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About Luke Thompson
Luke Thompson received his PhD from Columbia University in 2017 and his MA (in Buddhist Studies) from the University of Bristol (UK) in 2008. While his academic research focused on medieval Japanese Buddhist intellectual history, he is interested in Buddhism beyond Japan, and has lived or spent extended periods in Buddhist monasteries in Japan, Myanmar, Sri Lanka, northern India, England, and the US. He currently teaches Buddhist Studies courses in NY State prisons as a faculty member of the Bard Prison Initiative. He also tutors in Classical Japanese, is a practicing, licensed massage therapist, and in 2021 will begin training as a psychotherapist.Luke Thompson's research focuses on medieval Japanese Buddhist intellectual history, though he has interests in Buddhism beyond Japan, and particularly in anthropological approaches to Buddhism.
NBN Episodes hosted by Luke:
August 13, 2021
Exile and Otherness
In Exile and Otherness: The Ethics of Shinran and Maimonides (Lexington Books, 2020), Ilana Maymind argues that Shinran (1173–1263), the founder of Tr…
March 18, 2021
Yasodhara and the Buddha
By combining the spirit of fiction with the fabulism of Indian mythology and in-depth academic research, Vanessa R. Sasson shares the evocative story …
March 16, 2021
Wisdom as a Way of Life
This wide-ranging and powerful book argues that Theravāda Buddhism provides ways of thinking about the self that can reinvigorate the humanities and o…
December 15, 2020
Chinese Esoteric Buddhism
In his recent book, Chinese Esoteric Buddhism: Amoghavajra, the Ruling Elite, and the Emergence of a Tradition (Columbia University Press, 2019), Geof…
February 11, 2019
The Buddha’s Wizards
In his recent monograph, The Buddha’s Wizards: Magic, Protection, and Healing in Burmese Buddhism(Columbia University Press, 2018), Thomas Patton exam…
February 7, 2018
Assembling Shinto
In her recent monograph, Assembling Shinto: Buddhist Approaches to Kami Worship in Medieval Japan (Harvard University Asia Center, 2017), Anna Andreev…
December 4, 2017
Ritualized Writing
In his recent monograph, Ritualized Writing: Buddhist Practice and Scriptural Cultures in Ancient Japan (University of Hawaii Press, 2017), Bryan D. L…
October 9, 2017
Anarchy in the Pure Land
In his recent monograph, Anarchy in the Pure Land: Reinventing the Cult of Maitreya in Modern Chinese Buddhism (Oxford University Press, 2017), Justin…
April 2, 2017
Buddhism in America
Scott A. Mitchell's recent monograph, Buddhism in America: Global Religion, Local Contexts (Bloomsbury, 2016), provides a much-needed up-to-date overv…
March 3, 2017
Buddhism, Politics and the Limits of the Law
In his recent monograph, Buddhism, Politics and the Limits of Law: The Pyrrhic Constitutionalism of Sri Lanka (Cambridge University Press, 2016), Benj…
January 20, 2017
Deathpower
In his recent monograph, Deathpower: Buddhism's Ritual Imagination in Cambodia (Columbia University Press, 2015), Erik W. Davis explores funerary ritu…
May 16, 2016
Thailand's International Meditation Centers
In her recent monograph, Thailand's International Meditation Centers: Tourism and the Global Commodification of Religious Practices (Routledge, 2015),…
January 20, 2016
Real and Imagined
In her recent monograph, Real and Imagined: The Peak of Gold in Heian Japan (Harvard University Asia Center, 2015), Heather Blair explores the religio…
September 26, 2015
Love and Liberation
Sarah H. Jacoby's recent monograph, Love and Liberation: Autobiographical Writings of the Tibetan Buddhist Visionary Sera Khandro (Columbia University…
June 27, 2015
Rescued from the Nation
In his recent book, Rescued from the Nation: Anagarika Dharmapala and the Buddhist World (University of Chicago Press, 2015), Steven E. Kemper examine…
May 7, 2015
Experimental Buddhism
In his recent book, Experimental Buddhism: Innovation and Activism in Contemporary Japan (University of Hawaii Press, 2013), John K. Nelson delves int…
April 25, 2015
Conceiving the Indian Buddhist Patriarchs in China
In Conceiving the Indian Buddhist Patriarchs in China (University of Hawai'i Press, 2015), Stuart Young examines Chinese hagiographic representations …
March 18, 2015
The History of Chinese Buddhist Bibliography
Tanya Storch's recent book, The History of Chinese Buddhist Bibliography: Censorship and Transformation of the Tripitaka (Cambria, 2014), focuses on t…
February 11, 2015
India in the Chinese Imagination
In India in the Chinese Imagination: Myth, Religion, and Thought (University of Pennsylvania Press, 2014), eleven scholars (including editors John Kie…
February 6, 2015
Miracles of Book and Body
In Miracles of Book and Body: Buddhist Textual Culture and Medieval Japan (University of California Press, 2011), Charlotte Eubanks examines the relat…
January 23, 2015
Wondrous Brutal Fictions
In his recent book, Wondrous Brutal Fictions: Eight Buddhist Tales from the Early Japanese Puppet Theater (Columbia University Press, 2013), R. Keller…
January 8, 2015
The Birth of Insight
Erik Braun's recent book, The Birth of Insight: Meditation, Modern Buddhism, and the Burmese Monk Ledi Sayadaw (University of Chicago Press, 2013), ex…
December 25, 2014
The Taming of the Demons
Jacob Dalton's recent book, The Taming of the Demons: Violence and Liberation in Tibetan Buddhism (Yale University Press, 2011), examines violence (bo…
November 11, 2014
Secrecy's Power
Clark Chilson's new book, Secrecy's Power: Covert Shin Buddhists in Japan and Contradictions of Concealment (University of Hawai'i Press, 2014) examin…