Malcolm David Eckel is Professor of

Religion Religion is usually defined as a social- cultural system of designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relates humanity to supernatural, ...

and Director of the Institute for Philosophy and Religion at

Boston University Boston University (BU) is a Private university, private research university in Boston, Massachusetts. The university is nonsectarian, but has a historical affiliation with the United Methodist Church. It was founded in 1839 by Methodists with ...

, US.

Early life and education

Eckel received a B.A. from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

, a B.A. and M.A. from

Oxford University Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to th ...

. While at Oxford, he studied

Sanskrit Sanskrit (; attributively , ; nominally , , ) is a classical language belonging to the Indo-Aryan branch of the Indo-European languages. It arose in South Asia after its predecessor languages had diffused there from the northwest in the late ...

. He received a Ph.D. in the Study of Religion from Harvard in 1980, focusing on the

Buddhist Buddhism ( , ), also known as Buddha Dharma and Dharmavinaya (), is an Indian religion or philosophical tradition based on teachings attributed to the Buddha. It originated in northern India as a -movement in the 5th century BCE, and ...

traditions of India, Tibet and Southeast Asia. From 1978-1980 he was an Instructor in Religion at Middlebury College. While studying for his PhD, Eckel taught at Ohio Wesleyan Uni (Delaware). On completion of his doctorate, he taught at Harvard’s Division School for 5 years. He was also the Administrative Director of the Harvard Center for the Study of World Religions. He then moved on to Boston University, where he received Metcalf Award for Teaching Excellence in 1998. By this time he had started to publish. Eckel returned to Harvard in 1991 to teach at the School of Religion. He served on the Visiting Committee of Harvard Divinity School from 2008-2013. In 2013, he was invited to deliver a series of lectures entitled “Modes of Recognition: Aspects of Theory in Mahayana Buddhist Narrative” as Visiting Professor in Buddhist Studies at the University of Sydney, Australia.

Publications

His publications include ''Bhāviveka and His Buddhist Opponents'' (Harvard); ''Buddhism: Origins, Beliefs, Practices, Holy Texts, Sacred Places'' (Oxford); ''To See the Buddha: A Philosopher's Quest for the Meaning of Emptiness'' (Princeton); ''Jnanagarbha's Commentary on the Distinction Between the Two Truths: An Eighth-Century Handbook of Madhyamaka Philosophy'' (State University of New York); and "Is There a Buddhist Philosophy of Nature?" in ''Theoretical and Methodological Issues in Buddhism and Ecology'' (Harvard Center for the Study of World Religions). He is the editor of two volumes of essays: ''India and The West: The Problem of Understanding'' (Harvard Center for the Study of World Religions) and ''Deliver Us from Evil'' (Continuum). Dr. Eckel leads educational journeys to India and the Himalayan Kingdoms.
/ref>

Bibliography

* ''Jnanagarbha's Commentary on the Distinction Between the Two Truths'' (1987) * ''To See the Buddha: A Philosopher's Quest for the Meaning of Emptiness'' (1994) * ''Understanding Buddhism: Origins, Beliefs, Practices, Holy Texts, Sacred Places'' (2002) * ''The Library of Eastern Religions: Shinto, Buddhism, Confucianism and Islam'' (2003) (with Matthew S Gordon) * ''India and The West: The Problem of Understanding and Selected Essays of J. L. Mehta'' (editor) * ''Bhāviveka and His Buddhist Opponents'' (2008), Harvard Oriental Series, No. 70 * ''Buddhism'' (2009) (part of the ''Understanding Religion'' series

References

External links

Boston University Core Curriculum
{{DEFAULTSORT:Eckel, Malcolm David Harvard University alumni Middlebury College faculty Harvard Divinity School faculty Ohio Wesleyan University faculty Boston University faculty Living people Buddhist studies Year of birth missing (living people)