Ostasienwissenschaften

 (+43-1) 51581-6441

rafal.stepien(at)oeaw.ac.at

CV und Publikationen
 

Rafal K. Stepien ist ein Wissenschafter für religiöse und philosophische Geistesgeschichte. Seine Forschung ist transkulturell, interdisziplinär und mehrsprachig und umfasst buddhistische und islamische Texte in Sanskrit, Chinesisch, Arabisch und Persisch. Er interessiert sich vor allem für die Geschichte religiöser, philosophischer und literarischer Ideen, die aus der mittelalterlichen chinesischen und indischen buddhistischen Kulturwelt stammen, aber auch für die Geschichte solcher Ideen, die in arabisch- und persischsprachigen islamischen Texten zum Ausdruck kommen.

Seit Juli 2023 ist Stepien ein Principal Researcher am Institut für Kultur- und Geistesgeschichte Asiens der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften in Wien. Von 2023 bis 2028 leitet er als Principal Investigator ein vom Europäischen Forschungsrat (ERC) finanziertes Forschungsprojekt zur Geschichte der chinesischen buddhistischen Philosophie (ChinBuddhPhil). Weiters ist er Mitherausgeber des Journal of Buddhist Philosophy. Stepien war der erste Fakultätsstipendiat der Cihui-Stiftung für chinesischen Buddhismus an der Columbia University, der erste Berggruen-Forschungsstipendiat für indische Philosophie an der University of Oxford, Humboldt-Forschungsstipendiat für buddhistische Studien am Karl Jaspers Centre for Advanced Transcultural Studies an der Universität Heidelberg, Soudavar Memorial Research Scholar für persische Studien an der University of Cambridge, Assistenzprofessor für asiatische Religionen am Hampshire College und Assistenzprofessor für vergleichende Religionswissenschaft an der Nanyang Technological University.

Weitere Studien- und Forschungsaufenthalte absolvierte Stepien unter anderem als Austauschstipendiat des Committee on the Study of Religion an der Harvard University, als Gaststipendiat des Cambridge Inter-faith Programme an der University of Cambridge, als Gastforscher des Centre of Buddhist Studies an der University of Hong Kong, als Visiting Fellow in der Abteilung für Geschichte und Zivilisation am Europäischen Hochschulinstitut sowie an den Universitäten von Bologna, Damaskus, Teheran, Esfehan, Peking und Fo Guang. Er hat einen BA-Abschluss mit den Schwerpunkten Englisch und Philosophie von der University of Western Australia, einen BA- und MA-Abschluss in Orientalistik von der University of Oxford, einen MPhil-Abschluss in Asien- und Nahoststudien von der University of Cambridge und einen MA-, MPhil- und PhD-Abschluss in ostasiatischen Sprachen und Kulturen (Religion) von der Columbia University.

Monografien

Irreligious Literatures: Metaphysical Poetry Between Buddhism and Islam
Manuscript in advanced stage of completion.

Buddhist Philosophy Between India and China: From Madhyamaka to Sanlun
Manuscript drafted.

The Three Jewels: Essaying Buddhist Philosophy of Religion
Albany: State University of New York Press (under contract, forthcoming).

Buddhism Between Religion and Philosophy: Nāgārjuna and the Ethics of Emptiness
New York: Oxford University Press, 2024, xiv + 400 pp.

Buddhist Literature as Philosophy, Buddhist Philosophy as Literature
Albany: State University of New York Press, 2020, xiii + 381 pp.

Herausgegebene Zeitschriftenausgaben

APA Newsletter on Asian and Asian-American Philosophers and Philosophies,Vol. 19, No. 1, Fall 2019. Newark: The American Philosophical Association. Guest Edited Special Issue: Buddhist Philosophy Today: Theories and Forms.

APA Newsletter on Asian and Asian-American Philosophers and Philosophies,Vol. 18, No. 2, Spring 2019. Newark: The American Philosophical Association. Guest Edited Special Issue: Buddhist Philosophy Worldwide: Perspectives and Programmes.

Aufsätze

‘Three Jewels, Three Treatises: Buddhist Philosophy of Religion?’ Knepper, Timothy and Dolinsek, Cody (eds.). Global-Critical Philosophy of Religion: Topics, Questions, Categories. London: Bloomsbury, 2025 (forthcoming).

‘How Not to Diversify Philosophy of Religion: A Critique from the Twenty-First Century’. Sophia: International Journal of Philosophy and Traditions, 2024: 1-8.

‘Interdisciplinarity in Non-Disciplines: Archive and Academe in Religious Studies’. Numen, Vol. 70, No. 5, 2023. Leiden: Brill: 473-513.

‘Prolegomena to a Buddhist Philosophy of Religion’. International Journal for Philosophy of Religion, Vol. 94, No. 1, August 2023. Dordrecht: Springer: 63-89.

‘Tetralemma and Trinity: An Essay in Buddhist and Christian Ontologies’. Comparative and Continental Philosophy, Vol. 14, No. 3, 2023. London: Taylor & Francis: 236-254.

‘Contest, Game, Disgrace: On Philosophy and Buddhism’. Philosophy East and West, Vol. 72, No. 4, October 2022. Honolulu: University of Hawai’i Press: 1066-1088.

