Religion and Nothingness

Introduction

The book appeared in Japanese in 1961 under the title “What Is Religion?”; Jan Van Bragt’s English translation of 1982 gave it its English title. It collects six long essays that build on one another. Nishitani describes three standpoints: everyday consciousness, which sees things as objects; nihility, where this world loses its meaning; and shunyata, emptiness, where self and things are seen in their “suchness”. Along the way he discusses Meister Eckhart, Nietzsche, Sartre and modern science. The book is one of the main texts of the Kyoto School and of the dialogue between Buddhism and Christian theology.

Connections

Builds on

• An Inquiry into the Good1911 · Nishida Kitarō

Responds to

• The Gay Science1882 · Friedrich Nietzsche