Der Ubergang vom mythologischen zum philosophisch-mystischen Denken ist fur die Gnosisforschung sehr wichtig. Im "Zostrianos" (NHC VIII, 1) ist er deutlich zu erkennen. Die Gegner, mit denen Plotin in seinem Traktat "Gegen die Gnostiker" auseinandersetzte, besass eine Schrift mit demselben Titel. Plotin fand in ihr sinnlose, Zauberspruchen ahnliche Murmellaute und lehnte sie tadelnd ab. In der Tat haben nicht nur "Zostrianos", sondern auch andere Schriften der Spatgnosis von der zeitgenossischen Magie zahlreiche Beschworungsformeln aufgenommen. Sie gebrauchen aber sie nicht mehr wie in der Magie dazu, Gotter oder Geister zur Verwirklichung der unterschiedlichen Vorhaben des Menschen zu zwingen. Die Zauberspruchen werden nunmehr zu einer Glossolalie umfunktioniert, die ein Mystiker, der von unten nach oben auf das hochste Wesen hin aufsteigt, in dem Augenblick erhebt, in dem seine Erkenntnis uber das hochste Wesen und sein eigenes Seins in eins fallen.

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The World at present sees some sure signs of an advent of a new age of spirituality coming ever closer to us with quiet but steady footsteps. Against this background, the author of this thesis attempts to trace the unifying process of "Japanese Spirituality and Christianity" within the author's mind, and to theorize about it in general philosophical terms. It was Suzuki Daisetsu who put forward the concept of spirituality for the first time in this country and took the initiative in establishing "the Philosophy of Spirituality." Nishida Kitaro then carried on the mission of theorizing this concept of spirituality, invoked by Suzuki, by means of logic and philosophical terminology. Nishida's philosophy, based on factual surveys on people's spiritual experiences, has much in common with Karl Rahner's Christian theology. Through comparative studies of these two philosophers, Nishida and Rahner, the present author has arrived at the conclusion that Nishida's theory of "the Topology of Absolute Nothingness" should be interpreted as an equivalent to the Christian theory of "Holy Spirit." Every succeeding theory the present author has developed concerning the theology of Holy Spirit has its origin in that firm belief in the affinity between these two philosophers' conceptions. The author concludes his thesis with the hope that the Christian faith based on belief in Holy Spirit, which has a similar basis as Suzuki Daisetsu's "Japanese Spirituality," will be of global and universal significance, and therefore expected to lead to a worldwide religious renovation in the near future.

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In Traume eines Geistersehers hat Kant die Geister in der Traume von der Metaphysik und einem Geisterseher gefunden. Er hat dann den Geist als Prinzip des Lebens aus seiner Philosophie vertrieben, um aus dem Schlummer zu erwachen. Schiller hat in Der Geistseher den Helden den Geist in dieser Welt verleugen lassen. Dahinter setzt aber der Geist als Autor diese maschinelle Welt in Betrieb. Bei Kant und Schiller ist dieWelt ohne Geist nur ein Apparat, in den der Geist von aussen her seinen Oden einzublasen hat. Dagegen hat Hegel in Phanomenologie des Geistes den Geist als Subjekt erscheinen lassen. Der Geist ist nicht mehr in der Nacht des Jenseits geblieben, sondern in den Tag der Gegenwart eingetreten. Er macht da den Grund der Sittlichkeit, worin ich wir ist und wir ich sind, aus. Es ist seine Negativitat, die diese Gemeinsamkeit von "ich und wir" durch das Spiel der gegenseitigen Betrugen ausbildet. Der Geist ist also von den Jenseits mit der Negativitat zuruckgekommen.

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In terminal medicine, spiritual care is recognized as needed care for anyone who suffers from anxiety and despair. Spiritual care can be provided even to non-religious persons, because it is provided to care for the soul of a patient, and not necessarily by a particular religion. Religious care is meant to help patients with particular religious resources, such as theological, cultural, and/or denominational perspectives. But religious care has positive contributions as well as negative influences. Religious care will not be welcomed by non-religious persons and anti-religious persons. Today religious care is not permitted in public hospitals by law, so spiritual care is taking on the role of caring for the souls of dying patients. Spiritual care works to help one care for herself or himself without religious resources. Religion has a spiritual heritage that is helpful for terminal patients to see oneself from a transcendant and ultimate perspective.

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This paper draws attention to the issue of the "intimate sphere." Spirituality studies so far have not dealt with the problem of the intimate sphere, where life is supported by the relationship with one's significant other(s). In this paper, first the definition of spirituality is discussed. The idea of the public/intimate sphere is then introduced, and the reason why the idea is so popular is also discussed. Finally, new approaches in justice, such as restorative justice, are analyzed in terms of spirituality. In conclusion, a feeling of connectedness and a recovery of one's dignity in a therapeutic situation in the intimate sphere can be interpreted as a spiritual process.

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In the contemporary world there is a trend to restore some religious world view against the dominant secularist view. Three aspects can be observed: (1) a return to traditional religions, (2) the rise of spirituality, and (3) increase of religiosity within the modern institutional sphere. In this paper the main attention is paid to (2) the rise of spirituality. The author examines the historical process through which the new spirituality, mainly in economically advanced countries, has emerged and spread. The author proposes to see the phenomena of the rise of spirituality as related to skepticism against the faith in salvation. In advanced countries, a contemporary transformation of world view is seen as "from religion to spirituality." But it may be more appropriate to call the transformation "from salvation to spirituality." There is continuity between "new spirituality," which develops outside the traditional religions, and emphasis on spirituality which develops within the traditional religions. In order to understand the relationship between religion and spirituality, provisional definitions of religion and spirituality are proposed. Although there is tension between religion and new spirituality, from another viewpoint religion and new spirituality is complementary. The understanding of the complementarity of religion and new spirituality proposed here reflects the East Asian perspective of religious history with which the author is familiar.

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The various practices and body techniques of Chinese Taoism are frequently also employed in the context of modern spirituality and the New Spiritualism which are popular in the contemporary developed world. These practices and techniques began to be used in this way after they had been divorced from their particular original cultural context when they came to be seen to correspond to the kind of yogic body techniques thought to form part of the mystical, magical or meditative traditions found in all religions of the world. Based on an investigation of their formative history, this article examines the continuities and differences that exist between the role these practices perform in a traditional Taoist context and in the modern spirituality movement.

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Suzuki Daisetsu used "spirituality" as a word equivalent to religion, and also thought it equal to religious consciousness or experience in itself. "Spiritual self-awakening" were the words he used to properly express what he thought. In other words, spirituality is self-awakening and self-awakening is spirituality, where self-awakening is a pure self-awakening to absolute oneness, the wisdom of Non-discrimination. In contrast, intellect involves "discrimination" whose nature is duality. Therefore, spiritual self-awakening becomes active where intellect itself dies, and is newly reborn. That is also where the "discrimination of non-discrimination," Daisetsu's original words, really acts, and the meaning or value of our selves and the world in which they live is radically converted. With this, a real religious life begins. Spiritual self-awakening in itself has universality, but it always manifests itself only through individual people. It, however, can also be special, and Japanese spiritual self-awakening is one special form of it. Finally, I will refer briefly to the relation between Daisetsu's spiritual self awakening and the recent problem of spirituality.

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Since the latter half of the 20th century, with the great development of modern religious cultures (especially in the English speaking world), a phenomenon generally called "spirituality" has received much attention. This can often be called "an alternative to religion," but primarily it originated from traditional religion, especially from Christianity. Therefore the "spirituality" of today is essentially related to the meaning of Christian spirituality, though it has brought out specific phenomena indigenous to this generation. Considering this point of view, "spirituality" is better described as it is pronounced in English, instead of taking the trouble to translate it into Japanese. When thinking of modern religious cultures, it is useful to consider "spirituality" as another working hypothesis to set up a new axis of coordinates for considering religion in general. Unlike the traditional concept of "religion," this concept of "spirituality" contains varied and flexible characteristics, so it makes people conscious of their own standpoint in it, including those involved in it and those who speak about it. That is, they are obliged to have a sense of actual commitment. Further-more, to imagine "spirituality" apart from the existing religious groups will bring about new criticism about religion, in a sense different from that of the Enlightenment.

