Research Catalog

Title

Imagining karma : ethical transformation in Amerindian, Buddhist, and Greek rebirth / Gananath Obeyesekere.

Author

Obeyesekere, Gananath.

Publication

Berkeley : University of California Press, [2002], ©2002.

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

xxix, 448 pages; 23 cm.

Series Statement

Comparative studies in religion and society ; 14

Uniform Title

Comparative studies in religion and society ; 14.

Subjects

• Reincarnation > Comparative studies
• Religious ethics > Comparative studies
• Reincarnation > Buddhism

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (p. 413-427) and index.

Contents

• 1. Karma and Rebirth in Indic Religions: Origins and Transformations -- 2. Non-Indic Theories of Rebirth. West Africa. The Trobriand Model. Animal and Human Reincarnation: Northwest Coast Indians and Inuit (Eskimo). Human and Animal Transformations. Kinship, Rebirth, and Desire. Tlingit Eschatology: Rebirth, Desire, and the Return of the Dead. Animal and Human Reincarnation: An Ethical Dilemma among the Kwakiutl -- 3. The Imaginary Experiment and the Buddhist Implications. The Transformation of the Rebirth Eschatology. Emergence of the Karmic Eschatology. Upanishadic Ethicization: The Earliest Indic Model. The Model and the Buddhist Interconnections. Ethicization in Its Historical Context: The Samanic Religions. Contemporary Tribal Religions. Ethicization, Axiology, and the Brahmanic Tradition. Nonethicized Samanic Religions: The Doctrines of the Ajivikas. Eel-Wrigglers and Hair-Splitters: Contentious Discourses in Buddhist Thought.
• Ethical Transformation and the Axial Age: Ethical Prophecy and Ethical Asceticism. Rationalization and the Transformation of Thought. The Limits of Innovative Thought: Temporality, Impermanence, Nirvana. Karma, Causality, and the Aporias of Existence. Ethicization, Karma, and Everyday Life. Ascetic Religiosity and the Escape from the World -- 4. The Buddhist Ascesis. The Imagined Buddha. The Renunciatory Ideal in the Buddhist Imagination. The Buddha as Seer: The Life Fate of the Buddhist Dead. Samanism and Shamanism: Ecstasis, Enstasis, and Spirit Possession. Ethicization and the Creation of a God-Making Machine. Ethicization and Axiologization. Buddhism, Axiologization, and the Vedic Tradition. Axiologization Continued: Homo Hierarchicus and Homo Aequalis in India -- 5. Eschatology and Soteriology in Greek Rebirth. Methodological Remarks. Pythagoras and Pythagoreanism: A Probable Mythos. History Telling Continued: Pythagorean Beginnings and Lifeways. Pythagorean Soteriology.
• Ethicization and Soteriology in Empedocles. Ethicization Step 1: Popular Religiosity in Pindar. Orphic Reincarnation: A Brief Aside. Bridging Multiple Worlds: Plato and the Myth of Er -- 6. Rebirth and Reason. Metacosmesis in the Phaedo. The Soteriology and Eschatology of the Phaedrus. The Cosmology of the Timaeus. Cosmological Homoeroticism, Heterophobia, and Female Nature in Platonic Rebirth. Ethicization and Soteriology in the Platonic Dialogues. Regrouping: Rebirth, Memory, and Retrocognition. Reason, Conviction, and Eschatology in Platonic, Buddhist, and Amerindian Thought. "Karma" in Greek Thought: Plotinian Eschatology and Soteriology. Rebirth and the Idea of God: The Druze Case -- 7. Imprisoning Frames and Open Debates: Trobriander, Buddhist, and Balinese Rebirth Revisited. Reincarnation, Procreation, and the Embodiment of the Soul. Buddhism, Procreation, and Rebirth. Balinese Rebirth: Contentious Discourses on Rebirth and Karmic Eschatologies. Methodological Postscript.

ISBN

• 0520232208 (alk. paper)
• 0520232437 (pbk. : alk. paper)

LCCN

2001008252

OCLC

• ocm48754695
• SCSB-4312750

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries