Benn James A., Professor | Director, McMaster University Centre for Buddhist Studies

James A. Benn

Professor | Director, McMaster University Centre for Buddhist Studies

Faculty
Department of Religious Studies

Area(s) of Interest:

Biography

Research Interests

I was trained primarily as a scholar of medieval Chinese religions (Buddhism and Taoism). My research is aimed at understanding the practices and world views of medieval men and women, both religious and lay, through the close reading of primary sources in literary Chinese—the lingua franca of East Asian religions. I have concentrated on three major areas of research: bodily practice in Chinese Religions; the ways in which people create and transmit new religious practices and doctrines; and the religious dimensions of commodity culture. In particular I have worked on self-immolation, Chinese Buddhist apocrypha, and the religious and cultural history of tea.

Education

University of California, Los Angeles, Ph.D. in East Asian Languages and Cultures (Chinese Buddhism), 2001
- Advisor: Robert Buswell
- Dissertation: "Burning for the Buddha: Self-Immolation in Chinese Buddhism"
School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, M.A. in Religious Studies (with Distinction), 1994
- Advisor: T. H. Barrett
- Thesis: Temperance Tracts and Teetotallers under the T’ang: Buddhism, Alcohol and Tea in Mediaeval China
University of Cambridge (St. John’s College), BA, MA in Oriental Studies (Chinese), 1986
- Special Subject: Tang Intellectual History
- supervised by T. H. Barrett and David McMullen

Teaching

Courses

Undergraduate

SCAR 2K03. Introduction to Buddhism
SCAR 2MT3, Asian Meditation Traditions
SCAR 2WX3, Health, Health and Religion, Comparative Views
Arts&Science/SCAR 3S03. East Asian Religious Traditions.
SCAR 3UU3. Buddhism in East Asia.

Graduate

Religious Studies 712. Topics in the Study of Chinese Buddhist Texts I: Translated Texts.
Religious Studies 713. Topics in the Study of Chinese Buddhist Texts II: Indigenous Chinese Writings.
Religious Studies 717. Topics in Chinese Buddhism: Recent Scholarship.
Religious Studies 724. Topics in Taoism.

Research

Monographs

Tea in China: A Religious and Cultural History. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2015.

Burning for the Buddha: Self-immolation in Chinese Buddhism. Kuroda Institute Studies in East Asian Buddhism 19. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2007.

Edited Volumes

Images, Relics and Legends: the Formation and Transformation of Buddhist Sacred Sites. Essays in Honour of Professor Koichi Shinohara. Edited by James A. Benn, Jinhua Chen, and James Robson. Oakville, Ont.: Mosaic Press, 2012.

Buddhist Monasticism in East Asia: Places of Practice. Edited by James A. Benn, Lori Meeks, James Robson. Routledge, 2009.

Buddhism and Peace: Issues of Violence, Wars and Self-sacrifice. Edited by James A. Benn, and Jinhua Chen. Hualien: Tzu Chi University Press, 2007.

Journal Articles

“Self-immolation, Resistance and Millenarianism in Medieval Chinese Buddhism.” Medieval History Journal 17 (2014): 229–254.
“Multiple Meanings of Buddhist Self-Immolation in China—A Historical Perspective." Revue des Études Tibétaines 25 (2012): 203–212.
“The Silent Saṃgha: Some Observations on Mute Sheep Monks.” Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies 32 (2009 [appeared 2010]): 11–38.
“Another Look at the Pseudo-Śūraṃgama Sūtra,” Harvard Journal of Asiatic Studies 68 (2008): 57–89.
“Written in Flames: Self-immolation in Sixth-century Sichuan,” T’oung Pao 92 (2006): 410–465.
“Where Text Meets Flesh: Burning the Body as an ‘Apocryphal Practice’ in Chinese Buddhism.” History of Religions 37 (1998): 295–322.

Essays

“Biographies of Eight Auto-Cremators and Huijiao’s Critical Evaluation” in Early Medieval China: A Sourcebook, edited by Robert F. Campany, Wendy Swartz, and Lu Yang, 543–60. New York: Columbia University Press, 2013.
“One Mountain, Two Traditions: Buddhist and Taoist Claims on Zhongnan shan in Medieval Times,” in Images, Relics and Legends: the Formation and Transformation of Buddhist Sacred Sites. Essays in Honour of Professor Koichi Shinohara. Edited by James Benn, Jinhua Chen, and James Robson, 69–90. Oakville, Ont.: Mosaic Press, 2012.
“The Lotus Sūtra and Self-immolation,” in Readings of the Lotus Sūtra, edited by Jacqueline I. Stone and Stephen F. Teiser, 107–131. New York: Columbia University Press, 2009.
“Spontaneous Human Combustion: Some Remarks on a Phenomenon in Chinese Buddhism,” in Heroes and Saints: The Moment of Death in Cross-cultural Perspectives, edited by Phyllis Granoff and Koichi Shinohara, 101–133. Newcastle: Cambridge Scholars Press, 2007.
“Fire and the Sword: Some Connections between Self-immolation and Religious Persecution in the History of Chinese Buddhism” in The Buddhist Dead: Practices, Discourses and Representations, edited by Bryan Cuevas and Jacqueline Stone, 234–65. Kuroda Institute Studies in East Asian Buddhism 20. Honolulu: University of Hawai‘i Press, 2007.
“Introduction,” in Buddhism and Peace, Issues of Violence, Wars and Self-sacrifice, edited by James Benn and Jinhua Chen, 1–11. Hualien: Tzu Chi University Press, 2007.
“Self-immolation in the Context of War and Other Natural Disasters,” in Buddhism and Peace, Issues of Violence, Wars and Self-sacrifice, edited by James Benn and Jinhua Chen, 51–83. Hualien: Tzu Chi University Press, 2007.
“Buddhism, Alcohol, and Tea in Medieval China” in Of Tripod and Palate: Food and Religion in Traditional China, edited by Roel Sterckx, 213–36. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005.