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Moral Struggle and Religious Ethics: On the Person as Classic in Comparative Theological Contexts PDF

253 Pages·2011·0.93 MB·English
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Praise for Moral Struggle and Religious Ethics “Over the past several years, comparative religious ethics has emerged as a centrally important interdisciplinary line of research, crossing the boundaries among religious studies, history, anthropology, and ethics. David Clairmont’s book offers a strikingly original contribution to this emerging field. In contrast to most earlier work, he directs our attention away from the comparative study of texts, toward the moral and religious vision, and also the struggle and frustration, of the individual adherents of a given tradition. Admittedly, we normally have access to individual experience only indirectly, and primarily through texts, but if these texts are approached with an aim to identifying what they say or imply about individual struggles and perceptions, they can teach us a great deal. The person him or herself, mediated through the text, can be regarded as a religious classic, in David Tracy’s terms, not so much as a representa- tive of an ideal, but as an exemplar of ongoing struggle with both personal and communal weaknesses and blind spots. The individual is exemplary in his or her struggles, precisely because sustained engagement with one’s weaknesses is by no means an optional academic exercise – on the contrary, this kind of ongoing struggle will inevitably characterize the life of any serious and self-aware believer. This focus on individual experiences of personal limitation and moral f ailure, seen in all their power to disrupt intellectual certainties and moral self-satisfaction, offers a powerful corrective to pervasive tendencies to presuppose that fundamental disagreements on these matters can only reflect the blindness or bad faith of one’s interlocutors. On the contrary, Clairmont shows that a serious and deep encounter with the very different religious and moral perspectives that we encounter everyday is not just a matter of courtesy or (much less) a way of instructing ‘them’ in ‘our’ values – it is, rather, a reflection of our own urgent need to learn from them.” Jean Porter, John A. O’Brien Professor of Theological Ethics, University of Notre Dame Clairmont_ffirs.indd i 12/21/2010 9:20:24 PM To Michelle Ann Pinard Clairmont With love and thanks for your patience and encouragement As disciples of Jesus we stand side by side with all people. Like them we are burdened by the same struggles and beset by the same weaknesses; like them we are made new by the same Lord’s love; like them we hope for a world where justice and love prevail. Constitutions of the Congregation of Holy Cross (2.12) Clairmont_ffirs.indd i 12/21/2010 9:20:24 PM Moral Struggle and Religious Ethics On the Person as Classic in Comparative Theological Contexts David A. Clairmont A John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., Publication Clairmont_ffirs.indd i 12/21/2010 9:20:24 PM This edition first published 2011 © 2011 Wiley-Blackwell Blackwell Publishing was acquired by John Wiley & Sons in February 2007. Blackwell’s publishing p rogram has been merged with Wiley’s global Scientific, Technical, and Medical business to form Wiley-Blackwell. Registered Office John Wiley & Sons Ltd, The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, United Kingdom Editorial Offices 350 Main Street, Malden, MA 02148-5020, USA 9600 Garsington Road, Oxford, OX4 2DQ, UK The Atrium, Southern Gate, Chichester, West Sussex, PO19 8SQ, UK For details of our global editorial offices, for customer services, and for information about how to apply for permission to reuse the copyright material in this book please see our website at www.wiley.com/ wiley-blackwell. The right of David A. Clairmont to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmit- ted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, except as permitted by the UK Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, without the prior permission of the publisher. Wiley also publishes its books in a variety of electronic formats. Some content that appears in print may not be available in electronic books. Designations used by companies to distinguish their products are often claimed as trademarks. All brand names and product names used in this book are trade names, service marks, trademarks or registered t rademarks of their respective owners. The publisher is not associated with any product or vendor m entioned in this book. This publication is designed to provide accurate and authoritative information in regard to the subject matter covered. It is sold on the understanding that the publisher is not engaged in rendering pro- fessional services. If professional advice or other expert assistance is required, the services of a competent professional should be sought. