Song Ren

The author discusses the essence of Confucius' teaching in the Analects (Lunyü).

The author criticizes the syncretic admixture of Buddhism with ecological agendas, referring to the anthology Buddhism and Ecology.

The author focuses his criticism on a portion of Zhuan Falun, the prime text of the new religious movement Falun Gong.

The author offers a critique of Nakamura Hajime's purportedly historical biography of Buddha.

The author proposed a two-part approach to the study of religious conceptions of death and afterlife, based upon the works of Vermeule and McGee.

The author discusses the relationship between various notions of Buddhism materialism as evidenced in a number of Chinese hell scrolls.

The author briefly discusses the historical justification for speaking of early Christians as a identifiable group, making reference to the letter of St. Ignatius of Antioch to the Magnesians.

The author discusses the relationship between human agency and the will of Heaven in the classic Chinese text, Mengzi (??), commonly known as the Mencius.

The author considers two strikingly different commentaries to the ancient Chinese text Daode jing (???), that of the scholar Wang Bi (??) and the fragmentary "religious" commentary called Xiang'er (??...

The author considers compassion in light of the Vimalakirti Sutra, a classic and very popular Buddhist scripture.

The author considers the varying perspectives of the Mandate of Heaven (tian ming ??) reflected in the ancient Chinese Book of Songs, or Songs Canon (Shi jing ??).

The author employs intra- and inter-textual commentary to elucidate a famous passage of the classic Chinese text Zhuangzi (??).

The author compares Chinese and western ways of thinking by comparing two accounts of unrighteous kings: that of Zhou Xin (??), last ruler of the Shang (?) dynasty, and Pentheus, of Euripedes' play Th...

The author compares the approaches of William James and Sigmund Freud to the study of religion.

The author considers the implications of Mircea Eliade's contentions regarding the cyclical time of archaic religion and the concretely historical conception of time in the Judeo-Christian tradition.

The author discusses the arguements of Wayne Proudfoot and Roy Rappaport, in their books Religious Experience and Ritual and Religion in the Making of Humanity, respectively.

The author discusses Frankfurt's philosophy of free will, using Millais' painting "The Knight Errant"

The author attacks the philosophy of utilitarianism.

The author describes and interprets an example of divination using the Zhouyi (??), also known as the Yijing (??).

The author discusses the possible reasoning behind the names of Yijing hexagrams 9 and 26.

The author discusses the idea of the Chinese divination text Yijing (??) as made up of numerous different layers. The hexagrams Guimei (??) and Zhongfu (??) are used as illustrations.

The author briefly considers the question of knowledge in light of the objections of the so-called skeptics.

Mark Doty's poem "Broadway" is analyzed in terms of voice, figurative language, and lineation.

An analysis of the author's own poem in terms of Stephen Fry's model of the English ode.

The author considers the philosophical implications of teleportation. The text of the question preceding the essay is from Scott Jenkins' Introduction to Philosophy class.

The author considers the philosophical notion of immaterial souls surviving the death of the material body. The text of the question preceding the essay is from Scott Jenkins' Introduction to Philosop...

A brief analysis of Seamus Heany's poem sequence.

The process of initiation into the mystery cults of the Mediterranean is discussed in the context of Apuleius' novel "The Golden Ass"

This paper lays out the arguments in the letters of Seneca and in Lucretius' "De Rerum Natura" against being afraid of death.

A cursory discussion of the symbolism of the Ara Pacis, and the notion of myth-based history.

This paper explores the struggle between reason and irrational divine power as represented "The Bacchae."

This paper argues that the subjugation of the Furies at the end of the Eumenides is out of tune with the spirit of the mythology surrounding the play, and acts as a sort of wishful thinking.

This paper briefly traces certain aspects of ancient Greek culture

The nature of ancient Greek conceptions of mortal vs. immortal responsibility as evidenced in the Iliad are briefly explored.