Robert King Selfie #2: The Gospels of the Marginalized

To begin the book-selection process for our second shelfie, I again referred to the library’s “OneSearch” feature. In particular, the idea of the canon within Christianity gripped my attention throughout relevant readings and in-class discussions. How is it that certain gospels and writings belonging to early followers of Jesus are included in the canon, while others are cast off as somehow not as authoritative? Specifically, our reading of certain excerpts from Thomas’ gospel proved quite compelling, and thus my keywords proceeded as follows: “Gospel of Thomas.” The third result, titled The Gospels of the Marginalized: the redemption of Doubting Thomas, Mary Magdalene, and Judas Iscariot in early Christian literature, was easily accessible in the Skillman Upper Level. Thus, this title (written by Marvin W. Meyer) became the center of my analysis.

This book concerns itself with the analysis of texts authored by Judas Iscariot, Mary Magdalene, and “doubting” Thomas regarding the life and mission of Jesus. Each of these accounts is analyzed in a subsection of the book, and each provides an incredibly distinguished take on certain figures of the New Testament. For example, Mary Magdalene, often described as a “prostitute” in the canon, is described as a beloved disciple throughout these texts. This book offered exactly what I imagined one might find: a high degree of variation between early Christian texts, especially when considering those not deemed worthy of the canonical status versus those attaining such a recognition. This work challenges the integrity of the Christian canon on the basis of these apparent contradictions found within a variety of early, intriguing sources.

Attractive titles abounding surrounded this piece. Dozens of books pertaining to Gnosticism sat near this particular shelf, as did titles relating to Jesus as a historical figure, and therefore chronicling historical evidence regarding his existence. For example, another title belonging to Meyer, Secret Gospels, sat directly adjacent to this particular work. Interestingly, several shelves dedicated to African-American Christianity sat merely feet away from these pieces on Gnosticism.

Meyer, Marvin W. The Gospels of the Marginalized: The Redemption of           Doubting Thomas, Mary Magdalene, and Judas Iscariot in Early                     Christian Literature. Eugene, Or.:     Cascade, 2012. Print.

DeCaro, Louis A. Malcolm and the Cross: The Nation of Islam, Malcolm X, and Christianity. New York and London: New York University Press, 1998.

Malcolm and the Cross

After reading  two articles concerning Malcolm X and the Nation of Islam, I headed over to the Library Catalog and searched “Nation of Islam.” While we tend to relate the Civil Rights movement to Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks and their nonviolence ideology, Malcolm X played a crucial role, providing a radical voice that called for a separate black country in America. This sort of radicalism is what created the polarizing personality of Malcolm X. To find the root of his beliefs, I realized works concerning the Nation of Islam would provide good background. I immediately found multiple books and articles and decided on Malcolm and the Cross: The Nation of Islam, Malcolm X, and Christianity.  Looking over the subjects covered in the book, it was clear that this book dealt with Malcolm X as a religious figure and the, sometimes hostile, relations between Islam and Christianity.

The book, in relatively poor condition, was clearly old; however its age added to its allure. The book is divided into two main parts: “Fires Which Burn Brightly: The Nation of Islam in a Christian World” and “X and the Cross: Malcolm, the Nation of Islam, and Christianity.” Each of these sections have subchapters, the first sections focusing on the founding of the Nation of Islam and its spread via Elijah Muhammad, and the second section focusing on the personality and philosophies of Malcolm X. The second section particularly interested me as I hoped to learn more about the man that was Malcolm X, a man that I had never really understood. It is clear to see that he was a man of deep religious and philosophical thought, attempting to navigate through pre-Civil Rights America with Islam as his foundation. Many of the chapters are titled with quotes from him, while the rest focus on his position in a Christian-dominated country where his voice was quieted because of the color of his skin. Malcolm X felt it his duty to tear down the racial hierarchy in America by undermining “white naturalization.” He is quoted as having said that Jesus was depicted as white “to maneuver him into worshiping the white man.” He said that much of history had been “whitened,” including historical black figures. White supremacy had permeated into every aspect of life, such as in the portrayal of a white Jesus as compared to a black Devil. It is this deep level of thinking and realization that Malcolm X had achieved and motivated him to make a change.

Just from skimming through these few chapters, the character of Malcolm X is one that would take a whole semester to understand. Near this book, I found other texts concerning the Nation of Islam and black religion. Elijah Muhammad, the man who inspired Malcolm X before X’s departure from the Nation of Islam, would without a doubt be another interesting character to explore. Both of these men and the message they promoted would be fascinating to research. I believe that their radical beliefs and philosophies make them all the more interesting.

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.

Over the past month I have enjoyed learning about some of the social implications of Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism.  I was  specifically interested to learn how religion helped shape social hierarchies and constructed certain roles women were supposed to play.