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"Jewish spirituality" is a relatively new academic concept in the history of Jewish Studies, which has been introduced by A. Green's insightful pursuit of the subject. This paper attempts to understand the background of the emergence of the concept and to analyze A. Green's definition of "Jewish spirituality" as a comprehensive approach to the diversity of Jewish thought in history. In particular, with the analyses focusing on Green's claims in which he minutely deviates from his mentor A.J. Heschel's depth theology, the paper tries to find a unique quality in Green's idea of Jewish spirituality, while noticing Green's borrowing from Heshcel's insights. Specifically inspired by the distinction of spirituality and spiritualism as argued by Heschel, Green proposes to view Jewish spirituality not as the manner or the way of religious life but as the common goal to reach by the believers of Judaism regardless of minority groups as well as its mainstream. He sums its goal as "life in the presence of God" as the point of view from which one may consider the diversity of religious thought in Judaism, that is the living struggle for attaining the face of God in knowledge as well as in practice. Indeed, Green and Heschel disagree slightly concerning the roles of Jewish laws and regulations in Jewish spirituality. Nevertheless, Green's definition "in the presence of God" nicely explains their differences with regard to spirituality, since the biblical phrase "Before the Lord" or "Before Him" has a twofold sense: 1) to mean "toward the face of God," which certainly has room for demanding more mystical and philosophical considerations on His face, and 2) to signify the front of the Temple/Tabernacle which is the center of the rules and laws of holiness, the clean, and the unclean. Thereby, Green intends by "the life in the presence of God" to present the whole reality of Jewish spirituality as divided yet unanimous efforts to be near Him in rules and thoughts, which is manifested in the more than two thousand years of Jewish history.

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The spirituality of "hesychasm" that arose in the 14th century on Mt. Athos, the center of Orthodox-monastic spirituality, consists of the repetition of the "Jesus-prayer" with a particular psycho-physical method and theories for defending the significance as well as legitimacy of contemplating the "Light of God." The recitation of the "Jesus-prayer" while in a bending posture, together with a particular method of respiration, came into being in the context of the Byzantine-monastic tradition in which one pursued silence. The theoretical aspect of the spirituality, on the other hand, is very typical of Eastern Christianity in the contemplation of God's Light that was reinterpreted with the biblical term "Tabor Light." It involves the notion of "energeia" (work, activity), if one word could be chosen to designate this feature, and this notion functions as an explanation of the legitimacy and meaning of the experience of God's Light. Therefore, the theory of hesychasm is characterized by a dynamic-concrete idea of "working" and "action" rather than by an abstract idea of "immanence" or "essence." We could describe hesychastic spirituality as "a spirituality of energeia-dynamism."

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Viewed from the perspective that spirituality consists of seeing one's inner mind, we may notice that there were several monks during the early period of Japanese Buddhism who stayed in the mountains and paid close attention to the cultivation of the inner mind. In the medieval era, monks of the Hosso and Zen denominations were notable. We find notable examples in Jokei (1155-1213) and Ryohen (1194-1252). Jokei in particular is recorded as having attained an experience of profound insight through the chanting of a verse called Jison kyoju no ju (Verse of Maitreya's Instruction). He used this verse as the object of meditation, similar to that of the nembutsu. He also paid close attention to the state of the mind of people at the time of death. From the Zen school, it was Dogen (1200-1253) who was most notable. In his writing, we can feel Dogen's conviction that we are in fact being motivated and affected by the totality of our surrounding existence. He seems to have understood mind to be the field of feelings and perceptions. This is again, another way of expressing the notion of "spirituality."

