Career[edit]
Magliola received his doctorate in 1970 from Princeton University in comparative literature, with a dissertation in phenomenology and hermeneutics. He took up a position at Purdue University in 1969, and was promoted to professor in 1981.[1] From 1983 to 1984, Magliola taught and researched at Tamkang University in Taiwan while on sabbatical from Purdue. In 1985, Magliola moved to Asia where he held posts in the interfaith graduate school of philosophy and religions at Assumption University (Thailand), where he was the professor of philosophy and religious studies; and at the National Taiwan University, where he held a distinguished chair in the graduate school of liberal arts.[2]
In Asia, Magliola published writings on Buddhism and deconstruction. As a lay Carmelite (1982–present) [3], he also began to write both on the application of Derridean thought motifs to Catholic theology and on Catholic meditation, and made an invited presentation in 1999 on 'Catholic meditation in Tibetan Vajrayana form' for the Pontifical Council for Culture and the federation of Asian Bishops.[3] In Thailand, Magliola researched Theravada Buddhism and in 1994, trained in Vipassanā-Satipatthana meditation (Wat Mahathat, Bangkok).[4]
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 of the Catholic University of America. He is a co-editor (since 2008) of the DES Journal, the academic journal of Delta Epsilon Sigma. Magliola was a seminar associate (2002–2011)[5] of the seminar in Buddhist studies at Columbia University, and studied (autumn 2010–summer 2012) the meditative mode of Ajaan Lee Dhammadharo at the downtown New York meditation community (Manhattan; vipassanā). From spring 2012, Magliola practiced at Villa Vangelo e Zen ("The Gospel and Zen"), in Desio, Lombardia, Italy, and in March 2013, received an official certificate from Vangelo e Zen which declares that he is qualified to teach meditation "as transmitted in Zen and in other Oriental forms" to "priests, religious, and laity of the Catholic Church," by "the spirituality of dialogue promoted by Vatican Council II."[6]
Magliola is a specialist in European hermeneutics and deconstruction, in comparative philosophy, and in Buddhist – (Roman) Catholic dialogue. He has explored at length in Derrida on the Mend, 1984[7]) possible intersections between Jacques Derrida's thought and Buddhism, especially Madhyamika Buddhism and its "founder," Nagarjuna: