Michael Nichols
Biographic Data
| ID | 3890660 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Michael Nichols |
| GIVEN NAMES | Michael |
| FAMILY NAME | Nichols |
| SIGNATURE | NICHOLS M |
| AFFILIATIONS | Saint Joseph's College |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 9 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 1 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 9 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2006 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2021 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Buddhist Monks and the Politics of Lanka’s Civil War
Buddhist Monks and the Politics of Lanka’s Civil War: Ethnoreligious Nationalism of the Sinhala Sangha and Peacemaking in Sri Lanka, 1995–2010, by Suren Raghavan. Sheffield: Equinox Press, 2016. xvii + 274 pp. £85 (hb), £26.99 (pb). ISBN 978-1-78179-078-6 (hb), ISBN 978-1-78179-574-3 (pb)
Transformative Religious Experience
Transformative Religious Experience: A Phenomenological Understanding of Religious Conversion, by Joshua Iyadurai. Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2015. xii + 254 pp. ISBN 978-1-620-32746-3 (pb)
Paving the Great Way
Paving the Great Way: Vasubandhu’s Unifying Buddhist Philosophy, by Jonathan Gold. New York: Columbia University Press, 2015. x + 322 pp., £38.00 (hb). ISBN 978-0-23116-8-267 (hb)
Returning the Demon's Gaze
While limited studies have been carried out in Asian contexts on Māra, a personification of evil in Buddhist mythology, the figure's representation in Western popular culture has been neglected. I compare Western representations of Māra in a novel, a film, and a theme park attraction with the figure's appearances in Asian Buddhist texts. I then argue that in these representations we can detect the presence of what David McMahan has termed “Buddhi…
Dialogues with Death
This article compares Hindu and Buddhist narratives involving debate or contest with the gods representing death in each respective tradition. In Hinduism, this is Yama, judge and god of the underworld, while in Buddhism, death, as well as the concept of rebirth and, more broadly, samsara itself, is represented by the malign figure Mara. Through a comparison of Buddhist Pali Canon texts to the Hindu Katha Upanisad, the Savitri episode in the Maha…
I Think You and I Are Destined to Do This Forever”
This paper compares comic and film representations of the characters Batman and the Joker to the structure and characterization of religious narratives known as “combat myths,” which generally portray a figure of order defending society against a chaos monster. The paper also demonstrates how the Batman film of 2008, The Dark Knight, updates the mythic theme by casting the opposing characters as representatives of democratic society and terrorism…
The Two Faces of Deva
In this paper, I demonstrate how a comparison of the portrayals of Brahmadevas with the figure of Mara in Buddhist Pali texts can tell us a great deal about Indian Buddhist sociology that has been overlooked previously. This coordination of Brahma and Mara clearly serves to hierarchize human Brahmins as either potential allies in religious practice or demonic impediments, showing a direct link between Buddhist mythic narrative and conceptualizati…
Scholarly Approaches to the Concept of "Evil" and the Figure of Māra in South Asia
In this article, I survey prominent themes in the scholarly analysis of the concept of `evil' in South Asian religious traditions. Some of the issues I highlight in this regard are the problems in defining `evil' in the South Asian context and the past tendency to privilege philosophical materials over literary sources. Besides this general topic, I also focus particularly on past scholarly approaches to and interpretations of the Buddhist figure…
God of Desire
The Two Faces of Deva
In this paper, I demonstrate how a comparison of the portrayals of Brahmadevas with the figure of Mara in Buddhist Pali texts can tell us a great deal about Indian Buddhist sociology that has been overlooked previously. This coordination of Brahma and Mara clearly serves to hierarchize human Brahmins as either potential allies in religious practice or demonic impediments, showing a direct link between Buddhist mythic narrative and conceptualizati…
God of Desire
The Two Faces of Deva
In this paper, I demonstrate how a comparison of the portrayals of Brahmadevas with the figure of Mara in Buddhist Pali texts can tell us a great deal about Indian Buddhist sociology that has been overlooked previously. This coordination of Brahma and Mara clearly serves to hierarchize human Brahmins as either potential allies in religious practice or demonic impediments, showing a direct link between Buddhist mythic narrative and conceptualizati…
Scholarly Approaches to the Concept of "Evil" and the Figure of Māra in South Asia
In this article, I survey prominent themes in the scholarly analysis of the concept of `evil' in South Asian religious traditions. Some of the issues I highlight in this regard are the problems in defining `evil' in the South Asian context and the past tendency to privilege philosophical materials over literary sources. Besides this general topic, I also focus particularly on past scholarly approaches to and interpretations of the Buddhist figure…
I Think You and I Are Destined to Do This Forever”
This paper compares comic and film representations of the characters Batman and the Joker to the structure and characterization of religious narratives known as “combat myths,” which generally portray a figure of order defending society against a chaos monster. The paper also demonstrates how the Batman film of 2008, The Dark Knight, updates the mythic theme by casting the opposing characters as representatives of democratic society and terrorism…
Dialogues with Death
This article compares Hindu and Buddhist narratives involving debate or contest with the gods representing death in each respective tradition. In Hinduism, this is Yama, judge and god of the underworld, while in Buddhism, death, as well as the concept of rebirth and, more broadly, samsara itself, is represented by the malign figure Mara. Through a comparison of Buddhist Pali Canon texts to the Hindu Katha Upanisad, the Savitri episode in the Maha…
Paving the Great Way
Paving the Great Way: Vasubandhu’s Unifying Buddhist Philosophy, by Jonathan Gold. New York: Columbia University Press, 2015. x + 322 pp., £38.00 (hb). ISBN 978-0-23116-8-267 (hb)
Returning the Demon's Gaze
While limited studies have been carried out in Asian contexts on Māra, a personification of evil in Buddhist mythology, the figure's representation in Western popular culture has been neglected. I compare Western representations of Māra in a novel, a film, and a theme park attraction with the figure's appearances in Asian Buddhist texts. I then argue that in these representations we can detect the presence of what David McMahan has termed “Buddhi…
Transformative Religious Experience
Transformative Religious Experience: A Phenomenological Understanding of Religious Conversion, by Joshua Iyadurai. Eugene, OR: Pickwick Publications, 2015. xii + 254 pp. ISBN 978-1-620-32746-3 (pb)
Buddhist Monks and the Politics of Lanka’s Civil War
Buddhist Monks and the Politics of Lanka’s Civil War: Ethnoreligious Nationalism of the Sinhala Sangha and Peacemaking in Sri Lanka, 1995–2010, by Suren Raghavan. Sheffield: Equinox Press, 2016. xvii + 274 pp. £85 (hb), £26.99 (pb). ISBN 978-1-78179-078-6 (hb), ISBN 978-1-78179-574-3 (pb)
Philosophy (8 works) · Theology (7 works) · Art (6 works) · Buddhism (6 works) · History (6 works) · Indian and Buddhist Studies (6 works) · Literature (6 works) · Philosophy (6 works) · History (4 works) · Aesthetics (3 works)