What is Contemplation?
An interview series
What is contemplation? How do different contemplative traditions – religious and secular, historical and modern – understand practices and experiences of contemplation? Given the incredible diversity of contemplation in the historical record and the capacious use of the term in English and native languages of contemplative traditions, the question about what defines contemplation spurs research and scholarship.
When the Journal of Contemplative Studies was launched in the Fall 2022, the JCS Advisory Board grappled with the question about how best to define this critical term at the heart of the journal’s identity. Though tempted, the board resisted the urge to define contemplation, and instead opted to leave it open for authors to define. To address this driving question, JCS staff sit down with leading scholars in Contemplative Studies to ask four questions:
- What is contemplation?
- How is contemplation relevant to your research?
- What excites you about future directions in the study of contemplation?
- What are your favorite books in Contemplative Studies?
This Currents series weaves together multivalent perspectives in a tapestry of responses to this question. We invite you to read and explore the many meanings of contemplation.
What is Contemplation?: An Interview with Claire Petitmengin
Claire Petitmengin is Professor Emerita at the Institut Mines-Télécom and member of the Archives Husserl (Ecole Normale Supérieure) in Paris. Her research focuses on lived experience and micro-phenomenological methods enabling us to become aware of experience and describe it. Conducted by Erin Burke, a doctoral candidate at the University of Virginia and a Research Assistant…
What is Contemplation?: An Interview with Erik Braun
Erik Braun is an Associate Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Virginia and author of The Birth of Insight: Meditation, Modern Buddhism, and the Burmese Monk Ledi Sayadaw (2014). Conducted by Adam Liddle, a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Contemplative Sciences Center and the Associate Editor for the Journal of Contemplative Studies. JCS: What is…
What is Contemplation: An Interview with Muhammad Faruque
Muhammad Faruque is the Inayat Malik Assistant Professor and a Taft Center Fellow at the University of Cincinnati and a Visiting Scholar at Harvard University. He is the author of Sculpting the Self: Islam, Selfhood, and Human Flourishing (2021). Conducted by Erin Burke, a doctoral candidate at the University of Virginia and a Research Assistant…
What is Contemplation?: An Interview with Anne C. Klein
Anne C. Klein is a Professor in the Department of Religion at Rice University, co-founder of the Dawn Mountain Center for Tibetan Buddhism, and author of Being Human and a Buddha Too (2023). Conducted by Adam Liddle, a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Contemplative Sciences Center and the Associate Editor for the Journal of Contemplative…
What is Contemplation?: An Interview with Martijn van Beek
Martijn van Beek is an Associate Professor in the Department of Anthropology at Aarhus University in Denmark. He specializes in ethnographic and phenomenological perspectives on meditation. Conducted by Erin Burke, a doctoral candidate at the University of Virginia and a Research Assistant at the Journal of Contemplative Studies. JCS: What is contemplation? MVB: In my BA…
What is Contemplation?: An Interview with Loriliai Biernacki
Loriliai Biernacki is a Professor of Religious Studies at the University of Colorado at Boulder and is the author of Renowned Goddess of Desire (2007) and The Matter of Wonder: Abhinavagupta’s Panentheism and New Materialism (2023). She is also co-chair of the Contemplative Studies unit at the American Academy of Religion. Conducted by Erin Burke, a…
What is Contemplation?: An Interview with David McMahan
David McMahan is the Charles A. Dana Professor of Religious Studies at Franklin and Marshall College and author of Rethinking Meditation: Buddhist Meditative Practices in Ancient and Modern Worlds (2023) and The Making of Buddhist Modernism (2008).
What is Contemplation?: An Interview with Douglas Christie
Douglas Christie is a Professor Emeritus of Theological Studies at Loyola Marymount University and author of The Blue Saphire of the Mind: Notes for a Contemplative Ecology and The Insurmountable Darkness of Love: Love, Contemplative Practice, and the Common Life.