Books by Jin Y Park
The Journal of World Philosophies, 2020
Why and how do women engage with Buddhism and philosophy? The present volume aims to answer these... more Why and how do women engage with Buddhism and philosophy? The present volume aims to answer these questions by examining the life and philosophy of a Korean Zen Buddhist nun, Kim Iryŏp (1896–1971). The daughter of a pastor, Iryŏp began questioning Christian doctrine as a teenager. In a few years, she became increasingly involved in women’s movements in Korea, speaking against society’s control of female sexuality and demanding sexual freedom and free divorce for women. While in her late twenties, an existential turn in her thinking led Iryŏp to Buddhism; she eventually joined a monastery and went on to become a leading figure in the female monastic community until her death.
After taking the tonsure, Iryŏp followed the advice of her teacher and stopped publishing for more than two decades. She returned to the world of letters in her sixties, using her strong, distinctive voice to address fundamental questions on the scope of identity, the meaning of being human, and the value of existence. In her writing, she frequently adopted an autobiographical style that combined her life experiences with Buddhist teachings. Through a close analysis of Iryŏp’s life story, Buddhist philosophy and practice in connection with East Asian new women’s movements, and continental philosophy, this volume offers a creative interpretation of Buddhism as both a philosophy and a religion actively engaged with lives as they are lived. It presents a fascinating narrative on how women connect with the world―whether through social issues such as gender inequality, a Buddhist worldview, or existential debates on human existence. By characterizing women’s philosophy as narrative philosophy―a philosophy of life based on lived experience―this book provides readers with a new way of philosophizing that is transformative and deeply connected with everyday existence.
Women and Buddhist Philosophy: Engaging Zen Master Kim Iryŏp will be of primary interest to scholars and students of Buddhism, Buddhist and comparative philosophy, and gender and Korean studies.
The life and work of Kim Iryŏp (1896–1971) bear witness to Korea’s encounter with modernity. A pr... more The life and work of Kim Iryŏp (1896–1971) bear witness to Korea’s encounter with modernity. A prolific writer, Iryŏp reflected on identity and existential loneliness in her poems, short stories, and autobiographical essays. As a pioneering feminist intellectual, she dedicated herself to gender issues and understanding the changing role of women in Korean society. As an influential Buddhist nun, she examined religious teachings and strove to interpret modern human existence through a religious world view. Originally published in Korea when Iryŏp was in her sixties, Reflections of a Zen Buddhist Nun (Ŏnŭ sudoin ŭi hoesang) makes available for the first time in English a rich, intimate, and unfailingly candid source of material with which to understand modern Korea, Korean women, and Korean Buddhism.
The first book in English devoted exclusively to modern Korean Buddhism, this work provides a com... more The first book in English devoted exclusively to modern Korean Buddhism, this work provides a comprehensive exploration for scholars, students, and serious readers. Makers of Modern Korean Buddhism focuses on three key areas: Buddhist reform, Zen revival, and the interrelationship of religion, history, and politics. In Korea, the modern period in Buddhism begins in earnest in the late nineteenth century, during the closing years of the Choson dynasty, which was characterized by a repressive brand of neo-Confucianism. Buddhist reformers arose to seek change in both Buddhism and Korean society at large. The work begins with a look at five of these reformers and their thought and work. The Zen revival that began at the end of the nineteenth century is covered from that period to contemporary times through an exploration of the life and thought of important Zen masters. The influence of Japanese Buddhist missionaries, the emergence of Korean engaged Buddhism, known as Minjung Buddhism, and the formation of modern Buddhist scholarship in Korea are discussed as well.
Buddhism and Postmodernity is a response to some of the questions that have emerged in the proces... more Buddhism and Postmodernity is a response to some of the questions that have emerged in the process of Buddhism's encounters with modernity and the West. Jin Y. Park broadly outlines these questions as follows: first, why are the interpretations and evaluations of Buddhism so different in Europe (in the nineteenth century), in the United States (in the twentieth century), and in traditional Asia; second, why does Zen Buddhism, which offers a radically egalitarian vision, maintain a strongly authoritarian leadership; and third, what ethical paradigm can be drawn from the Buddhist-postmodern form of philosophy? Park argues that, as unrelated as these questions may seem, the issues that have generated them are related to perennial philosophical themes of identity, institutional power, and ethics, respectively. Each of these themes constitutes one section of Buddhism and Postmodernity. Park discusses the three issues in the book through the exploration of the Buddhist concepts of self and others, language and thinking, and universality and particularities. Most of this discussion is drawn from the East Asian Buddhist traditions of Zen and Huayan Buddhism in connection with the Continental philosophies of postmodernism, hermeneutics, and deconstruction. Self-critical from both the Buddhist and Western philosophical perspectives, Buddhism and Postmodernity points the reader toward a new understanding of Buddhist philosophy and offers a Buddhist-postmodern ethical paradigm that challenges normative ethics of metaphysical traditions.
