Mysticism and Intellect in Medieval Christianity and Buddhism

Ascent and Awakening in Bonaventure and Chinul

Yongho Francis Lee

• Publisher: Lexington Books
• Year: 2020
• Edition: 1
• eBook ISBN:
  9781793600714
• Topic: Theology & Religion
• Subtopic: Buddhism

Mysticism and Intellect in Medieval Christianity and Buddhism explores two influential intellectual and religious leaders in Christianity and Buddhism, Bonaventure (c. 1217–74) and Chinul (1158–1210), a Franciscan theologian and a Korean Zen master respectively, with respect to their lifelong endeavors to integrate the intellectual and spiritual life so as to achieve the religious aims of their respective religious traditions. It also investigates an associated tension between different modes of discourse relating to the divine or the ultimate—positive (cataphatic) discourse and negative (apophatic) discourse. Both of these modes of discourse are closely related to different ways of understanding the immanence and transcendence of the divine or the ultimate. Through close studies of Bonaventure and Chinul, the book presents a unique dialogue between Christianity and Buddhism and between West and East.

Table of contents

• Acknowledgments
• Introduction
• 1 Bonaventure’s Integration of the Intellectual and Spiritual Life
• 2 Chinul’s Integration of Buddhist Doctrinal Teachings and Sŏn Practices
• 3 The Spiral Dialectics of Cataphasis and Apophasis in Bonaventure
• 4 The Tension between Moderate and Radical Subitism: Chinul’s Integration of Sŏn and Kyo and Advocacy of Kanhwa Sŏn
• Conclusion
• Appendix: Further Reading
• Bibliography
• About the Author