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Clairmont, David A. Moral struggle and religious ethics : on the person as classic in comparative theological contexts / David A. Clairmont. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. ISBN 978-1-4443-3682-5 (hardcover : alk. paper) 1. Bonaventure, Saint, Cardinal, ca. 1217–1274. 2. Christian ethics–Catholic authors. 3. Theological anthropology–Catholic Church. 4. Buddhaghosa. 5. Buddhist ethics. 6. Theological anthropology– Theravada Buddhism. 7. Religious ethics–Comparative studies. 8. Theological anthropology– Comparative studies. I. Title. B765.B74C63 2011 241′.042–dc22 2010033790 A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. This book is published in the following electronic formats: eBook 9781444393620; Wiley Online Library 9781444393644; ePub 9781444393637 Set in 10/12.5pt Galliard by SPi Publisher Services, Pondicherry, India Printed in Singapore 1 2011 Clairmont_ffirs.indd iv 12/21/2010 9:20:24 PM Contents List of Figures vii Acknowledgments vi List of Abbreviations x Introduction 1 Part I Questions and Contexts 7 1 Person as Classic: Questions, Limits, and Religious Motivations 9 Persons, Limits, and Religious Classics 13 Classics: questions and limits in thought and action 14 Religious ethics: interpreting limited persons 17 The model of person as classic 19 Classic Persons: Ideas, Practices, and Questions 21 Bonaventure as mediator of classic ideas and practices 22 Buddhaghosa as mediator of classic ideas and practices 24 Moral struggle as classic question 28 2 C ontext: The Symbolic Religious Cosmologies of Roman Catholicism and Therava-da Buddhism 38 Moral Struggle in Greek, Roman, and Christian Philosophy 40 Weakness of will and volition in classical philosophy 40 Law, love, and wisdom in Christian scriptures 43 Love, sin, and self-examination in Patristic theology 45 Natural law and rational appetite in medieval theology 47 Moral Struggle in Indian and Buddhist Philosophy 49 Universal dharma and individual dharma in the Vedas and epics 49 Self and world in the Upani.sads 54 Moral perfection in the Buddhist Nika-yas 56 The Symbolic Religious Cosmology of the Trinity 59 Trinitarian doctrine 59 Trinitarian symbolism 60 Trinitarian exemplarity 62 Clairmont_ftoc.indd v 11/25/2010 12:17:58 PM vi Contents The Symbolic Religious Cosmology of Buddhist Abhidhamma 64 Constitution of persons: aggregates, characteristics, and ultimate realities 65 The nature of reality and the structure of causality 67 Intention, volition, and personal continuity in Buddhist Abhidhamma 69 Abhidhamma and Trinity as Comparative Contexts and Categories 71 3 Context: Material Simplicity in Christian and Buddhist Life 82 Historical Introduction to Material Simplicity 83 Poverty and avarice in Bonaventure’s Europe 84 Simplicity and sponsorship in Buddhaghosa’s Ceylon 86 Bonaventure on Material Simplicity 88 Material sufficiency in institutional life 90 Voluntary poverty in individual life 92 Buddhaghosa on Material Simplicity 95 Wealth, giving, and the sacrifice of purification 101 On the twofold nature of materiality 105 Material Simplicity and the Problem of Moral Struggle 110 Part II Ideas, Practices, and Persons 119 4 Bonaventure and Buddhaghosa: From Ideas to Practices 121 Bonaventure’s Continuity with Medieval Debates on the Nature of Will 122 Buddhaghosa’s Manual of Practical Abhidhamma 128 Bonaventure on the Connection Between Sacrament and Virtue 137 Buddhaghosa on the Connection Between Morality and Meditation 141 5 Bonaventure and Buddhaghosa: From Practices to Persons 153 Bonaventure on Prayer 154 Buddhaghosa on Meditation 164 Bonaventure on Moral Exemplars 171 Buddhaghosa on Moral Exemplars 174 C omparing Persons in the Process of Struggle: Two Notions of Person as Classic 180 6 P ersonal Horizons: Moral Struggle, Religious Humility, and the Possibility of a Comparative Theological Ethics 189 Bonaventure and Buddhaghosa on Personal Struggle 189 Comparative Theology and Comparative Ethics: A Religious-Interpretive Work 192 The Methodological Struggles of Comparative Persons: Five