Merleau-Ponty and Buddhism explores a new mode of philosophizing through a comparative study of M... more Merleau-Ponty and Buddhism explores a new mode of philosophizing through a comparative study of Maurice Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology and philosophies of major Buddhist thinkers such as Nagarjuna, Chinul, Dogen, Shinran, and Nishida Kitaro. Challenging the dualistic paradigm of existing philosophical traditions, Merleau-Ponty proposes a philosophy in which the traditional opposites are encountered through mutual penetration. Likewise, a Buddhist worldview is articulated in the theory of dependent co-arising, or the middle path, which comprehends the world and beings in the third space, where the subject and the object, or eternalism and annihilation, exist independent of one another. The thirteen essays in this volume explore this third space in their discussions of Merleau-Ponty's concepts of the intentional arc, the flesh of the world, and the chiasm of visibility in connection with the Buddhist doctrine of no-self and the five aggregates, the Tiantai Buddhist concept of threefold truth, Zen Buddhist huatou meditation, the invocation of the Amida Buddha in True Pure Land Buddhism, and Nishida's concept of basho.
Comparative Political Theory and Cross-Cultural Philosophy: Essays in Honor of Hwa Yol Jung explo... more Comparative Political Theory and Cross-Cultural Philosophy: Essays in Honor of Hwa Yol Jung explores new forms of philosophizing in the age of globalization by challenging the conventional border between the East and the West, as well as the traditional boundaries among different academic disciplines. The essays in this volume examine diverse issues, encompassing globalization, cosmopolitanism, public philosophy, political ecology, ecocriticism, ethics of encounter, and aesthetics of caring. They examine the philosophical traditions of phenomenology of Hursserl, Merleau-Ponty, and Heidegger; the dialogism of Mikhail Bakhtin; the philosophy of mestizaje literature; and Asian philosophical traditions. This rich comparative and cross-cultural investigation of philosophy and political theory demonstrates the importance of cultural and cross-cultural understanding in our reading of philosophical texts, exploring how cross-cultural thinking transforms our understanding of the traditional philosophical paradigm and political theory. This volume honors the scholarship and philosophy of Hwa Yol Jung, who has been a pioneer in the field of comparative political theory, cross-cultural philosophy, and interdisciplinary scholarship. In one of his earliest publications, The Crisis of Political Understanding (1979) Jung described the urgency and necessity of breakthrough in political thinking as a crisis, and he followed up on this issue for his half century of scholarship by introducing Asian philosophy and political thought to Western scholarship, demonstrating the possibility of cross-cultural philosophical thinking. In his most recent publications, Jung refers to this possibility as 'transversality' or 'trans(uni)versality' a concept which should replace the outmoded Eurocentric universality of modernist philosophy.
