Christopher Jones

Christopher V. Jones

Christopher V. Jones

Contact:

E-Mail: christopher.jones@univie.ac.at
Web: https://univie.academia.edu/ChristopherJones

Dr Christopher V. Jones received an undergraduate degree in theology and religious studies at the University of Cambridge (Corpus Christi), and subsequent graduate and doctoral training in Sanskrit and other Asian languages at the University of Oxford (St Anne’s, St Peter’s), where he taught for the faculties of Religious Studies and of Oriental Studies (2012-2019). He later taught at the University of Cambridge (2019-2023). His research is in classical Buddhist literature extant in various Asian languages (Sanskrit, Chinese and Tibetan), and particularly Mahāyāna Buddhist literature from the early centuries of the Common Era.

Research focus

A significant focus of Dr Jones’ research, and the focus of his first monograph (The Buddhist Self: On Tathāgatagarbha and Ātman), has been the Indian ‘Buddha-nature’ tradition as it has been preserved in South, Central and East Asian literatures, foremost in connection to literature associated with the Mahāparinirvāṇa-mahāsūtra/Dabanniepan jing 大般涅槃經. His other research interests include pre-modern Buddhist attitudes to non-Buddhist teaching and authority in India and elsewhere, and the evolving place of Buddhist reflection on liberation and liberated beings in South Asia in the early centuries CE.

Recent activities include a UK AHRC-funded project on narrative explorations of Buddhology in Indian literature (with Prof. Naomi Appleton, University of Edinburgh), editorial duties for Buddhist Studies Review (Assistant Editor) and Brill’s Encyclopedia of Buddhism (Section Editor), and public engagement work for teachers of Buddhism in schools across the UK.

Selected online media

Webinar (UC Berkeley, in recognition of The Buddhist Self): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BNruR-vobVk&t=6s

Book launch (SOAS, for The Buddhist Self): https://buddhanature.tsadra.org/index.php/Articles/Book_Launch:_Revisiti…

Lectures for teachers of Buddhism in UK schools: bit.ly/WhoistheBuddha

All activities

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Ass.-Prof. Christopher Jones, PhD

christopher.jones@univie.ac.at

Winter term 2024

142207 PS Buddhist Attitudes Towards Other Religions

142220 SE Renarration in the Indian Mahayana: Reading the Angulimaliyasutra

Summer term 2024

142257 UE The Bodhisattva’s Mind in the Vimalakirtinirdesa

142260 SE The Bodhisattva’s Lives in Aryasura’s Jatakamala

420012 SE EurAsian Transformations Doctoral Seminar - New Perspectives in the Philological, Historical and Cultural Studies of EuraAsia: Basic Methods and Interdisciplinary Approaches

Winter term 2023

142217 UE Buddha Nature: Reading the Uttaratantra

142218 UE Buddha Nature: Text and Contexts

Jones, C. (2023). Interpolations and Idiosyncrasies in Dharmakṣema’s 曇無讖 Translation of the Mahāparinirvāṇa-mahāsūtra (T.374 Da banniepan jing 大般涅槃經). Journal of the International College for Postgraduate Buddhist Studies, 27, 203–257.

Jones, C., & Elverskog, J. (2023). Islam and Buddhism. In Brill’s Encyclopedia of Buddhism: History – Central and East Asia (Vol. IV-2, pp. 552–564). Brill.

Jones, C. (2022). Varieties of Early Buddha-nature Teaching in India. In K.-D. Mathes, & C. Kemp (Eds.), Buddha Nature across Asia (pp. 25-54). Arbeitskreis für Tibetische und Buddhistische Studie.

Jones, C. (Ed.) (2022). Buddhism and its Religious Others: Historical Encounters and Representations. Oxford University Press. Proceedings of the British Academy https://doi.org/10.5871/bacad/9780197266991.001.0001

Jones, C. (2022). Introduction: Buddhism and its Religious Others. In Buddhism and its Religious Others: Historical Encounters and Representations (pp. 1-26). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.5871/bacad/9780197266991.003.0001

Jones, C. (2022). Shepherds in Wolves’ Clothing: bodhisattvas, tīrthikas and ‘bodhisattva-tīrthikas. In C. Jones (Ed.), Buddhism and its Religious Others: Historical Encounters and Representations (pp. 89–110). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.5871/bacad/9780197266991.003.0005

Jones, C. (2021). How did Buddhism relate to the Brahmanism of the Buddha’s day, and later Hinduism? In E. J. Harris (Ed.), Buddhism in Five Minutes (pp. 182–187). Equinox.

Jones, C. (2021). How is the nature of buddhahood to be understood? In E. J. Harris (Ed.), Buddhism in Five Minutes (pp. 50-54). Equinox.

Jones, C. (2021). The Buddhist Self: On Tathāgatagarbha and Ātman. University of Hawai'i Press.

Jones, C. (2021). To what extent does Buddhism ‘deny the self’? The non-self teaching. In E. J. Harris (Ed.), Buddhism in Five Minutes (pp. 99–103). Equinox.

Jones, C. (2021). Translating the Tīrthika: Enduring ‘Heresy’ in Buddhist Studies. In A. Collett (Ed.), Translating Buddhism: Historical and Contextual Perspectives (pp. 195–226). State University of New York Press (SUNY Press).

Jones, C. (2021). What are the main contemporary divisions in Buddhism: Theravada, Mahayana, and Vajrayana? In E. J. Harris (Ed.), Buddhism in Five Minutes (pp. 193–198). Equinox.

Jones, C. (2021). What are the meanings of ‘emptiness’ in Mahayana Buddhism? In E. J. Harris (Ed.), Buddhism in Five Minutes (pp. 223–227). Equinox.

Jones, C. (2021). What is Buddha-nature? In E. J. Harris (Ed.), Buddhism in Five Minutes (pp. 220-222). Equinox.

Jones, C. (2020). Reconsidering the ‘Essence’ of Indian Buddha-nature Literature. Acta Asiatica: Bulletin of the Institute of Eastern Culture, 118, 57–78.

Jones, C. (2019). Padmakara Translation Group, A Feast of the Nectar of the Supreme Vehicle: An Explanation of the Ornament of the Mahāyāna Sūtras, Maitreya’s Mahāyāsūtrālaṃkāra with a Commentary by Jamgön Mipham. Journal of the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies, 16, 167-170.

Jones, C. (2018). The Lotus Sutra: A Biography, by Donald S. Lopez, Jr. Buddhist Studies Review, 35, 305-307.

Jones, C. (2016). A Self-Aggrandizing Vehicle: tathāgatagabha, tīrthikas and the true self. Journal of the International Association of Buddhist Studies, 39, 115–170.

Jones, C. (2016). Beings, Non-Beings, and Buddhas: Contrasting notions of tathāgatagarbha in the Anūnatvāpūrṇatvanirdeśa and *Mahābherīsūtra. Journal of the Oxford Centre for Buddhist Studies, 10, 53–84.

Jones, C. (2016). Buddhisms: An Introduction, by John S. Strong. Buddhist Studies Review, 32(2), 295–298.