Carse, James P. The Religious Case Against Belief. New York: Penguin, 2008. Print.

Gauchet, Marcel. The Disenchantment of the World: A Political History of Religion. Trans. Oscar Burge. Princeton: Princeton UP, 1997. Print.

Riesebrodt, Martin. The Promise of Salvation. Chicago: U of Chicago, 2010. Print.

Rüpke, Jörg. Religion: Antiquity and Its Legacy. London: I.B. Tarius, 2014. Print.

My Shelfie book search began through the catalog on the Lafayette Library website.  I thought I would keep my search as basic as possible to explore the greatest number of possibilities.  I simply searched “religion” in the catalog and scrolled through to find the sources that were books versus online materials.  The first book I found that I thought sounded interesting is the one by Jörg Rüpke, entitled Religion: Antiquity and Its Legacy.  What I figured I might focus on is the interrelated nature of logic and religion.  Oftentimes, it is assumed that religion falls outside the realm of logic, but it is also often overlooked that there is a logic to religion.  Furthermore, I thought it would be interesting to play with the notion of working with materials that are seemingly antithetical to religion or that challenge popular notions of/within religion.

Looking around the area where I found the first book, I found the other three.  I chose them based on their titles and what I thought they would offer and found some interesting titles within the table of contents:

The Religious Case Against Belief by James P. Carse

Part I: Belief

Part II: Religion

Part III: Religion Beyond Belief

Conclusion: For the Recovery of Wonder

The Disenchantment of the World: A Political History of Religion by Marcel Gauchet

Chapter 3: The Dynamics of Transcendence

– Distancing God and Understanding the World

– From Myth to Reason

Chapter 4: From Immersion in Nature to Transforming Nature

– The Other World and Appropriating This World

– The Structure of Terrestrial Integrity

Chapter 5: The Power of the Divine Subject

– The Turn Toward Equality

Chapter 6: Figures of the Human Subject

– Being-a-Self: Consciousness, the Unconscious

– Collective-Being: Governing the Future

– Living-with-Ourselves: Absorbing the Other

The Promise of Salvation by Martin Riesebrodt

1: Religion as Discourse: On the Critique of the Concept of Religion

2: Religion as Social Reference: On Justifying the Concept of Religion

3: Scholarly Imaginations of Religion

– Religion as a Divine Gift of Reason

– Religion as an Experience of Revelation

– Religion as Projection

– Religion as Protoscience

4: Religious Practice and the Promise of Salvation

– Defining Religion

– Understanding Religion

– Explaining Religion

…etc.

Religion: Antiquity and Its Legacy by Jörg Rüpke

Chapter 1: Individual and Corporate Religion

– From religion to religions

– Individualization

Chapter 2: Historicizing Religion

While many of the concepts featured in the tables of contents for each book differ considerably, what I hope to gain from these texts is a more streamlined hypothetical standpoint from which to begin my research.  I do certainly want to focus less on a particular religion than on the dynamics of religion itself.

While aspects of all three of the religions we have studied over the past several weeks appealed to me as potential research topics, I was particularly inspired by the recent article we read, entitled “Buddhism and the Deconstruction of Selfhood,” by Porterfield.  Specifically, the deconstructionist elements and character that Buddhism took in American culture, were especially of interest.

I started my search using the Skillman Library’s catalog, using keywords including “Buddhism” and “deconstruction” and other variations of the same terms.  I skimmed the titles and did some further research on some of my selections before narrowing it down to three (I couldn’t choose a single title).  Some of the discarded selections were materials in the form of articles or webpages, as well as those that did not address my field of interest.

Finally, I narrowed it down to three titles, all of which I found on the second floor of the library:

The Bodhisattva’s Brain by Owen Flanagan (published in 2011)

Useful Chapters:

Chapter 3: Buddhist Epistemology and Science

“My confidence in venturing into science lies in my basic belief that as in science, so in Buddhism, understanding the nature of reality is pursued by means of critical investigation: if scientific analysis were conclusively to demonstrate certain claims in Buddhism to be false, then we must accept the findings of science and abandon those claims” (Flanagan, 61). (quote from the Dalai Lama)

Chapter 5: Being No-Self and Being Nice

Psychotherapy Without the Self: A Buddhist Perspective by Mark Epstein, M.D. (published in 2007)

Useful Chapters:

Chapter 2: The Deconstruction of the Self: Ego and “Egolessness” in Buddhist Insight Meditation

“…in accordance with a modern object relations view of the self-concept as a “fused and confused…constantly changing series of self-images,” the “I” experience is revealed to be a constantly changing impersonal process, increasingly insubstantial the more carefully it is examined” (Epstein, 44).

“…the self-concept that was once experienced as solid, cohesive and real becomes increasingly differentiated, fragmented, elusive and ultimately transparent” (Epstein, 44).

“It is this realization that is at the core of what has conventionally become known as “egolessness,” and it is clear that such an understanding is not one that is easily reconciled with Western psychoanalytic notions of the personality” (Epstein, 44).

Chapter 9: Freud and the Psychology of Mystical Experience

Chapter 12: The Structure of No Structure: Winnicott’s Concept of Unintegration and the Buddhist Notion of No-Self

Mind and Life: Discussions with the Dalai Lama on the Nature of Reality by Pier Luigi Luisi (published in 2009)

Useful Chapters:

Chapter 1: How Real Are the Elementary Particles?

Chapter 6: From Consciousness to Ethics

Essentially, I would like to focus on the deconstruction of the ego and how that ties epistemologically to a greater understanding of the human experience of him-/herself and the world around them, that is internally and externally.