Initially I used the library catalog’s “one search” feature to find relevant sources.  I used keywords combinations like, “women, Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism.”  Initially I found some very obscure titles but after some browsing I began to useful articles and essays in Journals.  Though the texts were not books, some off these periodicals had relevant titles such as, “Women’s wealth and worship: female patronage of Hinduism, Jainism, and Buddhism in medieval Tamilna.”

Eventually I came across a book titled, “Faces of the Feminine in Ancient, Medieval, and Modern India.”  The book was published in 2000 and had a plain black cover with a simple title on the spine.  It was found on the second floor in a section with other books about women and feminism around the world.  The books adjacent to the one I found had titles such as, “Resurgence of Indian Women,” “Feminism in India”, and “Portraits of Chinese women in Revolution.”  The shelves above and bellow contained books about women in other regions of the globe such as, “Women in Kuwait.”

After looking through the table of contents, I found a section titled, “Usable Women” which discusses the portrayal of women in the epics.  It looks to be a very useful chapter especially for a potential essay topic on women and the social heirachy dictated by religion.  I found the chapter interesting because the author argued that women only marginally enjoyed a more free life in the in ancient India.  The epics testify to the subordination of women’s interests to those of their male counterparts, noting that women did not have decision-making roles and were often absent from the narrative all together.  It used the dharmaśāstras as an example.  They were a code of conduct formulated by men for the supposed purpose of governing the lives of both men and women.  In the dharmaśāstras, women’s lives were bound by much more rigid requirements. I think a close analysis of ancient texts and their influence on women could be very useful in my paper.

Something that has always captivated my interest is how the social aspect of religion affects the daily lives of modern people. Hinduism is a religion that has strict social classes set up by ancient doctrines that would seem to cause issues in our modern society. For this reason, I used the Library Catalog to search “Modern Hinduism.” After looking through some of the titles, the book “Modern Trends in Hinduism” caught my eye.

When I first saw the book, I noticed there was no elaborate cover, not even a title was on the front. The only text was on the spine of the book, but it appeared to be somewhat old. In the preface, it explained that this text was the result of a series of lectures given between 1968 and 1969 by the Committee on the History of Religions of the American Council of Learned Societies. This made the book more interesting to me because it was written in a time when social issues were at the forefront of the American public. Given the historical context, I found this book to be more intriguing.

After looking through some of the pages, I found that this book could be helpful to me in the near future. The beginning gives a brief introduction to the Hindu Religion, followed by more specific aspects of the religion. For example, it has a chapter about Hinduism in recent years, how contemporary Indian youths practice Hinduism, as well as how Hinduism affects Indian politics. These are all things that relate to how Hinduism affects the daily lives of people in the modern world. The main issue I could see with this book would be that it may be hard to relate to since it was written so long ago. India is a rapidly developing country so it is likely that many of the “contemporary” things the books explains are very outdated. Despite this fact, I could see this book helping me with my paper.

Originally I was interested in the different interpretations of the relationship between Atman and Brahman in Hinduism. I started searching with the term “Atman and Brahman.” This turned out to be too specific and the search only turned up one physical book, the blurb of which described it more as an introduction to Hinduism. I used the broader term “moksha,” but that was too broad and turned up a number of books on topics other than the relationship between Atman and Brahman. The last term I used was “Hinduism Dualism,” and while I did not find a book specifically about Atman and Brahman, I did find Unifying Hinduism: Philosophy and Identity in Indian Intellectual History, which piqued my interest.

Although the book had a rather unassuming plain red cover, a brief reading of its introduction and a flip through some of its pages revealed an argument  against attempts to present Hinduism as a single unifying set of philosophies and beliefs. The book seemed to portray Hinduism as a religion in a more nuanced light, discussing diversity in philosophies and practices within Hinduism, as well as the notion of Hinduism as an inclusive culture. This topic on inclusiveness within Hinduism seemed particularly interesting, as from what I read, it appeared to discuss how followers of certain philosophies of Hinduism acknowledged and incorporated differing beliefs and philosophies into their own practice. Overall, even though it did not focus on the topic I was originally searching for, the book appeared to cover interesting subject matter that relates to the way we might view religions as we study them.

Near where I found the book, there were a number of other books focusing on various topics related to Hinduism. I found a number of volumes related to epics we discussed in class, such as the Ramayana. There was also a book that seemed to be an introduction to Hinduism located right next to the book I found.

Nicholson, Andrew J., Unifying Hinduism: Philosophy and Identity in Indian Intellectual History, New York: Columbia University Press, 2010. Print.

I actually started researching just “world religions” to get a basic idea of what types of book s were in in the library. I found a lot of really interesting books on violence and war in religion but they were all online editions and not in the library. After that, I searched for “afterlife” because I was really interested in reincarnation and wanted to learn more about different interpretations of it. When I found this book it was by accident. I was looking for The Book of Miracles: The meaning of miracle stories in Christianity, Judaism, Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam. 

