Anger and Emotions. Thomas Cattoi to lecture on Religion Studies and Psychoanalysis - Seminar

The purpose of the paper Anger and the Emotions in the Evagrian School of Spirituality and the Mahāyāna Buddhist Tradition is to explore the role of anger, and more broadly, of emotional reactivity, in the context of spiritual practice, bringing into conversation the Evagrian tradition of the Philokalia and the writings of John Cassian, on one hand, with the Mahāyāna Buddhist discourse on the emotions in the writings of Śāntideva, on the other. This dialogue will uncover a variety of points of contact between the two traditions, both of which envisage anger as an obstacle preventing practitioners from reaching the goal of practice, be it salvation in a relationship of communion with the Christian God or the experience of active nirvāna. At the same time, the reading of a number of texts exploring the notion of anger will similarly uncover the irreducible differences between the two traditions and their distinctive understanding of subjectivity, soteriology, and ultimate reality.

The project, which straddles the divide between textual research, psychology, and comparative theology, seeks to foster a multidisciplinary exploration of the points of contact between different religious practices.

The presentation will be part of the Spirituality and Lifestyles and the Texts, Doctrines and Traditions research lines.