School of History, Philosophy, and Religion

Associate Professor


102A Hovland Hall
Corvallis, OR 97331-3902
Phone: 541-737-8597
Email: james.blumenthal@oregonstate.edu

Indian and Tibetan Intellectual History, Mahayana Buddhist Philosophy, Contemporary Buddhist Thought, Justice

Background

• Ph.D. Asian Religions, University of Wisconsin (1999) 
• M.A. in South Asian Studies, University of Wisconsin (1995) 
• B.A. Philosophy (Honors), University of San Diego (1989)

Jim Blumenthal has been on the faculty at Oregon State University since completing his Ph.D. in 1999. His research is in the history of Indian and Tibetan Buddhist philosophy. Blumenthal's primary areas of interest are in Indian and Tibetan intellectual history, Buddhist hermeneutics, Mahayana Buddhist philosophy, theories of non-violence, and religious based social justice movements.

His first book, The Ornament of the Middle Way: A Study of the Madhyamaka Thought of Śāntarakṣita (2004) investigates the eighth century Indian Buddhist philosopher's thought along with Tibetan interpretations of the same. Included in the study are translations of Śāntarakṣita's seminal text, The Ornament of the Middle Way, along with important philosophical materials from the Tibetan which have never before been available in Western languages including rGyal-tshab's dbU ma rgyan gyi brjed byang (Remembering 'The Ornament of the Middle Way').

Blumenthal also edited an anthology entitled Incompatible Visions: South Asian Religion in History and Culture (2006) which includes essays from a number of leading scholars in the field addressing some of the ironies and inconsistencies found in and at the crossroads of South Asian Religions including Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, and Islam. His own contribution is an article entitled, "Ambedkar's Buddhism,The Four Noble Truths, and Social Justice: A Doctrinal Appraisal."

He is the co-author and editor (with Geshe Lhundup Sopa) of Steps on the Path: A Commentary on the "Shamatha" Chapter of Tsongkhapa's Lamrim Chenmo (2012) in addition to more than 40 articles in academic journals, books, and popular periodicals on various aspects of Buddhist thought and practice.

In 2004, Blumenthal had the honor of translating Nagarjuna's Sixty Stanzas of Reasoning for His Holiness the Dalai Lama on the occasion of His teaching on the text in Los Angeles.

Jim has spent nearly three years in Asia, primarily living in Tibetan refugee communities in India and Nepal.
After his B.A. and before returning to grad school, Blumenthal worked for the international environmental group, Greenpeace, for four years and was active with several other organizations working for peace and social justice. This work led to several arrests for participation in non-violent acts of civil disobedience. He remains committed to issues of peace and justice.

Select Publications

Articles and Chapters

• 2012    "Some Observations Regarding Śāntarakṣita's Yogācāra-Madhyamaka Syncretism" in
  Yogācāra and Madhyamaka: Complementary or Conflicting Systems? Jay Garfield and Jan
  Westerhoff (Eds.) New York: Oxford University Press (forthcoming).

• 2012    "Indian Mahāyāna" in A Companion to Buddhist Philosophy. Steven Emmanuel (Ed.) San
  Francisco: Wiley-Blackwell (At press.).

• 2012    “Remarks on the dGe-lugs-pa Analysis of Śāntarakṣita’s Views on the Two Truths ” in
  Contributions To The Study of the Thought of Śāntarakṣita. ed. by Marie Friquegnon and Noe
  Dinnerstein. Binghampton, New York: Global Scholarly Publications
  Press,  SUNY  Binghamption. (At press).

• 2011    "Considering Justice in Contemporary Buddhist Thought" in Buddhist Virtues in Social and
  Economic Development. Dion Peoples (Ed.). (Thai and Chinese translations available) Bangkok,
  Thailand: International Association of Buddhist Universities and Mahachulalongkornrajavidyalaya
  University.

• 2011    "Some Considerations  for the Standardization of Buddhist Technical Terminology in English"
  Proceedings from the Tengyur Translation Conference. American Institute of Buddhist Studies,
  Columbia University. http://www.aibs.columbia.edu/tengyur2011/?q=node/132

• 2010    "The Ever-Changing Forms of Buddhism" in Mandala: A Tibetan Buddhist Journal.
  July-August, 2010.
  Re-published online on the website Tibetan Buddhism Goes West...
  http://info-buddhism.com/index.html  September, 2010.

• 2009    "Towards A Buddhist Theory of Justice" Journal of Global Buddhism. November, 2009.  http://www.globalbuddhism.org/toc.html

• 2009    "Dynamic Aspects of Śāntarakṣita's Presentation of the Two Truths" Journal of Asian
  Philosophy.  Volume 19.1.

• 2009    “Śāntarakṣita’s “Neither-One-Nor-Many” Argument from The Ornament of the Middle Way
  (Madhyamakālamkāra): A Classical Buddhist Argument on the Ontological Status of Phenomena” Buddhist
  Philosophy: Essential Readings. Jay Garfield and William Edelglass (Eds).  New York: Oxford
  University Press.

• 2008    “Śāntarakṣita”.  The Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. Edward N. Zalta (Ed.)
  http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/saantarak-sita/  Palo Alto: Metaphysics Research Lab, Stanford
  University Press.

• 2002    “Remarks  on the  dGe-lugs-pa  Analysis  of  Śāntarakṣita’s  Views  on  the  Status  of
  Hinayana Arhats” in The International Indian Journal of Buddhist Studies. no. 3: 33-5,
  2002. Varanassi, India.