Robert Magliola

Roberto Rino Magliola (born 1940) is an Italian-American academic specializing in European hermeneutics and deconstruction, in comparative philosophy, and in inter-religious dialogue. He is retired from National Taiwan University and from Assumption University of Thailand.

Career

Magliola received his doctorate in 1970 from Princeton University in comparative literature with specialty and dissertation in phenomenology/hermeneutics, see diss. in microform format, here). He is retired from the (interfaith) Graduate School of Philosophy and Religions, Abac Assumption University (Thailand), where he was professor of philosophy and religious studies; and from National Taiwan University, where he was distinguished chair professor in the Graduate School of Liberal Arts.[1] In 1983–84, he taught and researched at Tamkang University in Taiwan while on sabbatical from Purdue University, where he had taught since 1969 and been a (full) professor since 1981.[2] In 1985 he moved to the Orient, taking up residence there en permanence. He continued publication in Buddhism and deconstruction and also did interdisciplinary writing and conferencing on postmodernism (in literature and Religious Studies) throughout this period. A Carmelite lay tertiary (1982–present),[3] he began to write more extensively both on the application of Derridean thought-motifs to Catholic theology, and on Catholic meditation (see Christian Meditation and see Contemplation), making an invited presentation in 1999 on ‘Catholic Meditation in Tibetan Vajrayana Form’ for the Pontifical Council for Culture and the Federation of Asian Bishops Councils (See Proceedings for 2nd Day, Feb. 2, 1999, here).

In Thailand since 1994, he researched Theravada Buddhism and also underwent training in Vipassanā-Satipatthana meditation (Wat Mahathat, Bangkok).[4] He organized and chaired the Thai delegation of Buddhist and Catholic scholars from Assumption University to the quadrennial international meetings of the Society for Buddhist-Christian Studies (1996, 2000), having begun presenting papers there in 1992. After a return of two years to teaching in Taiwan, he formally retired from university teaching as of summer, 2002, and currently lives in the United States of America where his three children, Lorinda-marie, Jon-carlo, and Clara-marie, and his several grandchildren reside. Since 2002, he has taught minicourses (see course information, Global Family for Love and Peace, here), organized forums, and been an interfaith retreatant at the Manhattan (NYC) Center of the Wu Sheng Monastery, Ling Jiou Shan Buddhist Society, Kung-Liao, Taiwan (2002–2005) [the Manhattan Center closed in 2005 and moved to Oakland Garden, Queens, NYC]. In spring 2012 Ling Jiou Shan opened a new Center in Flushing, NYC, enabling Magliola to resume his affiliation as interfaith retreatant and consultant (2012- ). From 2002 through 2007 he has been a co-editor (see some of these edited books, here) for volumes in the book-series “Seminars on Culture and Values” for the Council for Research in Values and Philosophy, Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C. He is Co-editor (2008– ) of the DES Journal (3 issues a year; c. 20,000 circulation), academic review of Delta Epsilon Sigma, national scholastic honor society for students/faculty/alumni of Catholic colleges and universities (http://www.deltaepsilonsigma.org/en-us/default.aspx). He was a Seminar Associate (2002–2011)[5] of the Seminar in Buddhist Studies (a faculty and graduate student forum), Columbia University, and studied (autumn 2010–summer 2012) the meditative mode of Ajaan Lee Dhammadharo as it is taught at the Downtown New York Meditation Community (Manhattan, N.Y.C.), where Peter Doobinin leads the Insight Meditation Program (vipassanā). In Italy—as of spring 2012—Magliola practices at Villa Vangelo e Zen ("The Gospel and Zen") (), Desio (Lombardia), where the Director is padre Luciano Mazzocchi, S.X., who belongs to the Society of St. Francis Xavier for the Foreign Missions () and who, after twenty years in Japan, is a certified Soto Zen teacher with established centers throughout Italy (see also the Italian blogs associated with the website of La Stella del Mattino Italian Buddhist Community, Zen monk Mauricio Yushin Marassi, director, discussing Magliola's review of P. Knitter's Without Buddha I Could Not Be a Christian, here). On March 27th, 2013, Magliola received from Vangelo e Zen an official Attestato (Certification): the document declares him qualified to teach meditation “as transmitted in Zen, and in other Oriental forms” [in which he has been trained] to “priests, Religious, and laity of the Catholic Church,” in accordance with “the spirituality of dialogue promoted by Vatican Council II.”[6] The same document notes that “In 1999, Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger [later to become Pope Benedict XVI], Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, expressed in writing his approval and his encouragement” for “the Association Vangelo e Zen.”[7] In 2012 and 2013, Magliola has been a Reviewer/Outside Reader in Buddhism and Postmodern Theology for Harvard Theological Review, Harvard University.