Review
Hwa-Yol Jung, although he has spent his entire professional career in the United States, is well-known and esteemed by many in his native Korea. With this extraordinary volume in his honor, including essays by distinguished intellectuals from several disciplines, American readers will be able at once to become more aware of his own seminal contributions to so many cutting-edge areas of current concern―globalization, ecology, East/West comparative philosophy, contemporary literature, and much more―and to absorb many new and original insights in these same areas. This is one of the most appealing and successful books of tribute to an author that I have ever read. (William L. McBride, Purdue University)
An amazing set of major Asian and Western thinkers―moved by Hwa Yol Jung's long, broad, and original thinking in politics and beyond―impressively address many positive and negative aspects of the emerging inter-national, inter-cultural, gender-sensitive, and ecologically concerned world of globalization. (Lester Embree, Florida Altantic University)
Hwa Yol Jung's creative term 'glocalization,' which refuses to separate the global from the local and roots the global in the local, reflects a mode of philosophizing typical of the many intriguing essays in this book, which resist neat distinctions, seek to include the valid insights of conflicting perspectives, and strive to recover whatever might have been dismissed or facilely forgotten, including other persons, cultures, and philosophies. The contributors' diverse backgrounds reflect the rich dimensions of Jung's own intellectual life, encompassing comparative philosophy, literature, and religion; ecology, linguistics, cultural anthropology, and political theory; phenomenology in all its varieties; and the East-West dialogue―a richness that will inspire readers to cross boundaries of their own. (Michael Barber, St. Louis University)
Comparative Political Theory and Cross-Cultural Philosophy is an ambitious volume that should be given credit for the reminder of why a new mode of thinking and doing philosophy is necessary in this globalized world of multiculturalism. (Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy)
Getting Familiar with Death is a translation of 죽음의 길을 어떻게 잘 다녀올 것인가, written in Korean by a Won ... more Getting Familiar with Death is a translation of 죽음의 길을 어떻게 잘 다녀올 것인가, written in Korean by a Won Buddhist nun Yichang Chon. The book discusses how one should prepare oneself for the afterlife, on the deathbed, and for the 49 days after death when one is being judged for the next life. This book is comparable to the Tibetan Book of the Dead in its discussion of the death, and the process of reincarnation.
Interviews, podcast, lecture videos by Jin Y Park
Irish Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 5, 2019
Papers by Jin Y Park
"Action and Praxis", 2022
What does the act of philosophy involve? Is philosophy fundamentally about
ideas or does it occur... more What does the act of philosophy involve? Is philosophy fundamentally about
ideas or does it occur through action and praxis? This chapter explores the
meaning of action and praxis in philosophy through an examination of the
work of Pak Ch’iu, a modern Korean philosopher. In that context, we also
consider philosophy’s relation to power as well as the association of logic to
politics.
New Perspectives in Modern Korean Buddhism: Institution, Gender and Securlar Society, 2022
Korean Sŏn Master Hyeam Sŏnggwan (慧菴性觀, 1920–2001) is a relatively
unknown figure within English-... more Korean Sŏn Master Hyeam Sŏnggwan (慧菴性觀, 1920–2001) is a relatively
unknown figure within English-language scholarship.1 However, among
Korean Buddhists, his rigorous Zen practice has been well recognized.
One-meal-per-day (K. ilchongsik 一種食), no-meal-in-the-afternoon (K.
ohu pulsik 午後不食), and staying-sitting-in-meditation-without-lying-down
(K. changjwa purwa 長坐不臥) are all well-known practices that frequently
appear when describing Hyeam as a Zen master. What is less frequently
asked is what these rigorous Zen practices might mean to us commoners
who live in a secular world or to monastics whose practice might not be
as rigorous as Hyeam’s. Should Zen masters such as Hyeam who appear
to exhibit superhuman capacity for religious practice be only an object
of awe and admiration in our secular modern times? Even if so, what do
the awe and admiration indicate? In this chapter, I try to bridge the gap
between the rigorous practice typically seen in Korean Zen masters’ lives
and its meaning for people living in modern times. What questions does
a Zen master like Hyeam raise for us, and how should scholars address
these issues? These are the inquiries with which I hope to engage.
World Environment and Island Studies , 2022
This essay discusses the importance of nonviolence for the future of our society. In comparing no... more This essay discusses the importance of nonviolence for the future of our society. In comparing nonviolence with violence, the essay identifies the following characteristics of each: Violence emerges from despair, whereas nonviolence fosters a sense of hope. Violence arises from an attachment to the past, whereas nonviolence becomes possible when one has a vision of the future. Violence comes from a desire to dominate others, whereas nonviolence stems from a yearning to live together. Violence dehumanizes people, whereas nonviolence encompasses an effort to rehumanize the world. Violence destroys, but nonviolence enhances the sustainability of the world and life. Nonviolence is not just a principle but should be an ongoing struggle that people practice in everyday life.
