Carl Olson
Biographic Data
| ID | 3890930 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Carl Olson |
| GIVEN NAMES | Carl |
| FAMILY NAME | Olson |
| SIGNATURE | OLSON C |
| AFFILIATIONS | Allegheny College |
| VERIFIED | No |
| TOTAL WORKS | 32 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 8 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 31 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 1 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1977 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2024 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
A painting you can eat: A dialogue between Dōgen and postmodern thinkers on nature and ecology
Uttering Curses in Classical Hinduism: An Inquiry into Power and Violence
Based on textual evidence in ancient Indian texts, the uttering of curses (sāpah) was a feature of the culture from ancient times and continues into the current period, although the practice has not attracted the scholarly attention that it arguably deserves. The importance of the curse in Indian culture is also evident in other ancient religious cultures such as Egyptian, Mesopotamian, and Greco-Roman. Within the cultural context of India, the c…
Playing in the Non-representational Mode of Thinking: A Comparison of Derrida, Dōgen, and Zhuangzi
The representational mode of thinking assumes a correspondence between appearance and reality that is supported by a metaphysical edifice. This way of thinking uses the metaphor of the mirror, which suggests a reflected image of consciousness and confusion between the representation and original consciousness. Jacque Derrida, a leading postmodern philosopher, wants to overcome the mode of representational thinking and extricate himself from it by…
Reduced Dorsal Visual Oscillatory Activity During Working Memory Maintenance in the First-Episode Schizophrenia Spectrum
Cognitive deficits in people with schizophrenia are among the hardest to treat and strongly predict functional outcome. The ability to maintain sensory precepts in memory over a short delay is impacted early in the progression of schizophrenia and has been linked to reliable neurophysiological markers. Yet, little is known about the mechanisms of these deficits. Here, we investigated possible neurophysiological mechanisms of impaired visual short…
Religious Ways of Experiencing Life: A Global and Narrative Approach
Religious Ways of Experiencing Life: A Global and Narrative Approach surveys world religions, using the narratives and discourses of each tradition to describe it in its own terms. Carl Olson examines each tradition’s practices, teachings, material culture, roles of women, and path to salvation, as well as the experiences of its followers. The exploration of lived experience draws out and emphasizes the plural nature of religious traditions. The …
Dis‐Enclosure: The Deconstruction of Christianity – By Jean‐Luc Nancy
Religious Studies: The Key Concepts
Religious Studies: The Key Concepts is an accessible, A-Z resource, defining and explaining key terms and ideas central to the study of religion. Exploring broad and recurring themes which are applicable in both eastern and western religions, cross-cultural examples are provided for each term to give a comprehensive overview of the subject. Subjects covered include: afterlife comparative religion festivals ethics gender monotheism world religions…
Śakti, Celibacy, and Colonial Politics: Interlocking Themes of the Ānandamaṭh and Debī Chaudhurāṇī of Bankimcandra
Trends and Competition Within the World Religions Academic Marketplace
Risks, Writing, Memory, and Intentions: Reflections on the Process of Creating Introductory Texts on Buddhism and Hinduism
This essay is intended to assist other scholars who might be writing or thinking about beginning to write an introductory textbook for use in college-level courses. After recently completing contracts to produce four texts, this essay is an attempt to share my experience with others in order to make potential authors more aware of the publishing process and the kinds of things that one might have to consider or encounter
Celibacy and Religious Traditions
John Grimes, The Vivekacūḍāmaṇi of Śaṅkarācārya Bhagavatpāda: An Introduction and Translation
Politics, Power, Discourse and Representation: A Critical Look at Said and Some of His Children
In his wonderful, award-winning novel entided Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie's main character named Saleem Sinai opens the narrative by reflecting on the moment of his birth. He tells the reader that he was born in the city of Bombay at midnight on August 15, 1947 at the precise instant of India's independence. Outside the nursing home of his birth, there are large crowds celebrating the momentous moment as fire works explode in the sky. Sal…
