Bei Nishitani Keijis Religionsphilosophie vertieft sich seine Blickrichtung auf sein zentrales Thema, "sunyata (ku)", zwischen seiner mitteleren ("Was ist Religion?", besonders Abhandlung "ku no tachiba") und seiner spaten Zeit (seine letzte langere Abhandlung "ku to soku"). Erstens, in seiner mitteleren Zeit ist "ego teki kankei (wechselseitige Durchdringung) " flir die ursprungliche Weltstruktur gehalten, aber in seiner spaten Zeit wird nach "fu-ego (absolut widerspruchliche extreme Punkte in der wecselseitigen Durchdringung: absolutes Eins und absolutes Einzelnes, die jede Durchdringung ganz ablehnen) " als der ursprunglicheren Dimension gefragt. Dementsprechend versucht Nishitani in seiner spateren Zeit, diese "fu-ego" Weltstruktur mit Zero auszudrucken. Zweitens, in seiner mitteleren Zeit nimmt er eine negative Einstellung zur Projektion der sunyata auf die Sinnlichkeit oder den Verstand und betont die Unmoglichkeit des Erfassens der sunyata selbst, aber in seiner spaten Zeit achtet Nishitani die menschliche Einbildungskraft (bzw. Image) fur Wahrnehmungsvermogen von der sunyata. Durch seinen Eintritt in den Ort der sunyata uberwindet er den Nihilismus. Aber auch danach fortschreitend artikuliert er die reiche Welt der sunyata und zeigt zwei Elemente des Wesens der Religion heraus: die Wahrnehmung des die Realitat grundenden absoluten Widerspruches und das Image als Erscheinungsstatte der Religionswelt.

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This paper focuses on Plato's theodicy in his Laws book X. In this book Plato treats legislation against impiety, dividing into three types. The problem of theodicy has to do with the second type. An Athenian, who is the spokesman for Plato, points out that "prosperity of the wicked" causes people this type of impiety. These people believe the gods exist, but think they take no care for human affairs. Persuasion for them is divided into two parts: persuasion by logos, which proves that the gods are concerned with even human affairs as well as cosmic ones, and by myths, which show cosmic vision surrounding human and retributive principle. This principle, invented by the gods as concern over all things, works strictly as if it was a "mechanism." The Athenian says retribution by this principle emerges not only in the afterlife but also in this world, and the "mechanism" gathers wicked together with wicked in order to make them do evil deeds to each other. This declaration is Plato's theodicean reply to the second type of impious people who envy "the prosperity of the wicked." Though scholars say that the "mechanism" as gods' concern is Plato's understanding of theodicy, I propose another aspect of his theodicy: Plato shows the positive side of the gods' concern for human beings.

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Jungian Psychology (Analytical Psychology) has often been referred to as "religious," because it emphasizes inner experiences and searches for the salvation of the soul by finding various images in the unconscious. Jung translated religious healing arts into psychological terms and formulated it as "individuation process." On the other hand, Jungian Psychology is also called "theological," because the clinical practice of Jungian Psychology has much to do with the hermeneutic act of connecting the unconscious fantasies of patients to the context of the Christian world view or myth. According to Jung, world view or myth represents man's original psychological experience and can control and shape the unconscious instinct. Therefore, in view of the development of human consciousness, existing myths, including that of Christianity, does not belong to eternal truth but are historically limited and have room for developing. Thus it is understandable that Jungian Psychology is, starting from curing the soul of modern man, necessarily concerned with the act of theology: to search for a better myth of Christianity.

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Das Leben Jesu, kritisch bearbeitet von D. F. StrauB erschien erst im Jahre 1835, und wurde ein Meilenstein in der Leben-Jesu-Forschung, besonders fur die Erforschung der mythische Betracutungsweise, geworden. Als nach etwa 30 Jahren das Buch ebenso benannte von E. Renan herausgekommt, veroffentlichte StrauB im darauf folgenden Jahr "Das Leben Jesu fur das deutsche Volk bearbeitet". Einerseits erhielt StrauB im neuen Leben Jesu den Begriff des Mythos, den er in dem ersten Leben Jesu in der zweiten Auflage eingefuhrt hatte, aufrecht. Er behauptete, daB man die wunderhaftliche Geschichten der Evangelien als "Mythos", d.h. "Dichtung" der ersten christlichen Gemeinde fassen soil. Anderseits verfeinerte er den Mythosbegriff und definierte ihn exakt, um absichtlich Erdichtetes wie das Johannesevangelium in den Mythosbegriff einzuschlieBen. StrauB kannte die Wissenschaft der Mythologie in seiner Zeit genau, die eine konkretere Definition des Mythos moglich machte. Allerdings sei das Problem seiner Meinung nach nicht, ob eine Geschichte bewuBt oder unbewuBt erdichtet worden ist, sondern ob sie uberhaupt Geschichte (Historic) oder Dichtung (Mythos) sei. Wenn die Bedeutung der Mythosbegriff fur die Bibelwissenschaft von StrauB bis in die Gegenwart zu untersuchen ist, mliBte man sich darauf besinnen, daB StrauB in sein neuen Leben Jesu selbst den Mythosbegriff ausarbeit hat. In der Behandlung des StrauB'schen Mythosbegriff konnte man auBerdem eine religionswissenschftliche Richtung, namlich den Versuch einer Relativierung der christlichen Religion, sehen.

