Jin Y Park
Jin Y. Park is the William Fraser McDowell Chair Professor of Philosophy and Religion and Chair of the Department of Philosophy and Religion at American University, where she also served as the Founding Director of the Asian Studies Program from 2013 to 2020. An internationally renowned scholar of Asian and intercultural philosophy, Park examines issues of gender, violence, the politics of discrimination, and narrative philosophy. Marginality has been a consistent theme in her work, as she explores various forms of marginalization—philosophical, social, and political—seeking to uncover the power structures that perpetuate these inequities and amplify the voices of those on the margins. She is the author, editor, or translator of more than ten books including Buddhism and Postmodernity: Zen, Huayan, and the Possibility of Buddhist-Postmodern Ethics, Women and Buddhist Philosophy: Engaging Zen Master Kim Iryŏp, Marginality: Reconfiguring the Center (forthcoming), Reflections of a Zen Buddhist Nun: Essays by Zen Master Kim Iryŏp, and the Makers of Modern Korean Buddhism. Park has served as President of the American Academy of Religion, the North American Korean Philosophy Association, and the Society for Asian and Comparative Philosophy. She also serves on the editorial boards of multiple academic journals in her field.
Address: Department of Philosophy and Religion
American University
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Address: Department of Philosophy and Religion
American University
4400 Massachusetts Avenue NW
Washington DC 20016
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Books by Jin Y Park
After taking the tonsure, Iryŏp followed the advice of her teacher and stopped publishing for more than two decades. She returned to the world of letters in her sixties, using her strong, distinctive voice to address fundamental questions on the scope of identity, the meaning of being human, and the value of existence. In her writing, she frequently adopted an autobiographical style that combined her life experiences with Buddhist teachings. Through a close analysis of Iryŏp’s life story, Buddhist philosophy and practice in connection with East Asian new women’s movements, and continental philosophy, this volume offers a creative interpretation of Buddhism as both a philosophy and a religion actively engaged with lives as they are lived. It presents a fascinating narrative on how women connect with the world―whether through social issues such as gender inequality, a Buddhist worldview, or existential debates on human existence. By characterizing women’s philosophy as narrative philosophy―a philosophy of life based on lived experience―this book provides readers with a new way of philosophizing that is transformative and deeply connected with everyday existence.
Women and Buddhist Philosophy: Engaging Zen Master Kim Iryŏp will be of primary interest to scholars and students of Buddhism, Buddhist and comparative philosophy, and gender and Korean studies.
Review
Hwa-Yol Jung, although he has spent his entire professional career in the United States, is well-known and esteemed by many in his native Korea. With this extraordinary volume in his honor, including essays by distinguished intellectuals from several disciplines, American readers will be able at once to become more aware of his own seminal contributions to so many cutting-edge areas of current concern―globalization, ecology, East/West comparative philosophy, contemporary literature, and much more―and to absorb many new and original insights in these same areas. This is one of the most appealing and successful books of tribute to an author that I have ever read. (William L. McBride, Purdue University)
An amazing set of major Asian and Western thinkers―moved by Hwa Yol Jung's long, broad, and original thinking in politics and beyond―impressively address many positive and negative aspects of the emerging inter-national, inter-cultural, gender-sensitive, and ecologically concerned world of globalization. (Lester Embree, Florida Altantic University)
Hwa Yol Jung's creative term 'glocalization,' which refuses to separate the global from the local and roots the global in the local, reflects a mode of philosophizing typical of the many intriguing essays in this book, which resist neat distinctions, seek to include the valid insights of conflicting perspectives, and strive to recover whatever might have been dismissed or facilely forgotten, including other persons, cultures, and philosophies. The contributors' diverse backgrounds reflect the rich dimensions of Jung's own intellectual life, encompassing comparative philosophy, literature, and religion; ecology, linguistics, cultural anthropology, and political theory; phenomenology in all its varieties; and the East-West dialogue―a richness that will inspire readers to cross boundaries of their own. (Michael Barber, St. Louis University)
Comparative Political Theory and Cross-Cultural Philosophy is an ambitious volume that should be given credit for the reminder of why a new mode of thinking and doing philosophy is necessary in this globalized world of multiculturalism. (Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy)
Interviews, podcast, lecture videos by Jin Y Park
Papers by Jin Y Park
ideas or does it occur through action and praxis? This chapter explores the
meaning of action and praxis in philosophy through an examination of the
work of Pak Ch’iu, a modern Korean philosopher. In that context, we also
consider philosophy’s relation to power as well as the association of logic to
politics.
unknown figure within English-language scholarship.1 However, among
Korean Buddhists, his rigorous Zen practice has been well recognized.
One-meal-per-day (K. ilchongsik 一種食), no-meal-in-the-afternoon (K.
ohu pulsik 午後不食), and staying-sitting-in-meditation-without-lying-down
(K. changjwa purwa 長坐不臥) are all well-known practices that frequently
appear when describing Hyeam as a Zen master. What is less frequently
asked is what these rigorous Zen practices might mean to us commoners
who live in a secular world or to monastics whose practice might not be
as rigorous as Hyeam’s. Should Zen masters such as Hyeam who appear
to exhibit superhuman capacity for religious practice be only an object
of awe and admiration in our secular modern times? Even if so, what do
the awe and admiration indicate? In this chapter, I try to bridge the gap
between the rigorous practice typically seen in Korean Zen masters’ lives
and its meaning for people living in modern times. What questions does
a Zen master like Hyeam raise for us, and how should scholars address
these issues? These are the inquiries with which I hope to engage.
Sūtra, focusing on Chinese Huayan thinker Li Tongxuan’s 李通玄
(635–730) Exposition on the Eighty-Fascicle Version of the Flower
Ornament Scripture (Xin Huayan jing lun 新華嚴經論). The fi rst
section of the essay discusses Li’s doctrinal classifi cation and the
position of the Lotus Sūtra (Miaofa lianhua jing 妙法蓮華經) in
that structure. The second section explores Li’s interpretation of the
dragon girl’s story in the Lotus Sūtra in comparison with the story
of the youth Sudhana (Shancai tongzi 善財童子) in the Huayan jing
華嚴經. In the third section, I will try to demonstrate why Li was
so occupied with the dragon girl’s story and how it reveals the core
themes of his Huayan Buddhism and the inner contradiction of the
Lotus Sūtra from Li’s point of view.
After taking the tonsure, Iryŏp followed the advice of her teacher and stopped publishing for more than two decades. She returned to the world of letters in her sixties, using her strong, distinctive voice to address fundamental questions on the scope of identity, the meaning of being human, and the value of existence. In her writing, she frequently adopted an autobiographical style that combined her life experiences with Buddhist teachings. Through a close analysis of Iryŏp’s life story, Buddhist philosophy and practice in connection with East Asian new women’s movements, and continental philosophy, this volume offers a creative interpretation of Buddhism as both a philosophy and a religion actively engaged with lives as they are lived. It presents a fascinating narrative on how women connect with the world―whether through social issues such as gender inequality, a Buddhist worldview, or existential debates on human existence. By characterizing women’s philosophy as narrative philosophy―a philosophy of life based on lived experience―this book provides readers with a new way of philosophizing that is transformative and deeply connected with everyday existence.
Women and Buddhist Philosophy: Engaging Zen Master Kim Iryŏp will be of primary interest to scholars and students of Buddhism, Buddhist and comparative philosophy, and gender and Korean studies.
