James (Jay) L. Ford Associate Professor and Z. Smith Reynolds Foundation Fellow M.T.S. Vanderbilt Divinity School M.A. Princeton University Ph. D. Princeton University 307 Wingate Hall Telephone: (336) 758-4191 FAX: (336) 758-4463 Email Homepage

Japanese Religions, East Asia Religions, Buddhism,
Methodology in the Study of Religion, Comparative Religion, Ritual Studies


RESEARCH INTERESTS
Medieval Japanese Buddhism
Buddhism and Culture
Interreligious Dialogue


COURSES TAUGHT
REL 101: Introduction to Religion
REL 104: Introduction to Asian Religions
REL 300: Approaches to the Study of Religion
REL 361: The World of Buddhist Thought and Practice
REL 363: The Religions of Japan
REL 381: Zen Buddhism
REL 382: Religion and Culture in China

PUBLICATIONS
	Jokei and Buddhist Devotion in Early Medieval Japan. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.

Book Review of Approaching the Land of Bliss: Religious Praxis in the Cult of Amitabha . Edited by Richard K. Payne and Kenneth K. Tanaka (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 2004). Philosophy East and West , forthcoming.

“Buddhist Ceremonials ( k oshiki ) and the Ideological Discourse of Established Buddhism in Early Medieval Japan.” In Discourse and Ideology in Medieval Japanese Buddhism . Eds. Richard Payne and Taigen Daniel Leighton. New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2006, pp. 97-125.

“Competing With Amida: A Study and Translation of Jokei's Miroku koshiki .” Monumenta Nipponica (60/1), Spring 2005, pp. 43-79.

Book Review of Engendering Faith: Women and Buddhism in Premodern Japan (Center for Japanese Studies, The University of Michigan, 2002). Ed. Barbara Ruch. The Journal of Japanese Studies (30/2), Summer, 2004, pp. 449-53.

“Buddhism and The Matrix ” in Taking the Red Pill: Science, Philosophy, and Religion in The Matrix. Ed. Glenn Yeffeth. Dallas: BenBella Books (2003).

Book Review of Mark Blum's The Origins and Development of Pure Land Buddhism: A Study and Translation of Gyonen's Jodo Homon Genrusho (Oxford University Press, 2002), Monumenta Nipponica , Winter, 2002.

“Jokei and the Rhetoric of ‘Other-Power' and ‘Easy Practice' in Medieval Japanese Buddhism.” Japanese Journal of Religious Studies , 28, 1-2, Spring, 2002 , pp. 67-106 .

“Jokei and Honen: Debating Buddhist Liberation in Medieval Japan…Then and Now.” Pacific World: Journal of the Institute of Buddhist Studies , Third Series, no. 3, Fall, 2001 , pp. 199-217.

"Buddhism, Christianity, and The Matrix: The Dialectic of Myth-Making in Contemporary Cinema." The Journal of Religion and Film , vol. 4, no. 2, 2000.

Book Review of Jacqueline Stone's Original Enlightenment and the Transformation of Medieval Japanese Buddhism . (University of Hawaii Press—Kuroda Series, 1999). Journal of the American Academy of Religion (69/3), September, 2001.

Book Review of Machida Soho's Renegade Monk: Honen and Japanese Pure Land Buddhism (University of California Press, 1999). Journal of the American Academy of Religion (68/2), Summer, 2000.


CONFERENCE PAPERS AND PRESENTATIONS
"Enlightened Nuns? The Paradoxical Status of Women in Early Buddhism." Interfaith Symposium on Women in Religion, Lenoir-Rhyne College, February, 1999.

"Jôkei and Hônen: Debating the Universal and Particular in Medieval Japanese Buddhism." Delivered at the American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting (Boston), November, 1999.

"Theism, Time, and Upâya in Buddhist-Christian Dialogue." Delivered at the Sixth International Conference of the Society for Buddhist-Christian Studies (Tacoma, WA), August, 2000.

"Jôkei and the 'Place' of Devotion in Medieval Japanese Buddhism." Delivered at the American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting (Denver), November, 2001.

"Jokei and Established Buddhism in Medieval Japan." Colloquium presentation at the Nanzan Center for Religion and Culture, Nanzan University, Nagoya, Japan, April 9, 2003.

"The Aesthetics of Koshiki (Buddhist Ceremonials): Fostering Karmic Connections with Miroku and Kannon in Medieval Japan." The Annual Meeting of the Southern Japan Seminar (The Aesthetics of Nirvana)at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC. November 8, 2003.