Excess, Time, and the Pure Gift: Postmodern Transformations of Marcel Mauss' Theory
Marcel Mauss' study of the gift is generally considered a classic work in the field of religious studies and in the discipline of anthropology. This exemplary paradigm of scholarship, however, is not given the same respect and acceptance by some postmodern thinkers because it fails to address in part the significance of difference. After reviewing the major highlights of Mauss' theory and the insights of Jacques Derrida and George Bataille on the…
Rationality and madness: The post‐modern embrace of Dionysus and the neo‐vedānta response of Radhakrishnan
Following the lead of Nietzsche, several post‐modern philosophers challenge the Western notion of rationality and its representational model of thought and embrace the Dionysian element in Nietzsche's philosophy, which can take the form of embracing madness (Foucault), desire (Deleuze and Guattari), or carnival (Kristeva). This paper will place Radhakrishnan into the context of a hermeneutical dialogue with these figures from post‐modern philosop…
Mircea Eliade, Postmodernism, and the Problematic Nature of Representational Thinking
This essay reviews the "ten affinities" Bryan S. Rennie proposes, in his book, Reconstructing Eliade (1996), to establish Mircea Eliade as a precursor of postmodernism. These affinities can be grouped together as historical, ontological, and epistemological. The paper goes on to refute these affinities between Eliade and postmodernism by drawing on the work of undisputedly recognized postmodern thinkers
Vivekānanda and Rāmakṛṣṇa face to face: An essay on the alterity of a saint
Bataille's theory of religion revisited: A reply to criticism by Tim Murphy
Eroticism, violence, and sacrifice: A postmodern theory of religion and ritual
A fascinating and controversial theory of religion and ritual is offered by Georges Bataille, an influential French postmodern thinker and writer In his collected works he suggests that religion, which he identifies with the sacred, can best be understood by the interconnections and workings of eroticism, violence, and sacrifice. The key to understanding Bataille's theory is to focus on his concept of eroticism, which was one of his life-long obs…
The Theology and Philosophy of Eliade
The primary focus of this study is to view Eliade as not only a historian of religions but also as a theologian, a philosopher, novelist and as someone engaged in cross-cultural dialogue with other re
Seeking the Centre
The Pima and Papago tribes of southern Arizona on the North American continent conceptualize life as a road that is difficult, painful, sorrowful, confusing and full of conflicts. They envision the road of life as a labyrinth that is symbolically expressed in the following way: ‘It consists of a circle, in the center of which a small circle represents the earth. Beginning a short distance from the earth in the center, four lines radiate in each d…
Hemaphrodite in Early Buddhism
.
The Mysterious Play of Kali: An Interpretive Study of Rama-Krishna
The Existential Doubt of Tillich and the Great Doubt of Hakuin
Doubt plays a prominent role in theology of Paul Tillich and in thought of eighteenth-century Zen master Hakuin, revitalizer of Rinzai sect in Japan. The role of doubt in their writings is based on their own personal experiences. Tillich's excruciating experiences as a young, idealistic, patriotic chaplin during World War I transformed his vision to the paradox of faith without God. 1 Late in his life, Tillich experienced doubt about efficacy of …
Theology of Nostalgia: Reflections on the Theological Aspects of Eliade's Work
THEOLOGY OF NOSTALGIA: REFLECTIONS ON THE THEOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF ELIADE'S WORK CARL OLSON The history of religions is a discipline that Mircea Eliade, proba- bly its best known international practitioner, understands in a very broad sense. It is not only concerned with the interpretation of sym- bols, myths and various forms of religious behavior, but also represents the occasion for philosophical reflection. According to Eliade, a hidden agenda …
Excess, Time, and the Pure Gift: Postmodern Transformations of Marcel Mauss' Theory
Marcel Mauss' study of the gift is generally considered a classic work in the field of religious studies and in the discipline of anthropology. This exemplary paradigm of scholarship, however, is not given the same respect and acceptance by some postmodern thinkers because it fails to address in part the significance of difference. After reviewing the major highlights of Mauss' theory and the insights of Jacques Derrida and George Bataille on the…