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The aim of this paper is to set up the configuration of the body "in and out of the hospital" and "outside of the configuration" so that we can build a new foundation for the study of contemporary medicine, religion, and spirituality. As an emergent issue, it seems we are living in the circumstances where the ideal figure of a clinic (the field of cure) presented by researchers does not reach the involved people as easily as it reaches physicians, practitioners and patients. They understand the ideal cure as "listening to the patient," "quality of life," and "narrative-based medicine." However, the body of each individual is allocated according to the routine of the hospital, and they tend to grasp their own figure as physician, practitioner and patient and become isolated from the ideal cure. This paper is written with an expectation that the new foundation for the study of medicine, religion, and spirituality is made possible by listening to the straying of the body which comes out unintentionally through such an allocation, and by conceptualizing the field in which researchers are sensitive to the straying of the allocated body. We hope to better see the horizon of study through synchronization with the persons concerned, where the researchers are aware of the configuration of their own body.

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The brain drain of Indian scientists and engineers to Western nations has accelerated along with India's rapid economic growth achieved in recent years. In the present-day situation, it is quite noteworthy that Indians overseas, as well as intellectuals living in India (the vast majority of whom are Hindus), often keep a firm conviction toward their faith and religious beliefs and practices. Some of them are soberly involved in heated exchange of opinions over the Internet blogs on the consistency of the attainments of modern science with that of classical Indian philosophy, while others actively invite Hindu priests to perform rituals at their own temples overseas. In this paper, in order to find a clue to this strong confidence in their own spiritual culture, the focus will be placed on Swami Vivekananda (1863-1902), a nineteenth century thinker who successfully restructured and revitalized Indian spirituality by shedding exclusive light on the intellectual aspects of the non-dualistic philosophy of Advaita-Vedanta.

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Using representative examples of debates and practices occurring in schools in response to the educational policies widely promoted since the second half of the 1990s by the MEXT, which called for an "education that values what we cannot see," this paper aims at clarifying the limitations of this state-made spiritual education. As it will be shown through the experiments of five public primary schools located in Kyoto prefecture and which are considered to be model schools for the "education of the mind" and "death education," the visualization of this vaguely defined state-made spirituality has become a challenge in the educational scene. The experiments of these primary schools can be referred to as a local spiritual education which contrasts with the state-made one. However, there exist limitations to this local spiritual education too, and this paper explores the possibilities of this type of education by looking at how it can be developed in connection with local communities, religious resources, school education and the research on spirituality.

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In this paper I outline the history of Theosophical ideas in Japan from the Taisho era (1912-1026) to 1960. In part 1 the methodological problems about historical studies of the culture of spirituality are discussed in reference to Hanegraaf's study of Western esotericism, Albanese's research on metaphysical religion in America, and Shimazono's study on the Japanese new spirituality movement. As an example of a Japanese spirituality thinker, the life and career of Taniguchi Masaharu is summarized. Next the history and character of American metaphysical religions is surveyed with comparison to Japanese counterparts. In part 2, the history of Theosophy in Japan is discussed, including the failures of the lodge activities in Japan, and the spreading of ideas through publications. As the latter shows, selective use of Theosophical ideas in publications indicates a tendency of Japanese spirituality. Then, in order to trace the history of Theosophy, the life and character of the representative Theosophist, Miura Sekizo (1893-1960) is described. Miura was a famous writer and translator in the field of education, but he became a kind of psychic healer in the early years of Showa. While travelling in the USA from 1930 to 1931, he became friends with William Dudley Pelley, a fascist and occultist, and Miura became a metaphysical teacher of his own. He published books and magazines on yoga or metaphysical teachings, especially those of "Dr." Doreal, from 1953 to 1960. It is possible that his books had some influence on the following generations of "Seishin Sekai," a Japanese equivalent of New Age.

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