Sins and Sinners: Perspectives from Asian Religions

Leiden: Brill, 2012. First edition. Hardcover. near fine. Octavo. vi, (2), 387, (1)pp. Index. Pictorial buckram with lilac/gray spine lettered in white. Illustrated with 6 text photos. A fine but ex-library copy (with minimal markings; i.e. rubber stamps on title page & bottom of text block). Note: Proceedings of a conference held in the fall of 2010 at Yale University.

Asian religious traditions have always been deeply concerned with "sins" and what to do about them. As the essays in this volume illustrate, what Buddhists in Tibet, India, China or Japan, what Jains, Daoists, Hindus or Sikhs considered to be a "sin" was neither one thing, nor exactly what the Abrahamic traditions meant by the term. "Sins" could be both undesirable behavior and unacceptable thoughts. In different contexts, at different times and places, a sin might be a ritual infraction or a violation of a rule of law; it could be a moral failing or a wrong belief. However defined, sins were considered so grave a hindrance to spiritual perfection, so profound a threat to the social order, that the search for their remedies through rituals of expiation, pilgrimage, confession, recitation of spells, or philosophical reflection, was one of the central quests of the religions studied here. (Publisher)

Contents: Part one : Sinning in Asian religious traditions --; Social and soteriological aspects of sin and penance in Medieval Hindu law /; David Brick --; Sin and expiation in Sikh texts and contexts : from the Nānak Panth to the Khālsā /; Denis Matringe --; Living without sin : reflections on the pre-Buddhist world of early China /; Michael Nylan --; Sin, sinification, sinology : on the notion of sin in Buddhism and Chinese religions /; James Robson --; The evil person is the primary recipient of the Buddha's compassion : the Akunin Shōki theme in Shin Buddhism of Japan /; James C. Dobbins --; The sin of "slandering the true Dharma" in Nichiren's thought /; Jacqueline I. Stone --; Ritual faults, sins, and legal offences : a discussion about two patterns of justice in contemporary India /; Daniela Berti --; Part Two : Dealing with sin --; After sinning : some thoughts on remorse, responsibility, and the remedies for sin in Indian religious traditions /; Phyllis Granoff --; The role of confession in Chinese and Japanese Tiantai/Tendai Bodhisattva ordinations /; Paul Groner --; Removal of sins in esoteric Buddhist rituals : a study of the Dagangdeng Dhāraṇī scripture /; Koichi Shinohara --; Redeeming bugs, birds, and really bad sinners in some Medieval Mahāyāna Sūtras and Dharanis /; Gregory Schopen --; Sometimes love don't feel like it should : redemptive violence in Tantric Buddhism /; Jacob P. Dalton --; Sin and flaws in Kerala astrology /; Gilles Tarabout --; Sin and expiation in Nepal : the Makar Melā pilgrimage in Panautī /; Gerard Toffin --; Sin and expiation among modern Hindus : to obey one's duty or following freely accepted rules? /; Catherine Clémentin-Ojha. (OCLC)

Volume 139 in the Brill's series, "Numen Book Series. Studies in the History of Religions."