Mahayana Buddhism; Eastern Orthodoxy; Comparative Method; Emotion in Religion; Pedagogy
摘要
Through comparing the use of emotion, theology and philosophy in the moral pedagogies of Eastern Orthodoxy and Mahayana Buddhism, this thesis elucidates both the substantive and methodological issues involved in comparing disparate religious traditions. Through the application of a modified set of comparative principles derived from the Comparative Religious Ideas Project, the study shows that such a methodology can provide a partial explanation for the “same-yet-different” or Jonathan Z. Smith’s “déjà vu” phenomenon. It is argued that the knowledge gained from this form of comparison is not merely an epistemologically dubious construct of western scholarship which is artificially imposed upon the traditions. Rather, this comparative method reveals a process of “concept simplification” which occurs when a religious tradition shifts from the act of philosophizing and theologizing to the act of moral education. This shift results in the alignment of previously disparate concepts, thus contributing to the “same-yet-different” phenomenon.
