Stokes Hall 431N
Telephone: 617-552-4603
Email: valema@bc.edu
Christian Vijñānavāda: Yogācāra, Nondual Cognition, and Christian Theology
Selected Publications
“Eriugena and Indian Thought.” In preparation for peer-reviewed special issue of ModernTheology.“
God’s Primal, ex nihilo ‘Yes.’” Syndicate Network symposium response to Brian Robinette, TheDifference Nothing Makes: Creation, Christ, Contemplation (Notre Dame: University ofNotre Dame Press, 2023). February 2023 ..Co-panelists James Alison, Scott Cowdell, Mark Heim, Chelsea King, Danielle Nussberger,and Cody Sandschafer.
“Knowing the Real: Nonduality and Idealism in Dignāga, Dharmakīrti, and Lonergan,”Buddhist-Christian Studies 42 (October 2022): 217–236.
“Eckhart’s Systematics: Christ the God-Human Ground.” Modern Theology 38, no. 4 (October2022): 754–776.
“Dharmakīrti and the Theologians: Pratyabhijñā Śaivism and Christian Theological Reading.”Cithara 60, no. 1 (November 2020): 6–27.
Selected Recent Presentations
“Natural Liberation: A Christian Reception of Mahāmudrā.” Catholic Theological Society ofAmerica – Comparative Theology Topic Session (Milwaukee: June, 2023).
“Buddhist Receptions of Christian Theology in the Work of John Makransky.” EuropeanAcademy of Religion annual conference (St. Andrew’s, Scotland: June, 2023). Convener forpanel “Buddhist-Christian Dialogue from the Inside Out.” Co-panelists: John Makransky, BrianRobinette, Perry Schmidt-Leukel (University of Münster).
“Points of Contact with Perspectives I: Greco-Buddhism in Antiquity and its Relation toCynicism, Stoicism, and Pyrrhonism.” May Workshop presentation for Perspectives on WesternCivilization program (Boston College: May 17 th , 2023).Respondent to Felix Wilfred, “Buddhism – A Civilizational Cosmopolitanism.” Lecture three ofthe annual Duffy Lectures in Global Christianity (Boston College: February 2 nd , 2023).
“The Word’s One Descent in Eriugena’s Periphyseon.” Notre Dame Conference on MedievalPhilosophy and Theology (Notre Dame: May, 2022).
“Self-Awareness and God.” International Network in Philosophy of Religion (Cornwall, NY:January, 2022).
“Pratyabhijñā Śaivism and Lonergan: God is an Unrestricted Act of Understanding.” Lonerganand Human Consciousness (Notre Dame: December, 2021).“‘
He Was Re-Imaged Before Them:’ Eckhart’s Preaching on the Transfiguration.” 55thInternational Congress on Medieval Studies (Kalamazoo, MI: May, 2021).“
Creation out of Nothing and Classical Yogācāra.” Midwest American Academy of Religion(AAR) (April, 2021).