Jacques Derrida and Buddhism

Magliola is a specialist in European hermeneutics and deconstruction, in comparative philosophy, and in Buddhist – (Roman) Catholic dialogue (). He is widely acknowledged to be the first scholar to have identified and published at length (Derrida on the Mend, 1984[8]) on possible intersections between Jacques Derrida’s thought and Buddhism, especially Madhyamika Buddhism and its generally accepted “founder,” Nagarjuna:

For other references to Derrida on the Mend making a similar point, see Harold Coward (Derrida and Indian Philosophy, State U. of New York Press, 1990, p. 125), Dennis McCort (Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Vol. 71, No. 1 (2003), p. 225 (See review, here), and Ellen Y. Zhang (“Jizang’s Śūnyatā-Speech: A Derridean Dénégation with Buddhist Negations,” in Buddhisms and Deconstructions, ed. Park, p. 116).

Brian Bocking and Youxuan Wang point out, in their “Signs of Liberation?—A Semiotic Approach to Wisdom in Chinese Madhyamika Buddhism,” The Journal of Chinese Philosophy, Vol. 33, No. 3 (Sept. 2006) (See article in Ingenta, here), that Derrida on the Mend also works with the Chan/Zen form of Buddhism, pioneering the comparison of this Far Eastern tradition and several Western semiotic themes: “As early as 1984, certain semiotic themes in Chinese Chan Buddhism were picked up in Robert Magliola, Derrida on the Mend, . . . .”

Bibliography (selected)

Books and reviews thereof (selected)

Robert Magliola's books in Hermeneutics, Deconstruction, Buddhist studies, Catholic thought, Buddhist-Catholic Dialogue, and an equitable selection of positive, negative, and mixed reviews thereof, some of which are accessible online:

Phenomenology and Literature (Purdue University Press, 1977, 2nd printing 1978), 208 pp.

“Now at last we get a book which seeks to introduce the Anglo-Saxon reader systematically to phenomenological literary theory and practice, placing both in their philosophical habitat. It is an understatement to say that the book fulfills a glaring need.” – Review by W. Wolfgang Holdheim in Diacritics Vol. 9, No. 2 (summer 1979), p. 10: see review in JSTOR, here.

Derrida on the Mend (Purdue University Press, 1984; 2nd edition, 1986), 238 pp. Reprint, Purdue University Press, 2000-2011, 2013- : see in Purdue Online catalogue, here.

On Deconstructing Life-Worlds: Buddhism, Christianity, Culture (Scholars Press, American Academy of Religion, 1997; Oxford University Press, 2000- ), 202 pp.: see in Amazon-UK online, here and Oxford UP-USA online catalogue,here.

Facing Up to Real Doctrinal Difference: How Some Thought-Motifs From Derrida Can Nourish the Catholic-Buddhist Encounter (Angelico Press, 2014), 224 pp.: see on Angelico Press's website at and see on Amazon website, here.

Commendations from the back cover and front inner pages of Facing Up to Real Doctrinal Difference:

Anthology-articles and reviews thereof (selected)

Articles and reviews (selected)

also accessible in Moksha (online journal): see FULL TEXT here.

See also

References

  1. ↑ See Magliola's "bio" in Y. Wang, ed. Deconstruction and the Ethical in Asian Thought (Routledge, 2007), pp. x,xi.
  2. ↑ See R. Magliola, autobiographical profile, in C. Koelb and S. Noakes, eds., The Comparative Perspective on Literature (Cornell University Press, 1988), p. 369.
  3. ↑ See Magliola's "bio" in J.Y. Park, ed., Buddhisms and Deconstructions (Rowman & Littlefield, 2006), p. 289.
  4. ↑ See same reference as in endnote 3.
  5. ↑ See same "bio" reference as in endnote 1.
  6. ↑ In Dilatato Corde, Vol. 3, No. 2 (July-Dec. 2013), at www.dimmid.org, Dialogue Interreligieux Monastique/Monastic Interreligious Dialogue, see the biographical note accompanying Magliola’s article “’Neither I nor Not I’- .”
  7. ↑ Ibid.
  8. ↑ Purdue University Press, 1984; 2nd ed., 1986; reprint Purdue University Press, 2000-2011, 2013- .
  9. ↑ Scholars Press, American Academy of Religion, 1997; Oxford University Press, 2000- .
  10. ↑ Rowman and Littlefield, 2006.
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