims made by religious people and the differences in concrete religious forms found in human history. To analyze the quality and nature of "ultimacy", scholars of religious life have called attention to the character of holiness or sacredness, the importance of ethical and obligatory social behavior, - the need for a special state of consciousness, and the use of symbolic forms (myths and rituals). However, the identification of the nature of religion with only one or two of these important aspects found in religious life has made difficult an understanding of both the ultimate quality and significant differences in the religious claims about the nature and means for attaining that ultimacy.

Missiology, Methodology and the Study of New Religious

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Missiology is a legitimate field of enquiry, because unless time
is spent in reflecting on the nature and effects of missions, and indeed on whether the missionary influence of Christianity is to be welcomed, one cannot understand a good part of modern world history (and a part which is to do with large masses of people, not just a coterie of headline-rating policy-makers). Do missiologists have a near-consensus methodology, however, and is it important to establish their activity as a scientific discipline? This paper indends to go some way towards answering these questions, yet to do so only by focussing on a manageable issue. I have chosen as a springboard for discussion the typology of (socio-)religious movements within the history of Christianity, because the problem of describing 'new developments' which have emerged within or on the fringes of the Christian fold (since New Testament times) nicely illustrates the tension between (a) the use of a vocabulary and interpretation which suits the needs
of the believing community, and (b) the adoption of verbiage and
analytical categories to satisfy the requirements of science. A big
conundrum to be faced, after all, is whether missiology is a discipline which has been expected, if not designed from the start specifically to serve the ekklesia katholika and not to rate among the special 'social sciences' (so-called). A consideration of the terminologies both missiologists and social scientists can employ to analyze religious movements will help unravel this puzzle, which has everything to do with the issue of missiology's methodogical bases.

Origins of the Hindu Renaissance in Java: Monism in the Early Writings of W. Hardjanto Pradjapangarsa

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Movements to revitalize Indic religious traditions to meet the
challenge of Western culture in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries are by now well documented for India, Sri Lanka, Japan, and mainland Southeast Asia.l Less well known are the movements to reform the Hindu and Buddhist traditions of Java and Bali along 'modernist' lines towards the end of the period of Dutch occupation and since independence (1949) under the banner of the Indonesian state. Like India and other Asian nations where traditions of Indian origin have for long been a part of the fabric of village and court life, Indonesians in rescuing their Indic heritage from the rubbish-heap of outmoded customs have in some instances chosen to emphasize ritual, moral codes and belief (on the Protestant and orthodox Islamic models) and in other cases have chosen to emphasize the occult and mystical
aspects of their heritage. The Balinese-based Hindu Council (Parisada Hindu Dharma) exemplifies Indonesian Indic reform that pushes to the fore exoteric traditions. In contrast the Javanese Hindu organization Sadhar Mapan, founded in 1971 in Surakarta, Central Java, by W. Hardjanto Pradjapangarsa, elevated Javanese mystical traditions to the position of greatest importance. The evolution of this variant of Javanese Hinduism through the founder's early pre-Hindu writings forms the subject of this study.

Book reviews

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This book contains a collection of essays, many previously published which deal with most of the issues of central concern to philosophers of mysticism. After an initial discussion of definitions of mysticism, and the appropriate methodology for a scientific study of it, it deals with the relationship of mysticism and logic, ethics, the meaning of life, religion, God, pantheism, art, and life after death. As such, it provides a useful overview of the mam areas of philosophical contention that still exist in the academic study of mysticism.

Back matter

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Notes for contributors.