‘The Original Mind is the Literary Mind, the Original Body Carves Dragons’. Journal of Buddhist Philosophy, No. 4, 2022. Albany: State University of New York Press: 93-120.

‘Substantialism, Essentialism, Emptiness: Buddhist Critiques of Ontology’. Journal of Indian Philosophy, Vol. 49, No. 5, 2021Springer: 871-893.

‘Interreligious Relations with No Self: A Mystical Path to Omnilogue?’ Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, Vol. 31, No. 4, October 2021. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 721-741.

‘Indian Buddhist and Continental Christianate Critiques of Ontology: An Exercise in Interreligious Philosophical Dialogue’. Interreligious Relations, No. 22, January/February 2021. Singapore: SRP: 1-14.

‘Buddhist Nationalism in Asia: What It Means for Europe’. RSIS Commentary, No. 119/2021, August 2021. Singapore: S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies: 1-4.

‘Philosophy, Literature, Religion: Buddhism as Transdisciplinary Intervention’. Stepien, Rafal K. (ed.). Buddhist Literature as Philosophy, Buddhist Philosophy as Literature. 2020. Albany: State University of New York Press 1-31.

‘The Original Mind is the Literary Mind, the Original Body Carves Dragons’. Stepien, Rafal K. (ed.). Buddhist Literature as Philosophy, Buddhist Philosophy as Literature. 2020. Albany: State University of New York Press: 231-260 (separately submitted, peer-reviewed, and published in Journal of Buddhist Philosophy: see above).

‘Abandoning All Views: A Buddhist Critique of Belief’. The Journal of Religion, Vol. 99, No. 4, October 2019. Chicago: University of Chicago Press: 529-566.

‘Buddhist Philosophy? Arguments From Somewhere’. APA Newsletter on Asian and Asian-American Philosophers and Philosophies, Vol. 19, No. 1, Fall 2019. Newark: The American Philosophical Association: 11-15.

‘Buddhist Philosophy Today: Theories and Forms’. APA Newsletter on Asian and Asian-American Philosophers and Philosophies, Vol. 19, No. 1, Fall 2019.Newark: The American Philosophical Association: 1-2.

‘Buddhist Philosophy Worldwide: Perspectives and Programmes’. APA Newsletter on Asian and Asian-American Philosophers and Philosophies, Vol. 18, No. 2, Spring 2019.Newark: The American Philosophical Association: 1-2.

Review Article of: Westerhoff, Jan. The Golden Age of Indian Buddhist Philosophy. The Oxford History of Philosophy. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018. Journal of the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies, Vol. 16, May 2019. Oxford: Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies: 171-187.

‘Orienting Reason: A Religious Critique of Philosophizing Nāgārjuna’. Journal of the American Academy of Religion, Vol. 86, No. 4, 2018. New York: Oxford University Press: 1072-1106.

‘Do Good Philosophers Argue? A Buddhist Approach to Philosophy and Philosophy Prizes’. APA Newsletter on Asian and Asian-American Philosophers and Philosophies, Vol. 18, No. 1, Fall 2018. Newark: The American Philosophical Association: 13-15.

Review Article of: Lin, Chen-kuo and Radich, Michael (eds.). A Distant Mirror: Articulating Indic Ideas in Sixth and Seventh Century Chinese Buddhism. Hamburg: Hamburg University Press, 2014. Journal of the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies, Vol. 11, 2016. Oxford: Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies: 237-264.

‘Rūmī, Balkhī, Mevlevī: The Ambiguities of Identity in the Poetry of Jālāl al-Dīn Muḥammad (1207-1272 CE)’. Michałak, Mirosław and Zaborowska, Magdalena (eds.). In Quest of Identity: Studies on the Persianate World. 2015. Warsaw: Wydawnictwo Akademnickie Dialog: 177-192.

‘The Imagery of Emptiness in the Poetry of Wang Wei (王維 699-761)’. Interdisciplinary Literary Studies: A Journal of Criticism and Theory, Vol. 16, No. 2, 2014. University Park: The Pennsylvania State University Press: 207-238.

‘A Study in Sufi Poetics: The Case of ʿAṭṭār Nayshābūrī’. Oriens: Journal of Philosophy, Theology and Science in Islamic Societies,Vol. 41 No. 1, 2013. Leiden: Brill: 77-120.

‘The Impossibility of Language: Poetic Modes of Apophasis in Buddhist and Islamic Mystical Literature’. New York Conference on Asian Studies and Association for Asian Studies. 2013. Buffalo: State University of New York. (Winner of the 2013 Marleigh Grayer Ryan Graduate Writing Prize).

‘The Mystic Poetry of ʿAṭṭār and the Conference of the Birds’. Scollay, Susan (ed.). Love and Devotion: From Persia and Beyond. Oxford: Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, in association with the State Library of Victoria, 2012, 89-93. USA Edition: University of Chicago Press. Selected as one of ‘The Best Art Books’ of 2013 by The Art Newspaper (#252, December 2013).

‘Love or Devotion? From Persia or the Beyond? – A Persian Sufi Perspective’. TAASA Review: The Journal of the Asian Arts Society of Australia, Vol. 21, No 1, 2012. Potts Point: The Asian Arts Society of Australia, 11-13.