Journal of World Philosophies, 2020
These essays engage Jin Y. Park's recent translation of the work of Kim Iryŏp (1896-1971), a Budd... more These essays engage Jin Y. Park's recent translation of the work of Kim Iryŏp (1896-1971), a Buddhist nun and public intellectual in early twentieth-century Korea. Park's translation of Iryŏp's Reflections of a Zen Buddhist Nun (Honolulu: University of Hawai'i Press, 2014) was the subject of two book panels at recent conferences: the first a plenary session at the annual meeting of the Society for Asian and Comparative Philosophy (Monterey, California, 2015) and the second at the Eastern Division of the American Philosophical Association on a group program session sponsored by the International Society for Buddhist Philosophy (Washington, D.C., 2016). This exchange also includes a response from Park.
International Journal of Buddhist Thought & Culture, 2022
Park specializes in East Asian Buddhism, Buddhist and comparative ethics, intercultural philosoph... more Park specializes in East Asian Buddhism, Buddhist and comparative ethics, intercultural philosophy, and modern East Asian philosophy. Her research focuses on gender, violence, politics of discrimination, and narrative philosophy. Marginality has been a consistent theme in her scholarship which deals with the marginalization of non-West and non-Western philosophy, of women's philosophy, and of some forms of philosophizing, revealing the power structure in philosophy and aiming for the voices of the margin to be heard.
American Philosophical Association Newsletter, 2020
Dao Companion to Chinese Buddhist Philosophy, 2019
Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, Vol 35, 2012
This essay examines a Huayanist understanding of the Lotus
Sūtra, focusing on Chinese Huayan thi... more This essay examines a Huayanist understanding of the Lotus
Sūtra, focusing on Chinese Huayan thinker Li Tongxuan’s 李通玄
(635–730) Exposition on the Eighty-Fascicle Version of the Flower
Ornament Scripture (Xin Huayan jing lun 新華嚴經論). The fi rst
section of the essay discusses Li’s doctrinal classifi cation and the
position of the Lotus Sūtra (Miaofa lianhua jing 妙法蓮華經) in
that structure. The second section explores Li’s interpretation of the
dragon girl’s story in the Lotus Sūtra in comparison with the story
of the youth Sudhana (Shancai tongzi 善財童子) in the Huayan jing
華嚴經. In the third section, I will try to demonstrate why Li was
so occupied with the dragon girl’s story and how it reveals the core
themes of his Huayan Buddhism and the inner contradiction of the
Lotus Sūtra from Li’s point of view.
Uploads
Books by Jin Y Park
After taking the tonsure, Iryŏp followed the advice of her teacher and stopped publishing for more than two decades. She returned to the world of letters in her sixties, using her strong, distinctive voice to address fundamental questions on the scope of identity, the meaning of being human, and the value of existence. In her writing, she frequently adopted an autobiographical style that combined her life experiences with Buddhist teachings. Through a close analysis of Iryŏp’s life story, Buddhist philosophy and practice in connection with East Asian new women’s movements, and continental philosophy, this volume offers a creative interpretation of Buddhism as both a philosophy and a religion actively engaged with lives as they are lived. It presents a fascinating narrative on how women connect with the world―whether through social issues such as gender inequality, a Buddhist worldview, or existential debates on human existence. By characterizing women’s philosophy as narrative philosophy―a philosophy of life based on lived experience―this book provides readers with a new way of philosophizing that is transformative and deeply connected with everyday existence.
Women and Buddhist Philosophy: Engaging Zen Master Kim Iryŏp will be of primary interest to scholars and students of Buddhism, Buddhist and comparative philosophy, and gender and Korean studies.
