University of Hawai'i Press

Review
Author(s): Eiko Kawamura
Review by: Eiko Kawamura
Source: Buddhist-Christian Studies, Vol. 11 (1991), pp. 307-310
Published by: University of Hawai'i Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1390280
Accessed: 25-10-2015 18:39 UTC

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 BOOK REVIEWS

THE SELECTEDWORKSOF NISHITANI KEIJI:THE FIRSTSERIES,VOL-

UMESI-XIII; THE SECOND SERIES,VOLUMESXIV-XXVI. Sobunsha Pub-
lishers.

Nishitani Keiji, ProfessorEmeritusat Kyoto University,died on November 24,

1990, at ninety yearsof age. He had for many years been a force for dialogue
between philosophy and religion, between East and West, and between Chris-
tianity and Buddhism. Now that ProfessorNishitani is gone, it is no longer pos-
sible to communicatewith him directly,but, thanks, to the generous efforts of
ProfessorEmeritusShizuteruUeda of Kyoto Universityand many other of Pro-
fessorNishitani's friends, his selected workshave been made availablethrough
Sobunsha Publishers.The thirteen volumes of The FirstSerieswere issued dur-
ing a one-year period beginning in October 1986. Publication of The Second
Series, also thirteen volumes, commenced in June 1990, with completion
scheduled for December 1991; at present the first seven volumes have
appeared.
The FirstSeriesconsistsprimarilyof studies and criticismsof Westernphilos-
ophy, religion, and the philosophy of religion from the standpoint of Professor
Nishitani's concept of fundamental subjectivityas Absolute Nothingness. Vol-
ume I, The Philosophy of Fundamental Subjectivity(I), contains a 1938 piece
entitled "Nietzsche's Zarathustraand MeisterEckhart"in its opening section,
"Religion and Culture."In this essayProfessorNishitani tracesthe resemblance
in the thought of Nietzche and Eckhart to their similarity of view on the
"sourceof GreatLife," a concept at the verycore of ProfessorNishitani's notion
of fundamental subjectivity.Fundamentalsubjectivity,in turn, forms the com-
mon thematic thread tying together the entire twenty-six volumes of the
Selected Works.
The thirteen volumes of The Second Seriesaddressthe practicalimplications
of the philosophy of fundamental subjectivity.They form, in other words, the
locus of ProfessorNishitani's graduallymaturing efforts to apply his philosoph-
ical principles, through a Zen-like clarificationof self, to such issues as interreli-
Buddhist-ChristianStudies 11 (1991). ? by Universityof HawaiiPress.All rightsreserved.

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308 BOOK REVIEWS

gious encounter and understanding, society and history, art and culture, and
the variousproblemspresentedby scientificand technologicaldevelopment.
Expressedin Buddhist terms, the standpoint of The First Series is "Formis
emptiness," while that of The Second Series is "Emptinessis form," in which
the variousproblems of the everydayworld are engaged and understood from
the standpoint of sunyata. Indeed, the philosophy of sunyata underlies the
entiretyof The Selected Works,since ProfessorNishitani sees the functioning of
sunyata in both the return to the "sourceof Great Life" and the subsequent
emergencefrom that sourceto activityin the world. This view of sunyatahas its
origins in the thought of both the Buddhist PrajnaParamitasutrasand Nagar-
juna's Mulamadhyamakkarika, but its meaning has been expanded and
broadenedto encompassthe dimension of philosophicalthought.
Generallyspeaking, sunyatais viewed in both religiousand speculativeterms
as belonging to the realm of spiritualexperience, and hence as transcendingthe
sphere of philosophy. In ProfessorNishitani's view, however, religion emerges
from "thought reborn"-the thought of no-thought-and hence correlatesto
the philosophy of sunyata, based on the "real realization of reality" attained
through the spiritualexperienceof self-understanding.This position amplified
both Nishda Kitaro's"logic of the topos" originatingin Absolute Nothingness
and TanabeHajime's "philosophy of metanoetics" based on the "logic of spe-
cies." Professor Nishitani deepened Nishida's philosophy of self-awareness
through his own philosophy of sunyata, and elucidated Tanabe's"principleof
negation" through an investigation of the nihilism arising from the problems
of human freedom, evil, and technologicaldevelopment.
The philosophy of sunyata has its core in the concept of fsnyata as absolute
openness, in which everything, just as it is, is as it should be. This philosphy
transcends the concepts of traditional Greek-based Western philosophy, en-
compassing domains previously excluded as being above or below the philo-
sophicalrealm. Hence philosophy as developed by ProfessorNishitani differsin
substancefrom philosophy as generallyunderstoodin the West, that is, philos-
ophy as defined by the "three principles of speculation" underlying Western
metaphysicssince the time of the Greeks (in Heidegger's terms, metaphysical
philosophy which is concerned only with the being of beings and not with
being itself). ProfessorNishitani transcendsthis approach, introducing "the
speculation of nonduality of body and mind" (an expressionbased on Dogen's
thought, indicating speculation detached from notions of "self body-and-
mind" and "other body-and-mind").
Hence ProfessorNishitani's philosophy of sunyatd, unlike the variousbeing-
centered ideologies and philosophies of the West, has its roots in the prajna
wisdom (D6gen's "thought of no-thought") which transcendsmere speculative
reasoning. This philosophy evolved in conjunction with ProfessorNishitani's
practiceof Zen as he sought to resolvehis own inner questions and go beyond a
merely academicapproachto the understandingof truth. In the philosophy of
sunyat2, with its concept of absolute openness centered in the nondualistic

