SOAS World Philosophies Lecture 30: Religion, Philosophy, Religiosophy: Buddhism Between Worlds of Thought by Rafal Stepien

[Elvis Imafidon]

Dear Colleagues, 

The Centre for Global and Comparative Philosophies is pleased to invite you to the 30th Lecture in the SOAS World Philosophies Lecture Series.  Dr Rafal Stepien of The Austrian Academy of Sciences will deliver the Lecture in person. This lecture will be hybrid. The details are below: 

Date

Friday, February 06, 2026

Time

15:00 (UK Time)

Place

SWLT @ SOAS & Online (register HERE to get the Zoom link for all events. If you are already on our mailing list, you do not need to register; join HERE).

Title:

Religion, Philosophy, Religiosophy: Buddhism Between Worlds of Thought

Summary:

Are concepts such as ‘religion’ and ‘philosophy’ translatable among worlds of thought? In this lecture, I address this question via the transmission, translation, and transformation of ideas between ancient Indian and Chinese Buddhisms, and between the classical Buddhist world and the contemporary West. In so doing, I attempt to unpack the usages to which contemporary English-language scholars typically put the terms ‘religion’ and ‘philosophy’, describe the continuing segregation of Buddhist (and for that matter other non-Western, non-Christian) philosophical and religious traditions from professional Philosophy and Religious Studies, and propose some ways by which the Buddhist ‘religiosophical’ tradition may contribute to, and innovate upon, standard models of thought.

Speaker Bio:

Rafal K. Stepien is Principal Researcher at the Austrian Academy of Sciences and Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Buddhist Philosophy. Rafal holds degrees from Oxford, Cambridge, and Columbia, and his latest book, Buddhism Between Religion and Philosophy: Nāgārjuna and the Ethics of Emptiness (Oxford), was awarded the American Academy of Religion’s 2025 Book Award for Excellence in the Study of Religion.

Best wishes,

Elvis