Hōonkō Service and Seminar 2025
Fr. 28.11. -30.11.2025
“Listening to the Vow: Transmission Past, Present and Future”
Rev. Dr. Jérôme Ducor & Rev. Dr. Enrique Galván-Álvarez
In this year’s seminar we will be addressing the transmission of the Jōdo Shinshū teaching in a European context.
Focusing on “listening to the Vow” as the core of this transmission, we will discuss how we came to hear the teaching ourselves, the challenges we face when sharing it in our different countries and our thoughts and aspirations for the future of Shinran Shōnin’s legacy in our continent.
Key to our discussions will be the metaphors of ‘transplanting’, as a way to talk about how a doctrine from a different culture, time and place can be transmitted in different circumstances, and ‘hearing through’, as a way of becoming aware of the prior knowledge, assumptions and points of reference we all bring to our encounter with Jōdo Shinshū.
Through these metaphors we will discuss issues of learning Buddhism from a different culture, translation to various languages and teaching in ways that speak to our local cultures. By doing so, we hope to deepen our appreciation of Amida’s Vow, which is the core of the life of the Nenbutsu, as a compass that can guide us both individually and collectively.
From this standpoint, we will also look at the future and offer our reflection on how to face the challenges ahead of us.
We invite active participation and look forward to your input.