Vivekānanda and Rāmakṛṣṇa face to face: An essay on the alterity of a saint
Politics, Power, Discourse and Representation: A Critical Look at Said and Some of His Children
In his wonderful, award-winning novel entided Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie's main character named Saleem Sinai opens the narrative by reflecting on the moment of his birth. He tells the reader that he was born in the city of Bombay at midnight on August 15, 1947 at the precise instant of India's independence. Outside the nursing home of his birth, there are large crowds celebrating the momentous moment as fire works explode in the sky. Sal…
Eroticism, violence, and sacrifice: A postmodern theory of religion and ritual
A fascinating and controversial theory of religion and ritual is offered by Georges Bataille, an influential French postmodern thinker and writer In his collected works he suggests that religion, which he identifies with the sacred, can best be understood by the interconnections and workings of eroticism, violence, and sacrifice. The key to understanding Bataille's theory is to focus on his concept of eroticism, which was one of his life-long obs…
The Existential, Social, and Cosmic Significance of the Upanayana Rite
For the Hindu as depicted in the Grhyasittras, life moves along in a succession of periods. For each of these periods there are proper rites to perform. The most critical periods of life are birth, puberty, marriage, and death. These crucial times in the life of religious man are periods of transition. They are times of great danger. In order for man to pass over the danger, he must occasionally take a leap. The anthropologist Mary Douglas cogent…
Lotus as a Symbol in the Pali Tradition
.
The Śaiva mystic, self sacrifice, and creativity
The Śaiva Mystic and the Symbol of Androgyny
In probably the earliest Upanisad text, one learns that at the beginning of the world there was only Ātman in the form of a person. Discovering that only he existed, he declared ‘I am’. After losing his fear of being alone, he found that he did not have pleasure because of his solitary condition. Thereupon, he divided himself and became a man and a woman. When the two beings copulated other beings and forms of life were produced. Thus the origina…
The Book of the Goddess, Past and Present: An Introduction to Her Religion
The Human Body as a Boundary Symbol: A Comparison of Merleau-Ponty and Dogen
Tillich's Dialogue with Buddhism
Between May and July of 1960, Paul Tillich, at the pinnacle of his success and popularity, spent eight weeks in Japan sightseeing, lecturing and discussing the differences between Christianity and Japanese religions with leading scholars, laymen, and clergy of the country. Tillich was especially attracted to Buddhist mysticism. He called his impressions of Japanese religion a volcanic experience.1 After his return to America, he delivered in 1961…
The Existential Doubt of Tillich and the Great Doubt of Hakuin
Doubt plays a prominent role in theology of Paul Tillich and in thought of eighteenth-century Zen master Hakuin, revitalizer of Rinzai sect in Japan. The role of doubt in their writings is based on their own personal experiences. Tillich's excruciating experiences as a young, idealistic, patriotic chaplin during World War I transformed his vision to the paradox of faith without God. 1 Late in his life, Tillich experienced doubt about efficacy of …
Theology of Nostalgia: Reflections on the Theological Aspects of Eliade's Work
THEOLOGY OF NOSTALGIA: REFLECTIONS ON THE THEOLOGICAL ASPECTS OF ELIADE'S WORK CARL OLSON The history of religions is a discipline that Mircea Eliade, proba- bly its best known international practitioner, understands in a very broad sense. It is not only concerned with the interpretation of sym- bols, myths and various forms of religious behavior, but also represents the occasion for philosophical reflection. According to Eliade, a hidden agenda …
The Mysterious Play of Kali: An Interpretive Study of Rama-Krishna
The Theology and Philosophy of Eliade
The primary focus of this study is to view Eliade as not only a historian of religions but also as a theologian, a philosopher, novelist and as someone engaged in cross-cultural dialogue with other re
Seeking the Centre
The Pima and Papago tribes of southern Arizona on the North American continent conceptualize life as a road that is difficult, painful, sorrowful, confusing and full of conflicts. They envision the road of life as a labyrinth that is symbolically expressed in the following way: ‘It consists of a circle, in the center of which a small circle represents the earth. Beginning a short distance from the earth in the center, four lines radiate in each d…
Hemaphrodite in Early Buddhism
.
