Jonathan C. Gold is Professor in the Department of Religion and Director of the Center for Culture, Society and Religion. A scholar of Indian and Tibetan Buddhist philosophy, he is especially interested in Buddhist approaches to meaning, ethics, language and learning. He is the author of The Dharma’s Gatekeepers: Sakya Paṇḍita on Buddhist Scholarship in Tibet (2007) and Paving the Great Way: Vasubandhu’s Unifying Buddhist Philosophy (2015) as well as numerous articles, including recently “Wholesome Mind Ethics: A Buddhist Paradigm” in the Journal of Value Inquiry and the online Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy entries on Vasubandhu and Sakya Paṇḍita. He is co-editor, with Douglas S. Duckworth, of Readings of Śāntideva’s Guide to Bodhisattva Practice (Bodhicaryāvatāra) (2019). In his current work he is developing a Buddhist approach to politics and social thought.
ABC Religion & Ethics, “Trump’s karma, and ours”:
https://www.abc.net.au/religion/donald-trump-and-the-question-of-karma/12753916
Conference Talk “What Use is Buddhist Philosophy? Constructing the Path for Academia,”
Numata Symposium on Buddhist Philosophy: The State of the Field, University of California, Berkeley, September 2019.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s94z2h8Ea8o&feature=youtu.be
Co-presenting with Elaine Pagels at the Aspen Ideas Festival 2019 on the topic of ‘Jesus, Buddha, and the Search for Meaning’:
https://www.aspenideas.org/sessions/jesus-buddha-and-the-search-for-meaning
Opinion piece in Sightings, “Was it Kavanaugh’s Guilty Conscience, or His Karma?”:
https://divinity.uchicago.edu/sightings/was-it-kavanaugh%E2%80%99s-guilty-conscience-or-his-karma
Panel on “Approaches to Translation & Transmission”
2017 Tsadra Foundation Conference on Tibetan Translation
http://conference-wp.tsadra.org/session/approaches-to-translation-transmission/
Interview with Robert Wright on “The Wright Show”, meaningoflife.tv:
http://meaningoflife.tv/videos/36591
Interview with Ronney Mourad on “Ultimate Concerns” Podcast:
http://ultimateconcerns.org/vasubandhu-and-virtual-reality
Courses – Spring 2021
HUM 290/REL 282: Jesus and Buddha
(EM) Graded A-F, P/D/F, Audit Total Course Enrollment no limit
Professor(s): Jonathan Gold and Elaine Pagels
12:30[m – 12:20pm MW Lecture/Precept
Department Area Requirement: Does NOT satisfy sub-field requirement; does count as departmental.
Courses – Fall 2020
REL 324: Mind and Meditation
(EC) Graded na, npdf Total Course Enrollment 15
Professor(s): Jonathan Gold
1:30pm – 3:20pm M Seminar
Department Area Requirement: Religions of Asian