Roberto Rino Magliola (born 1940) is an Italian-American academic specializing in European hermeneutics and deconstruction, comparative philosophy, and inter-religious dialogue. He is retired from National Taiwan University and Assumption University of Thailand.
Career
Magliola received his doctorate in 1970 from Princeton University in comparative literature, with a specialty and dissertation in phenomenology and hermeneutics. He retired from the Interfaith Graduate School of Philosophy and Religions at Abac Assumption University (Thailand), where he was a professor of philosophy and religious studies, and from National Taiwan University, where he was a distinguished chair professor in the Graduate School of Liberal Arts. From 1983 to 1984, Magliola taught and researched at Tamkang University in Taiwan while on sabbatical from Purdue University, where he had taught since 1969 and been a professor since 1981.
In 1985, Magliola moved to Asia. He published on Buddhism and deconstruction, and did interdisciplinary writing and conferencing on postmodernism (in literature and Religious Studies) throughout this period. As a Carmelite lay tertiary (1982–present) [3], he began to write more extensively both on the application of Derridean thought motifs to Catholic theology and on Catholic meditation (see Christian Meditation and see Contemplation), making an invited presentation in 1999 on 'Catholic Meditation in Tibetan Vajrayana Form' for the Pontifical Council for Culture and the Federation of Asian Bishops Councils.
While in Thailand, Magliola researched Theravada Buddhism and in 1994, trained in Vipassanā-Satipatthana meditation (Wat Mahathat, Bangkok). He organized and chaired the Thai delegation of Buddhist and Catholic scholars from Assumption University to the quadrennial international meetings of the Society for Buddhist-Christian Studies (1996, 2000), having started presenting papers at the Society in 1992. He retired from university teaching in 2002, after returning to teach in Taiwan for two years. He currently lives in the United States of America.
From 2002 to 2007, Magliola was a co-editor for volumes in the book series "Seminars on Culture and Values" for the Council for Research in Values and Philosophy, the Catholic University of America, Washington, D.C. He is a co-editor (2008–present) of the DES Journal (3 issues a year; c. 20,000 circulations), the academic journal of Delta Epsilon Sigma (a national scholastic honor society for students, faculty, and alumni of Catholic colleges and universities). Magliola was a Seminar Associate (2002–2011) of the Seminar in Buddhist Studies (a faculty and graduate student forum) at Columbia University and studied (autumn 2010–summer 2012) the meditative mode of Ajaan Lee Dhammadharo taught at the Downtown New York Meditation Community (Manhattan, N.Y.C.) (vipassanā). As of spring 2012, Magliola practices at Villa Vangelo e Zen ("The Gospel and Zen"), in Desio, Lombardia, Italy. On March 27, 2013, Magliola received an official Attestato (Certification) from Vangelo e Zen. The document declares that he is qualified to teach meditation "as transmitted in Zen, and in other Oriental forms" [in which he has been trained] to "priests, Religious, and laity of the Catholic Church," by "the spirituality of dialogue promoted by Vatican Council II."
In 2012 and 2013, Magliola was a reviewer and outside reader in Buddhism and Postmodern Theology for the Harvard Theological Review, Harvard University.
Jacques Derrida and Buddhism
Magliola is a specialist in European hermeneutics and deconstruction, in comparative philosophy, and in Buddhist – (Roman) Catholic dialogue. He was the first scholar to have identified and published at length (Derrida on the Mend, 1984) on possible intersections between Jacques Derrida's thought and Buddhism, especially Madhyamika Buddhism and its generally accepted "founder," Nagarjuna: