John E. Cort

Bio: John E. Cort is an academic researcher from Denison University. The author has contributed to research in topics: Asceticism & Worship. The author has an hindex of 12, co-authored 48 publications receiving 319 citations. Previous affiliations of John E. Cort include Harvard University.

Jains in the World: Religious Values and Ideology in India

Abstract: Note on Language, Transliteration, and Names Hymn to Pancasar Parsvanath Introduction: On the Occasion of the Blessed Installation of the Lord 1. The Ideology of the Path to Liberation 2. Jains and Jainism in Patan 3. Going to the Temple: How to Worship God 4. Gifting and Grace: Patterns of Lay-Mendicant Interaction 5. Holy Asceticism 6. Remembrance and Celebration: The Jain Religious Year 7. Ideologies and Realms of Value Hymn to Pancasar Parsvanath Glossary Notes Bibliography Index

Bhakti in the Early Jain Tradition: Understanding Devotional Religion in South Asia

Abstract: Almost all scholarship on the Jains has approached Jain bhakti as merely a \"borrowing\" from the Hindu tradition. Scholars of India have implicitly viewed bhakti in the Jain tradition as an \"accretion\" that is marginal to the ascetic core that constitutes the \"guiding project\" of \"true\" and \"original\" Jainism and that therefore can safely be ignored by scholarship.' For example, the art historian M. A. Dhaky has recently written that by the fifth century C.E., \"the Nirgrantha [Jain] sects could no longer afford to lag behind their brahmanical and Buddhist rivals. The strong currents of devotional trends impelled even the stern, highly conservative recluses to make adjustments to the changing cultural climes and religious moods and to concede to the new exigencies.\"2

Singing the glory of asceticism: devotion of asceticism in Jainism

Abstract: The Jain tradition is commonly portrayed in scholarly literature as being focused on, if not obsessed with, various and oftentimes extreme forms of asceticism. In the resulting scholarly portrait of the Jains, there is little if any place for devotion (bhakti). This scholarly separation of asceticism and devotion, as constituting radicaly different spheres of religious activity, is not restricted to the Jains but, rather, is widespread in the comparative study of religion. This article places Jain asceticism within a larger Jain religious framework to show some of the ways in which asceticism interacts with, and is often interdependent with, devotion. Asceticism is often performed in a devotional spirit. It is also often the object of devotion. A Jain can accomplish the spiritual goal of an improved karmic balance by performing asceticism him - or herself. A Jain can also accomplish this by praising asceticism with enthusiasm and devotion. This article argues that asceticism and devotion are not so much alternative practices as they are mutually reinforcing practices in Jainism. It also indicates that Jains practice bhakti to abstract principles similarly to the way they practice bhakti to humans and deities, and so we need to expand our scholarly understanding of bhakti and devotion.

Jains, caste and hierarchy in north Gujarat

Abstract: Scholarship on caste has paid insufficient attention to alternative ideologies of caste, such as found in Jainism. and to understandings and practices of caste among the merchant castes that occupy a dominant position in the so-called middle ranges of caste hierarchies. This article looks at caste practice from the perspective of the Jain merchant castes of north Gujarat. Jain castes are excellent examples of the middle-range castes that have always created intractable problems for theories of caste. This article looks at understandings of inter-caste rankings between Jain merchants and non-Jain Brahmans, and shows how different religious understandings of purity combined with a merchant valorisation of mercantile activity results in the Jain merchants ranking themselves higher than Brahman non-merchants. It looks at intra-Jain and inter-caste interactions, and shows how merchant values of an urban and mercantile lifestyle are ranked higher than a rural and agricultural lifestyle. It then looks at intra-J...

For An Anthropology Of Ethics And Freedom

Abstract: Il ne peut y avoir une anthropologie morale developpee et soutenue sans qu'un interet ethnographique et theorique - jusqu'a present absent de l'anthropologie - soit aussi porte a la notion de la liberte. L'A. propose une approche possible pour l'etude comparee et ethnographique de l'ethique et de la liberte, et quelques commentaires succincts sur le jainisme servent a l'illustrer.

From dictatorship to democracy : a conceptual framework for liberation

Abstract: A seminal work on the power of nonviolent action, this classic book outlines, in a systematic way, the elements involved in successfully opposing military dictatorships by passive means. This work shows how nonviolent action grows from the fact that all governments depend on the cooperation, or at least the general compliance, of the people they govern and in particular on the loyalty of key institutions. From there, it discusses how, if a government's base of support in society is eroded, it becomes increasingly difficult for it to govern, to the point where it can no longer rely on these crucial institutions of administration, persuasion, and coercion. This edition also considers historical evidence, insists on the importance of advance planning and preparation, and identifies key factors to be taken into account in devising sound strategies and tactics. Tactics and strategies that may be adapted for various circumstances are also included.

How the Brahmins Won: From Alexander to the Guptas

Abstract: This is the first study to systematically confront the question how Brahmanism, which was geographically limited and under threat during the final centuries BCE, transformed itself and spread all over South and Southeast Asia. Brahmanism spread over this vast area without the support of an empire, without the help of conquering armies, and without the intermediary of religious missionaries. This phenomenon has no parallel in world history, yet shaped a major portion of the surface of the earth for a number of centuries. This book focuses on the formative period of this phenomenon, roughly between Alexander and the Guptas.

Another Realism: The Politics of Gandhian Nonviolence

Abstract: Although Gandhi is often taken to be an exemplary moral idealist in politics, this article seeks to demonstrate that Gandhian nonviolence is premised on a form of political realism, specifically a contextual, consequentialist, and moral-psychological analysis of a political world understood to be marked by inherent tendencies toward conflict, domination, and violence. By treating nonviolence as the essential analog and correlative response to a realist theory of politics, one can better register the novelty of satyagraha (nonviolent action) as a practical orientation in politics as opposed to a moral proposition, ethical stance, or standard of judgment. The singularity of satyagraha lays in its self-limiting character as a form of political action that seeks to constrain the negative consequences of politics while working toward progressive social and political reform. Gandhian nonviolence thereby points toward a transformational realism that need not begin and end in conservatism, moral equivocation, or pure instrumentalism.

The Jaina Path Of Purification

Abstract: Mahavira and the foundations of Jainism the first disciples and the Jaina scriptures the nature of reality the mechanism of bondage Samyak-Darsana - the first awakening Vrata and Pratima - the path of the layman Jaina rituals and ceremonies the Mendicant path and the attainment of the goal Jaina society through the ages - growth and survival.