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The 1240s saw the spread of Zen in Kyoto and Kamakura. What thought constituted this "Zen"? Until now, Rinzai priests of the Kamakura period have been categorized by historians into two separate groups: 1) Zen practice mixed with the exoteric and esoteric teachings, and other essential teachings based on the sutras (Kenshu-Zen), and 2) Zen introduced from China in the Sung dynasty unmixed with the above-mentioned teachings, called "pure Zen practice" (Junsui-Zen). The two most notable Zen priests of the mid-Kamakura period, Enni Ben'en (who studied various Buddhist teachings and Zen in Japan and China), and Rankei Doryu (the Chinese Zen priest who taught in Kamakura), have been categorized under these two headings. Their ways of thinking have yet to be fully understood. This essay will present two facts. One is that Rinzai priest-relations crossed both Kenshu-Zen and Junsui-Zen, or Japanese and Chinese priesthood. The other is that the common thought of Enni and Rankei encompassed the exoteric and esoteric, as well as other essential teachings based on the sutras. Therefore attention must be given to Sung dynasty Rinzai-the origin of this new Zen way of thinking.

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According to Levi-Strauss, a mythology, like a musical composition, always consists of repetitions, with diverse variations of the same themes. Through an analysis of the Mahdbharata, I have tried to show such repetition of a theme in the following three stories. 1) The respective bearings by Gandharl, on the one hand, and Kunti and Madri, on the other hand, of a hundred sons (Kaurava) and five sons (Pandava). 2) Kadru and Vinata's giving birth to the serpent race on the one hand, and Garuda on the other hand. 3) The story about the king Sagara's two wives named Vaidarbhl and Saivya narrated in book 3. These three stories, in spite of their apparent differences, have a common theme. There are women who are in conflict with each other, one of them bears many sons representing evil, the other(s) bear(s) a (few) son(s) or a grandson representing good. Moreover, there is a "mediator" between the side of evil and the side of good in each of these stories. 1) The son Aruna of Vinata was prematurely born due to Vinata's fault. 2) Karna, a son of the Sun-god, to whom his mother Kunti gave birth before her marriage with Pandu, without losing her virginity. 3) Asamanjas, the son of Sagara and Saivya. All of them originally belong to the side of good, but by their own acts, they leave their mothers and take the side of evil. Thus they are in a position to mediate between the two groups. In addition to this main structure, one can point out a number of correspondences in the details of these stories. It is evident that the main structure of the Mahdbharata is repeated in two of the episodes contained in the epic, in which we can find other examples of repetitions of the same theme.

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Before the Spanish conquest in the 16th century, the Aztecs had developed a highly elaborate urban civilization in the lake region of the Mexican high plateau, in which successive urban centers flourished, including Teotihuacan (200-750 A.D.), Tula (900-1150 A.D.), and the Aztecs' capital, Tenochititlan (1325-1521 A.D.). It was not until the 13th century that the Aztecs appeared as one of numerous immigrant groups from the northern part of the region. Within a few centuries, however, the Aztecs grew into the most prominent group and dominated a large part of Mesoamerica. One of the scholarly topics in previous Aztec studies is the ritual of human sacrifice, which many scholars have considered as a key to understand the fundamental character of the Aztecs' religious tradition. Following the well-known explanation presented by a Mexican historian, Alfonso Caso, scholars have considered the ritual as a symbolic activity to feed and nourish their. Great Sun-god by means of divine food, that is, a human-body and blood. Recent studies from the fields of archaeology and ethnology, however, seem to suggest that such an understanding is not supportable anymore, and a new interpretation of the Aztec ritual sacrifice is needed. I will interpret the ritual and myth from the point of view of world-making, world-eating and religious orientation, utilizing 16th-century written documents such as Sahagun's Florentine Codex, Tezozomoc's Cronica Mexicana, and Duran's Historia.

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Although Japan has suffered from miserable pollution damage in the 1970s, such as "Minamata disease," it cannot be denied that it is behind the West in developing thought and philosophy for fundamentally solving environmental problems. In recent years, however, European and American research on "environmental ethics" has at last been introduced and is prospering. On the other hand, the "forest philosophy" (mori no shiso) of Umehara Takeshi and Yasuda Kazunori, and Iwata Keiji's "neo-animism" theory, which aim at reviving the ethos of sybiosis with nature from ancient Japan, has attracted attention. They consider that the ethical approach of "environmental ethics" is a superficial environmental theory, and consider that their approach from ethos is a radical approach. In this paper I will first survey the main theories of European and American environmental thought, and point out that they have taken a common ethical approach, and next I will critically consider the "forest philosophy" and the "neo-animism" theory, which take an approach from the perspective of ethos. Finally, I point out the mutual complementary-relation of both approaches.

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