Eroticism, violence, and sacrifice: A postmodern theory of religion and ritual
A fascinating and controversial theory of religion and ritual is offered by Georges Bataille, an influential French postmodern thinker and writer In his collected works he suggests that religion, which he identifies with the sacred, can best be understood by the interconnections and workings of eroticism, violence, and sacrifice. The key to understanding Bataille's theory is to focus on his concept of eroticism, which was one of his life-long obs…
Bataille's theory of religion revisited: A reply to criticism by Tim Murphy
Vivekānanda and Rāmakṛṣṇa face to face: An essay on the alterity of a saint
Rationality and madness: The post‐modern embrace of Dionysus and the neo‐vedānta response of Radhakrishnan
Following the lead of Nietzsche, several post‐modern philosophers challenge the Western notion of rationality and its representational model of thought and embrace the Dionysian element in Nietzsche's philosophy, which can take the form of embracing madness (Foucault), desire (Deleuze and Guattari), or carnival (Kristeva). This paper will place Radhakrishnan into the context of a hermeneutical dialogue with these figures from post‐modern philosop…
Mircea Eliade, Postmodernism, and the Problematic Nature of Representational Thinking
This essay reviews the "ten affinities" Bryan S. Rennie proposes, in his book, Reconstructing Eliade (1996), to establish Mircea Eliade as a precursor of postmodernism. These affinities can be grouped together as historical, ontological, and epistemological. The paper goes on to refute these affinities between Eliade and postmodernism by drawing on the work of undisputedly recognized postmodern thinkers
Excess, Time, and the Pure Gift: Postmodern Transformations of Marcel Mauss' Theory
Marcel Mauss' study of the gift is generally considered a classic work in the field of religious studies and in the discipline of anthropology. This exemplary paradigm of scholarship, however, is not given the same respect and acceptance by some postmodern thinkers because it fails to address in part the significance of difference. After reviewing the major highlights of Mauss' theory and the insights of Jacques Derrida and George Bataille on the…
Politics, Power, Discourse and Representation: A Critical Look at Said and Some of His Children
In his wonderful, award-winning novel entided Midnight's Children, Salman Rushdie's main character named Saleem Sinai opens the narrative by reflecting on the moment of his birth. He tells the reader that he was born in the city of Bombay at midnight on August 15, 1947 at the precise instant of India's independence. Outside the nursing home of his birth, there are large crowds celebrating the momentous moment as fire works explode in the sky. Sal…
John Grimes, The Vivekacūḍāmaṇi of Śaṅkarācārya Bhagavatpāda: An Introduction and Translation
Celibacy and Religious Traditions
Trends and Competition Within the World Religions Academic Marketplace
Risks, Writing, Memory, and Intentions: Reflections on the Process of Creating Introductory Texts on Buddhism and Hinduism
This essay is intended to assist other scholars who might be writing or thinking about beginning to write an introductory textbook for use in college-level courses. After recently completing contracts to produce four texts, this essay is an attempt to share my experience with others in order to make potential authors more aware of the publishing process and the kinds of things that one might have to consider or encounter
Dis‐Enclosure: The Deconstruction of Christianity – By Jean‐Luc Nancy
Philosophy (26 works) · Epistemology (15 works) · Art (14 works) · Sociology (14 works) · Theology (14 works) · History (12 works) · Psychology (11 works) · Philosophy (10 works) · Religious studies (10 works) · Computer Science (8 works)