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 BOOK REVIEWS 309

functioning of the dynamicself, ProfessorNishitani attempts to reacknowledge

the world of everydayrealityas a world in which everything, just as it is, is as it
should be. This reacknowledgment occurs only via the absolute affirmation
attained through the mediation of absolute negation.
In a reading of The Selected Worksthe implication of ProfessorNishitani's
Zen name Keisei ("The sound of the valley") becomes clearin the poetic flow
of his writing, a flow which carriesthe heart of the readerbackto the "sourceof
Great Life," back to nature as Great Nature. It is now our task to resolve the
many issues clarified for us by ProfessorNishitani, issues concerning science,
religion, and the encounter between faiths. ProfessorNishitani himself was
never afraidto "drinkfrom the muddy river"of life; it is my hope that as many
people as possible will read The Selected Worksand gain therein the inspiration
and courageto battle the crisisnow facing the modern world.

THE SELECTEDWORKS OF NISHITANI KEIJI

The FirstSeries
I. The Philosophy of Fundamental Subjectivity(I)
II. The Philosophy ofFundamental Subjectivity(II)
III. Studies in WesternMysticism
IV. Religion and the ProblemsofModern Society
V. Treatiseon Aristotle
VI. The Philosophy ofReligion
VII. GodandAbsolute Nothingness
VIII. Nihilism
IX. The Philosophy ofNishida andthe Philosophy of Tanabe
X. What is Religion?
XI. The Standpoint ofZen
XII. The PoetryofHan Shan
XIII. Studies in Philosophy

The Second Series

XIV. Philosophy (I) (The Philosophy ofNishida)
XV. Philosophy (II) (Sunyataand Sive)
XVI. Religion
XVII. Buddhism
XVIII. Zen andPure LandBuddhism
XIX. Culture
XX. Thoughts (The Heart of the Wind)
XXI. Thoughts (II)
XXII. Lectureson the Shobogenzo (I)
XXIII. Lectureson the Shobogenzo (II)

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 BOOKREVIEWS

XXIV. Otani UniversityLectures(I)

XXV. Otani UniversityLectures(II)
XXVI. Otani UniversityLectures(III)

Eiko Kawamura
Hanazoni College, Kyoto

CHRISTIANITYTHROUGH NON-CHRISTIAN EYES. Edited by Paul J.

Griffiths. Faith Meets Faith Series. Maryknoll,New York:Orbis Books 1990.
Pp. 286.

This book is a collection of nineteen articles, or extractsfrom longer works, by

authors fromJudaism, Islam, Buddhism, and Hinduism. It gives their under-
standings of Christianityas they encounter it within the perspective of their
own religioustraditions. It also includes an introductoryessayby the editor.
The editor's purpose is to help Christiansbetter understand "the images of
Christ, Christians,and Christianitythat non-christianshave and use." The edi-
tor hopes thus to contribute to Christians'understandingsof those faithful of
other religions "in waysthat are not corruptedby ethnocentricityand which are
sensitiveto the complex realitiesof interreligiouscommunication."
The collection furthersthe editor'spurpose for the readerwho has a reasona-
bly broadknowledge of the varietyof Christianself understandings,and some
basic, but not necessarilyextensive, familiaritywith the four religioustraditions
represented.
However, the same can not be said of the editor's introductoryessay, "The
TheoreticalDimensions of the Problemof ReligiousPluralism."This essaycon-
tains some of the most turgid writing I have ever read on the function of propo-
sitional language as a vehicle of religious truth. The editor does not choose to
move beyond the topic of "Doctrine-ExpressingSentences" to a discussion of
the value of metaphor as a mode of expressing religious truth. This severely
limits the value of the essayin the context of religiouspluralismand in the con-
text of Christians'understandingsof the meanings and truth of other religious
traditions. It may also have restrictedthe selection of articlesin that negative
critiqueslargelyemphasize the rationallimits of Christianity.There are no posi-
tive or negative articleswhich deal with Christianity'saesthetics, spirituality,or
ritual. On the other hand it may be that these dimensions of Christianityare
largelyunknown to the religionsrepresentedin the anthology.
It may seem unlikely that writersrepresentingfour majorreligious traditions
discussinga fifth could have much in common in their critique. It is notewor-
thy how frequently Christianityis faulted for not living up to its ideals. I doubt
that this is a reflection of editorial bias. Apparently we come acrossas more
than a bit self-righteous.

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