Review
Hwa-Yol Jung, although he has spent his entire professional career in the United States, is well-known and esteemed by many in his native Korea. With this extraordinary volume in his honor, including essays by distinguished intellectuals from several disciplines, American readers will be able at once to become more aware of his own seminal contributions to so many cutting-edge areas of current concern―globalization, ecology, East/West comparative philosophy, contemporary literature, and much more―and to absorb many new and original insights in these same areas. This is one of the most appealing and successful books of tribute to an author that I have ever read. (William L. McBride, Purdue University)
An amazing set of major Asian and Western thinkers―moved by Hwa Yol Jung's long, broad, and original thinking in politics and beyond―impressively address many positive and negative aspects of the emerging inter-national, inter-cultural, gender-sensitive, and ecologically concerned world of globalization. (Lester Embree, Florida Altantic University)
Hwa Yol Jung's creative term 'glocalization,' which refuses to separate the global from the local and roots the global in the local, reflects a mode of philosophizing typical of the many intriguing essays in this book, which resist neat distinctions, seek to include the valid insights of conflicting perspectives, and strive to recover whatever might have been dismissed or facilely forgotten, including other persons, cultures, and philosophies. The contributors' diverse backgrounds reflect the rich dimensions of Jung's own intellectual life, encompassing comparative philosophy, literature, and religion; ecology, linguistics, cultural anthropology, and political theory; phenomenology in all its varieties; and the East-West dialogue―a richness that will inspire readers to cross boundaries of their own. (Michael Barber, St. Louis University)
Comparative Political Theory and Cross-Cultural Philosophy is an ambitious volume that should be given credit for the reminder of why a new mode of thinking and doing philosophy is necessary in this globalized world of multiculturalism. (Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy)
Interviews, podcast, lecture videos by Jin Y Park
Papers by Jin Y Park
ideas or does it occur through action and praxis? This chapter explores the
meaning of action and praxis in philosophy through an examination of the
work of Pak Ch’iu, a modern Korean philosopher. In that context, we also
consider philosophy’s relation to power as well as the association of logic to
politics.
unknown figure within English-language scholarship.1 However, among
Korean Buddhists, his rigorous Zen practice has been well recognized.
One-meal-per-day (K. ilchongsik 一種食), no-meal-in-the-afternoon (K.
ohu pulsik 午後不食), and staying-sitting-in-meditation-without-lying-down
(K. changjwa purwa 長坐不臥) are all well-known practices that frequently
appear when describing Hyeam as a Zen master. What is less frequently
asked is what these rigorous Zen practices might mean to us commoners
who live in a secular world or to monastics whose practice might not be
as rigorous as Hyeam’s. Should Zen masters such as Hyeam who appear
to exhibit superhuman capacity for religious practice be only an object
of awe and admiration in our secular modern times? Even if so, what do
the awe and admiration indicate? In this chapter, I try to bridge the gap
between the rigorous practice typically seen in Korean Zen masters’ lives
and its meaning for people living in modern times. What questions does
a Zen master like Hyeam raise for us, and how should scholars address
these issues? These are the inquiries with which I hope to engage.
Sūtra, focusing on Chinese Huayan thinker Li Tongxuan’s 李通玄
(635–730) Exposition on the Eighty-Fascicle Version of the Flower
Ornament Scripture (Xin Huayan jing lun 新華嚴經論). The fi rst
section of the essay discusses Li’s doctrinal classifi cation and the
position of the Lotus Sūtra (Miaofa lianhua jing 妙法蓮華經) in
that structure. The second section explores Li’s interpretation of the
dragon girl’s story in the Lotus Sūtra in comparison with the story
of the youth Sudhana (Shancai tongzi 善財童子) in the Huayan jing
華嚴經. In the third section, I will try to demonstrate why Li was
so occupied with the dragon girl’s story and how it reveals the core
themes of his Huayan Buddhism and the inner contradiction of the
Lotus Sūtra from Li’s point of view.
After taking the tonsure, Iryŏp followed the advice of her teacher and stopped publishing for more than two decades. She returned to the world of letters in her sixties, using her strong, distinctive voice to address fundamental questions on the scope of identity, the meaning of being human, and the value of existence. In her writing, she frequently adopted an autobiographical style that combined her life experiences with Buddhist teachings. Through a close analysis of Iryŏp’s life story, Buddhist philosophy and practice in connection with East Asian new women’s movements, and continental philosophy, this volume offers a creative interpretation of Buddhism as both a philosophy and a religion actively engaged with lives as they are lived. It presents a fascinating narrative on how women connect with the world―whether through social issues such as gender inequality, a Buddhist worldview, or existential debates on human existence. By characterizing women’s philosophy as narrative philosophy―a philosophy of life based on lived experience―this book provides readers with a new way of philosophizing that is transformative and deeply connected with everyday existence.
Women and Buddhist Philosophy: Engaging Zen Master Kim Iryŏp will be of primary interest to scholars and students of Buddhism, Buddhist and comparative philosophy, and gender and Korean studies.
