John E. Cort

Affiliation:Faculty
Title:Professor of Religion
Email:
Phone:
--
B.A. in South Asian Studies from University of Wisconsin, 1974
M.A. in South Asian Studies from University of Wisconsin, 1982
A.M. in Religion from Harvard University, 1984
Ph.D. in Religion from Harvard University, 1989

Teaching

Courses that Professor Cort teaches that cover East Asian topics are Religions of China and Japan, Buddhism, Human Rights and Asian Values, and Religion and Nature. He has supervised senior research, summer research, and directed studies dealing with religious, environmental, artistic, and human rights issues in East Asia.


Regular courses

REL 103, World Religions: Wisdom and Compassion

REL 205, Religion and Nature

REL 207, Religion and Art

REL 215, Hinduism

REL 216, religions of China and Japan

REL 233, Buddhism

INTL 200, Human Rights and Asian Values

Departmental Seminars

Gandhi

Honors Seminar

Nonviolence in the Modern World

Varieties of Environmentalism

John has also directed senior research, summer research, and directed studies in the following areas:

Jainism

Engaged Buddhism

Tibetan Buddhism

Buddhism in North America

Zen Buddhism

Religion and Ecology

Environmental Justice

Human Rights and Environmental Rights

Zoroastrianism

Islam

Japanese Religions

Chinese Religions

Hindu Goddesses

Women in Hinduism

Religious Pluralism

Comparative Religion

Research

John Cort's research focuses on the Jain traditions of South Asia, on which he has conducted extensive fieldwork as well as textual studies. He is currently working on a book-length manuscript detailing Jain discourses and practices concerning temple images, for which he has received research grants from the Asian Cultural Council, Getty Foundation, and American Institute of Indian Studies. In addition, he is working on series of essays exploring the roles and expressions of religious devotion within the Jain traditions.

He is also active with several organizations involved with the study of India, religion, and art at the national level. He is Secretary of the Executive Committee of the American Institute of Indian Studies, and on the Board of Trustees of the American Council for Southern Asian Art.

Publications

Cort, J. 2001. Jains in the World: Religious Values and Ideology in India. Oxford University Press.
Cort, J (Editor). 1998. Open Boundaries: Jain Communities and Cultures in Indian History. Albany: State University of New York Press.
Cort, J. 2004. "Jains, Caste and Hierarchy in North Gujarat." Contributions to Indian Sociology (N.S.). v. 38 no. 1&2 p. 73-112.
Piotr Balcerowicz (ed.). 2003. "Dyanatray: An Eighteenth Century Digambara Mystical Poet." Caturaranayacakram: Essays in Jaina Philosophy and Religion. Delhi: Motilal Banarsidass, Warsaw Indological Studies 2. p. 279-295
Olle Qvarnström (ed.). 2003. "Doing for Others: Merit Transfer and Karma Mobility in Jainism." Jainism and Early Buddhism: Essays in Honor of Padmanabh S. Jaini. Fremont, CA: Asian Humanities Press. p. 129-49
Cort, J. 2002. "Bhakti in the Early Jain Tradition: Understanding Devotional Religion in South Asia.". History of Religions. v. 42 p. 59-86
Cort, J. 2002. "Singing the Glory of Asceticism: Devotion of Asceticism in Jainism.". Journal of the American Academy of Religion. v. 70 p. 719-42.
Lawrence A. Babb, Varsha Joshi, and Michael W. Meister (eds.). 2002. "A Tale of Two Cities: On the Origins of Digambara Sectarianism in North India.". Multiple Histories: Culture and Society in the Study of Rajasthan. p. 39-83.
Christopher Key Chapple (ed.). 2002. "Green Jainism? Notes and Queries toward a Possible Jain Environmental Ethic.". Jainism and Ecology. p. 63-94.
Cort, J. 2001. "The Intellectual Formation of a Jain Monk: A Svetambara Monastic Curriculum." . Journal of Indian Philosophy. v. 29 p. 327-49.
Jayandra Soni (ed.). 2001. "The Jina as King.". Vasantagauravam: Essays in Honour of Professor M. D. Vasantha Raj of Mysore, on the Occasion of his Seventy-fifth Birthday. p. 27-50.
Michael W. Meister (ed.). 2000. "Communities, Temples, Identities: Art Histories and Social Histories in Western India.". Ethnography and Personhood: Notes from the Field. p. 101-28.
Cort, J. 2000. "'Intellectual Ahimsa' Revisited: Jain Tolerance and Intolerance of Others.". Philosophy East and West. v. 50 p. 324-47.
Michael W. Meister (ed.). 2000. "Patronage, Authority, Proprietary Rights, and History: Communities and Pilgrimage Temples in Western India.". Ethnography and Personhood: Notes from the Field. p. 165-92.
David Gordon White (ed.). 2000. "Worship of Bell-Ears the Great Hero, a Jain Tantric Deity.". Tantra in Practice, Princeton: Princeton University Press . p. 417-33.

John E. Cort has degrees in South Asian Studies from the University of Wisconsin (B.A., 1974; M.A., 1982), and in the Study of religion from Harvard University (A.M., 1984; Ph.D., 1989). He teaches our courses on religions of Asia, as well as many comparative courses on issues such as environmentalism, art, human rights, and nonviolence. He is also involved with the East Asian, Environmental Studies, and International Studies programs at Denison. John is a scholar of India, where he has lived for a total of six years over the past three decades. His specific area of expertise is the Jain religious tradition, and in this context he regularly gives talks at Jain conferences and temples throughout North America. Before entering graduate school he worked as a community organizer on issues of disarmament and social justice in Washington, D.C. He also enjoys translating poetry from several Indian languages into American English.

 

For more information, contact Michael Tangeman.


Denison University, 100 West College Street, Granville, Ohio 43023
© 2013 Denison University • 1-800-DENISON