Review
Hwa-Yol Jung, although he has spent his entire professional career in the United States, is well-known and esteemed by many in his native Korea. With this extraordinary volume in his honor, including essays by distinguished intellectuals from several disciplines, American readers will be able at once to become more aware of his own seminal contributions to so many cutting-edge areas of current concern―globalization, ecology, East/West comparative philosophy, contemporary literature, and much more―and to absorb many new and original insights in these same areas. This is one of the most appealing and successful books of tribute to an author that I have ever read. (William L. McBride, Purdue University)
An amazing set of major Asian and Western thinkers―moved by Hwa Yol Jung's long, broad, and original thinking in politics and beyond―impressively address many positive and negative aspects of the emerging inter-national, inter-cultural, gender-sensitive, and ecologically concerned world of globalization. (Lester Embree, Florida Altantic University)
Hwa Yol Jung's creative term 'glocalization,' which refuses to separate the global from the local and roots the global in the local, reflects a mode of philosophizing typical of the many intriguing essays in this book, which resist neat distinctions, seek to include the valid insights of conflicting perspectives, and strive to recover whatever might have been dismissed or facilely forgotten, including other persons, cultures, and philosophies. The contributors' diverse backgrounds reflect the rich dimensions of Jung's own intellectual life, encompassing comparative philosophy, literature, and religion; ecology, linguistics, cultural anthropology, and political theory; phenomenology in all its varieties; and the East-West dialogue―a richness that will inspire readers to cross boundaries of their own. (Michael Barber, St. Louis University)
Comparative Political Theory and Cross-Cultural Philosophy is an ambitious volume that should be given credit for the reminder of why a new mode of thinking and doing philosophy is necessary in this globalized world of multiculturalism. (Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy)
ideas or does it occur through action and praxis? This chapter explores the
meaning of action and praxis in philosophy through an examination of the
work of Pak Ch’iu, a modern Korean philosopher. In that context, we also
consider philosophy’s relation to power as well as the association of logic to
politics.
unknown figure within English-language scholarship.1 However, among
Korean Buddhists, his rigorous Zen practice has been well recognized.
One-meal-per-day (K. ilchongsik 一種食), no-meal-in-the-afternoon (K.
ohu pulsik 午後不食), and staying-sitting-in-meditation-without-lying-down
(K. changjwa purwa 長坐不臥) are all well-known practices that frequently
appear when describing Hyeam as a Zen master. What is less frequently
asked is what these rigorous Zen practices might mean to us commoners
who live in a secular world or to monastics whose practice might not be
as rigorous as Hyeam’s. Should Zen masters such as Hyeam who appear
to exhibit superhuman capacity for religious practice be only an object
of awe and admiration in our secular modern times? Even if so, what do
the awe and admiration indicate? In this chapter, I try to bridge the gap
between the rigorous practice typically seen in Korean Zen masters’ lives
and its meaning for people living in modern times. What questions does
a Zen master like Hyeam raise for us, and how should scholars address
these issues? These are the inquiries with which I hope to engage.
Sūtra, focusing on Chinese Huayan thinker Li Tongxuan’s 李通玄
(635–730) Exposition on the Eighty-Fascicle Version of the Flower
Ornament Scripture (Xin Huayan jing lun 新華嚴經論). The fi rst
section of the essay discusses Li’s doctrinal classifi cation and the
position of the Lotus Sūtra (Miaofa lianhua jing 妙法蓮華經) in
that structure. The second section explores Li’s interpretation of the
dragon girl’s story in the Lotus Sūtra in comparison with the story
of the youth Sudhana (Shancai tongzi 善財童子) in the Huayan jing
華嚴經. In the third section, I will try to demonstrate why Li was
so occupied with the dragon girl’s story and how it reveals the core
themes of his Huayan Buddhism and the inner contradiction of the
Lotus Sūtra from Li’s point of view.
Key words:
Zen Buddhism, Huayan Buddhism, ethics, tension, self-cultivation
Nothingness is a major concept in the religious and philosophical discourse of East Asia. Twentieth-century East Asian religious thinkers fully utilized the tradition of nothingness in their discussion of religious practice, asking questions related to what it means to think about nothing and even practice it. Furthermore, nothingness is one of the most contentious philosophical topics in both the East and the West. Why are there such differences in approaching the idea of nothingness between the East and the West? By exploring Iryŏp’s and Tanabe’s use of nothingness and further engaging with Jacques Derrida’s discussion of religion in that context, I will consider the different faces of nothingness that appear in the act of religion.