Review
Hwa-Yol Jung, although he has spent his entire professional career in the United States, is well-known and esteemed by many in his native Korea. With this extraordinary volume in his honor, including essays by distinguished intellectuals from several disciplines, American readers will be able at once to become more aware of his own seminal contributions to so many cutting-edge areas of current concern―globalization, ecology, East/West comparative philosophy, contemporary literature, and much more―and to absorb many new and original insights in these same areas. This is one of the most appealing and successful books of tribute to an author that I have ever read. (William L. McBride, Purdue University)
An amazing set of major Asian and Western thinkers―moved by Hwa Yol Jung's long, broad, and original thinking in politics and beyond―impressively address many positive and negative aspects of the emerging inter-national, inter-cultural, gender-sensitive, and ecologically concerned world of globalization. (Lester Embree, Florida Altantic University)
Hwa Yol Jung's creative term 'glocalization,' which refuses to separate the global from the local and roots the global in the local, reflects a mode of philosophizing typical of the many intriguing essays in this book, which resist neat distinctions, seek to include the valid insights of conflicting perspectives, and strive to recover whatever might have been dismissed or facilely forgotten, including other persons, cultures, and philosophies. The contributors' diverse backgrounds reflect the rich dimensions of Jung's own intellectual life, encompassing comparative philosophy, literature, and religion; ecology, linguistics, cultural anthropology, and political theory; phenomenology in all its varieties; and the East-West dialogue―a richness that will inspire readers to cross boundaries of their own. (Michael Barber, St. Louis University)
Comparative Political Theory and Cross-Cultural Philosophy is an ambitious volume that should be given credit for the reminder of why a new mode of thinking and doing philosophy is necessary in this globalized world of multiculturalism. (Dao: A Journal of Comparative Philosophy)
ideas or does it occur through action and praxis? This chapter explores the
meaning of action and praxis in philosophy through an examination of the
work of Pak Ch’iu, a modern Korean philosopher. In that context, we also
consider philosophy’s relation to power as well as the association of logic to
politics.
unknown figure within English-language scholarship.1 However, among
Korean Buddhists, his rigorous Zen practice has been well recognized.
One-meal-per-day (K. ilchongsik 一種食), no-meal-in-the-afternoon (K.
ohu pulsik 午後不食), and staying-sitting-in-meditation-without-lying-down
(K. changjwa purwa 長坐不臥) are all well-known practices that frequently
appear when describing Hyeam as a Zen master. What is less frequently
asked is what these rigorous Zen practices might mean to us commoners
who live in a secular world or to monastics whose practice might not be
as rigorous as Hyeam’s. Should Zen masters such as Hyeam who appear
to exhibit superhuman capacity for religious practice be only an object
of awe and admiration in our secular modern times? Even if so, what do
the awe and admiration indicate? In this chapter, I try to bridge the gap
between the rigorous practice typically seen in Korean Zen masters’ lives
and its meaning for people living in modern times. What questions does
a Zen master like Hyeam raise for us, and how should scholars address
these issues? These are the inquiries with which I hope to engage.
Sūtra, focusing on Chinese Huayan thinker Li Tongxuan’s 李通玄
(635–730) Exposition on the Eighty-Fascicle Version of the Flower
Ornament Scripture (Xin Huayan jing lun 新華嚴經論). The fi rst
section of the essay discusses Li’s doctrinal classifi cation and the
position of the Lotus Sūtra (Miaofa lianhua jing 妙法蓮華經) in
that structure. The second section explores Li’s interpretation of the
dragon girl’s story in the Lotus Sūtra in comparison with the story
of the youth Sudhana (Shancai tongzi 善財童子) in the Huayan jing
華嚴經. In the third section, I will try to demonstrate why Li was
so occupied with the dragon girl’s story and how it reveals the core
themes of his Huayan Buddhism and the inner contradiction of the
Lotus Sūtra from Li’s point of view.
Key words:
Zen Buddhism, Huayan Buddhism, ethics, tension, self-cultivation
Nothingness is a major concept in the religious and philosophical discourse of East Asia. Twentieth-century East Asian religious thinkers fully utilized the tradition of nothingness in their discussion of religious practice, asking questions related to what it means to think about nothing and even practice it. Furthermore, nothingness is one of the most contentious philosophical topics in both the East and the West. Why are there such differences in approaching the idea of nothingness between the East and the West? By exploring Iryŏp’s and Tanabe’s use of nothingness and further engaging with Jacques Derrida’s discussion of religion in that context, I will consider the different faces of nothingness that appear in the act of religion.