Chinese Buddhism in Three Objects: The Memory Palace Approach

Register

John Kieschnick is the H.N. Ho Family Foundation Chair in Buddhist Studies in the Religious Studies Department at Stanford University. He specializes in Chinese Buddhism, with his work to date focusing on hagiography, material culture, and historiography.

Abstract: We often think of religion as transcending mere objects—it champions the spiritual over the material. Certainly, objects attach themselves to religion—beads and banners, candles and scarves—but this is a topic for antiquarians and not serious students of religion. Some scholars trace this view of religion to the Protestant allergy for ritual and mediation, but the tension between religious ideals and material culture pre-dates the Reformation and extends far beyond Europe. Regardless of the origins of the pervasive idea that material culture is at best marginal to the history of religion, scholars working in the field now known as “material religion” have in recent decades increasingly come to the opposite conclusion: that the material is central to religion in all of its forms. 

In this lecture I will try to do two things: First, to illustrate the distinctive perils and potential of studying religious objects through three images from Chinese Buddhism; and second, to make the case for the value of structuring all manner of courses (not just those on religion) around images and objects in what, borrowing from Matteo Ricci, I call here the “memory palace approach.”

Opening event of IE Humanities China Lecture Series

IE University | Arts & Humanities Division

IE School of Humanities | Website | View More Events

Contact the organizers