Asian Philosophies and the Idea of Religion Beyond Faith and Reason Routledge Studies in Religion Series

With a focus on Asian traditions, this book examines varieties of thought and self-transformative practice that do not fit neatly on one side or another of the standard Western division between philosophy and religion.

It contains chapters by experts on Buddhist, Confucian, Taoist, Hindu and Jain philosophies, as well as ancient Greek philosophy and recent contemplative and spiritual movements. The volume also problematizes the notion of a Western philosophical canon distinguished by rationality in contrast to a religious Eastern "other". These original essays creatively lay the groundwork needed to rethink dominant historical and conceptual categories from a wider perspective to arrive at a deeper, more plural and global understanding of the diverse nature of both philosophy and religion.

The volume will be of keen interest to scholars and students in the Philosophy of Religion, Asian and Comparative Philosophy and Religious Studies.

1 Introduction- Sonia Sikka & Ashwani Peetush; 2 Faith, Reason, and Practice in Buddhist Traditions-WilliamEdelglass; 3 Faith and/or/as Enlightenment: Rethinking Religion from the Perspective of Japanese Buddhism -Bret W. Davis; 4 Faith & its Derivatives: Knowledge, Conduct and Liberation in Jainism.-Anne Vallely; 5 Enlightening the unEnlightened: The Exclusion of Advaita Vedānta from the Western Philosophical Canon-Ashwani Kumar Peetush; 6 Ruism and the Category of Religion: Or, What to Do About the Confucians?-Sarah Mattice and Paul Carelli; 7 Faith, Reason, and the Paradox of Wu-Wei in the Zhuangzi-Julianne Chung; 8 Medium of Many Messages: Roles of Aesthetic Discourse in Religion and Philosophy- Gordon Davis; 9 Reason and Faith on the Path to the Transcendent in Plotinus-Catherine Collobert; 10 Trusting the daimonion: Faith and Reason in the case of Socrates and Beyond-Anna Lännström; 11 Thoughtful Seekers Among the Spiritual but not Religious-Sonia Sikka; 12 Between Faith and Reason: Feminist Contemplative Pedagogy-Erin McCarthy; 13 An Immanent World of Wonder: Nonreligion and Emerging Worldviews-Lori Beaman

Sonia Sikka is Professor of Philosophy at the University of Ottawa, Canada. Her primary areas of research are social and political philosophy, philosophy of religion and German philosophy.

Ashwani Kumar Peetush is Associate Professor of Philosophy at Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Canada. His main areas of research are legal and political philosophy, ethics, and Indian philosophies.