I ended up finding section after section on religion and I just searched the stacks for a while. I ended up finding the section on afterlife and looked there for a while. I found this book called Tales of Lights and Shadows about the dualities of afterlife interpretations such as bright vs dismal and reincarnation vs heaven. I was drawn to the chapter about  “Circling Paths and Endless Journeys” taking about reincarnation through different religions. There was a comparative subsection about Nirvana and other religions that was really similar to things we have gone over in class already.

Sasson, Vanessa R., ed. Little Buddhas-Children and Childhoods in Buddhist Texts 
     and Traditions. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2013. Print.

The study of children and Buddhism was never something I thought about until I saw Vanessa Sasson’s book “Little Buddhas.” After reading the summary on the back cover of the book, I became interested in the everyday life of Buddhist children and how they learn, grow, and develop in Buddhist culture as compared to other religions.

Through the library catalogue I searched the key work Buddhism and found a few titles that I thought sounded interesting. I thought that a lot of the books that were about Buddhism in America were interesting. I found them in the upper level of library, but when I got there I saw “Little Buddhas” and after reading the summary and thinking about what I would be most interested in reading about and writing a paper about, I decided to choose this book instead of “Race and Religion in American Buddhism.”

Through the various readings about Buddhism this semester, we have learned about Buddhist culture, traditions, rituals, and beliefs, but I thought it would be interesting to expand my knowledge on Buddhism by learning about what it’s like to grow up in a Buddhist culture and how it differs from growing up with different religious backgrounds or other specific religions.

From reading the table of contents of this book, I found that this book covers most of the traditions, rituals, and teachings of Buddhism that we covered in class and through our readings but focuses on children’s roles in these aspects of Buddhism. learning this about the book  was the point at which I decided I would like to choose it as my shelfie because it would be helpful in expanding my knowledge on Buddhism in a different way than our previous readings did.

Although “Little Buddhas” is a long book and I did not get the chance to read every chapter, it seems as thought it would be a very good source to use for a research paper if I decide to write my essay on the topic of children and Buddhism. I don’t know any specifics on the topic but I know that this book would be a good guide on learning them and I could gain a lot of knowledge on the culture of Buddhism as a whole by reading it.

Cabezón, José Ignacio, ed. Buddhism, Sexuality, and Gender. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1992. Print.

After reading Sallie King’s, “Awakening Stories of Zen Buddhist Women,” I became very interested in the role, and standing of women in Buddhism. I first visited the Lafayette College Library Catalog and used the keyword “Buddhism” in my initial search. I then was able to look through the list of books given and try to find one that incorporated the role of gender that plays in Buddhism. After looking through a few of the titles, I came across, “Buddhism, Sexuality, and Gender”. This title really got my attention because it was the only book I found that discussed not just the role of gender, but also the role of sexuality.

The role of sexuality in Buddhism had never crossed my mind, but after reading the title of this book, it became a topic I was thoroughly interested in. I then decided that I would search for this book among the shelves at Skillman Library using the book’s call number, and skim through a few of the pages to see if this was still something that drew my attention.

After reading the table of contents, several topics that I wanted to read further were, “Gender and Contemporary Buddhist Culture”, and “Homosexuality as Seen in Indian Buddhist Texts,”. I never thought that homosexuality would ever be mentioned in Buddhism texts, but after skimming through the chapter that focused on it, I realized that I was wrong. The role of sexuality, and thus homosexuality, in buddhism discussed in this book, made me realize that this was a book I would want to potentially use in the future to use in my paper.

After finding this book, my idea of wanting to write my paper about gender in Buddhism has been solidified, and has also expanded to the role of sexuality in Buddhism as well.

Shankman, Richard. The Experience of Samādhi: An In-depth Exploration of Buddhist Meditation. Boston: Shambhala, 2008. Print.

While on One Search, I decided to look up the terms “Buddhism” and “meditation” because I found the focus on Buddhist meditation to be extremely interesting. This search led me to find this book that is centered around the importance of meditation. While we may have not covered a lot of Buddhism so far, I felt the desire to explore its practice in a little more depth, and this book delves deep into a main practice of the faith.

After flipping through the book for a little, I found that one specific section on the three levels of concentration and its three signs to be most interesting. This section provides insight on the two different paths one can go on while meditation so that they may achieve a true sense of rationality. To achieve nirvana, one must dedicate their life to exploring their true self through meditation, and Shankman’s book is extremely helpful to my understanding of this specific practice.

Besides the step by step analysis of Buddhist meditation and its importance, Shankman also includes multiple interviews with Buddhist teachers. By doing so, the reader is able to understand zazen on a more personal and relatable level. Overall, reviewing “The Experience of Samādhi: An In-depth Exploration of Buddhist Meditation,” will really guide me in understanding the importance of meditation while writing my essay.