Roads of Return 198 Struggles for a Comparative Horizon: Religious Humility and the Problem of Conversion 206 Appendix: S ome Common Buddhist Lists, Their Relation, and Their Significance in Abhidhamma 214 Bibliography 26 Index 241 Clairmont_ftoc.indd vi 11/25/2010 12:17:58 PM Figures Figure 2.1 Relationship of khandhas to dhammas 66 Figure 4.1 B onaventure on the parts of the soul, its powers and its perfections 127 Figure 4.2 Division of questions in Visuddhimagga 132 Figure 5.1 Introductory pattern of Itinerarium mentis in Deum 160 Figure 5.2 Bonaventure’s schematic of the threefold way 162 Figure 5.3 S ummary of the 37 “factors contributing to awakening” (bodhi-pakhiya-dhamma-) 179 Clairmont_flast.indd vi 11/25/2010 12:18:04 PM Acknowledgments Scholarly work is collaborative work, even if its results are credited to individual p ersons. This book began as a doctoral thesis submitted to the faculty of the Divinity School at the University of Chicago. I want to thank first and foremost my advisor, William Schweiker, who guided me through many formulations of its central ideas and always gave unfailing support to all of us among his advisee group who wanted to pursue comparative studies within the larger discipline of ethics. I also want to thank the other members of my thesis committee, Frank Reynolds and David Tracy, for their patience, encouragement, constructive criticisms, and suggestions that this draft of a project’s ideas addresses. Special thanks also to Richard Rosengarten and Don Browning for their work leading and empowering a community of scholars of religion dedicated to serving the world through careful conversations. My gratitude also to many teachers and friends at the University of Chicago: Franklin Gamwell, Anne Carr, Steven Collins, David Wray, Margaret Mitchell, Kevin Jung, Kelly Brotzman, Melanie Barrett, Warren Chain, Sandra Peppers, Elizabeth Bucar, Michael Hogue, Michael Johnson, William Wood, Jonathan Schofer, Jamie Schillinger, Yuki Miyamoto, Bruce Rittenhouse, and John Wall. The University of Chicago Divinity School provided generous financial support throughout my studies; the Henry Luce Foundation and the Woodrow Wilson Institute continued that support of my research in its later stages; and James Halstead and the Department of Religious Studies at DePaul University provided me with a welcome opportunity to teach. Among my colleagues and friends at the University of Notre Dame, I would like to thank especially John Cavadini, Paulinus Odozor, Jean Porter, Lawrence Cunningham, Gerald McKenny, Matthew Ashley, M. Catherine Hilkert, Cyril O’Regan, Robert Gimello, Jennifer Herdt, Michael Connors, Paul Doyle, Mark Poorman, Dorothy Anderson, David Lantigua, Kathleen Grimes, Conor Kelly, Brain Hamilton, and Deonna Neal. Special thanks to Rebecca Harkin, Bridget Jennings, Lucy Boon, Isobel Bainton and Sarah Dancy of Wiley-Blackwell for their support of this work and for guidance through the p rocess. Thanks also to Claire Creffield for copy-editing the book, to the Institute for Scholarship in the Liberal Arts at the University of Notre Dame for f unding to s upport preparation of the index, and to James Martin for compiling it. Clairmont_flast.indd vi 11/25/2010 12:18:04 PM Acknowledgments ix I am also grateful to Georgetown University Press and Columbia University Press for permission to reprint portions of previously published work in this book: “Bonaventure on Moral Motivation: Trajectories of Exemplification in his Treatment of Voluntary Poverty,” Journal of the Society of Christian Ethics 25.2 (Fall/Winter 2005): 109–36; and “Comparative Religion, Ethics, and American Family Life: Concluding Questions and Future Directions,” in American Religions and the Family: How Faith Traditions Cope with Modernization and Democracy, Don S. Browning and David A. Clairmont, eds. (New York: Columbia University Press, 2007), pp. 244–58. Finally, my debt for the support by my family and friends is great: Norman and Kathleen Clairmont; Matthew Spates; Robert Kelly and Sarah Ramsey; Jennifer Malin and Joseph Kelly; Louis and Elaine Pinard; Jackson Marvel, Paul Foster, and Patrick Moeschen. Lastly, my greatest thanks to my wife Michelle: for being with me every step of the way, for patiently reading every page of this book, for setting the highest example of labor for love of family, and for our sons, Joseph and John, who will face a beautiful but difficult world. Clairmont_flast.indd ix 11/25/2010 12:18:04 PM

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