Louis Komjathy

Louis Komjathy 康思奇 (Ph.D., Religious Studies; Boston University) is a leading independent scholar-educator, outsider-scholar, and translator. A preeminent translator of Daoist literature, having translated some forty Daoist texts, he serves as Director, Chóngxuán 重玄 Chair, and Distinguished Scholar-in-Residence at the Center for Daoist Studies 道學中心, the education and research branch of the Daoist Foundation 道教基金會 (United States). He also is founding Co-chair of the Daoist Studies Unit (2004-2010) and of the Contemplative Studies Unit (2010-2016) in the American Academy of Religion, and project manager and editor-in-chief of the Daoist Translation Committee 道教翻譯學會. He researches and has published extensively in Animal Studies, Contemplative Studies, Daoist Studies, and Religious Studies, with specific interests in contemplative practice, embodiment, and mystical experience. In addition to fourteen books to date, he has contributed chapters to _Meditation and the Classroom: Contemplative Pedagogy for Religious Studies_ (2011), _Perceiving the Divine through the Human Body: Mystical Sensuality_ (2011), _The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to Chinese Religions_ (2012), _The Oxford Handbook of Religious Conversion_ (2014), _Religion: A Next-Generation Handbook for Its Robust Study_ (2016), _Teaching Interreligious Encounters_ (2017), _Ineffability: An Exercise in Comparative Philosophy of Religion_ (2017), _Transformational Embodiment in Asian Religions: Subtle Bodies, Spatial Bodies_ (2020), _A Companion to World Literature_ (2020), _Routledge Handbook of Yoga and Meditation Studies_ (2020), _Oxford Handbook of Meditation_ (2022), _Buddhism and Daoism on the Holy Mountains of China_ (2022), _A Companion to Comparative Theology_ (2022), _The Routledge Handbook of Religion and the Body_ (2023), _Diversifying Philosophy of Religion_ (2023), and _Exiting Violence: The Role of Religion_ (2024), among others. His current work explores cross-cultural practices and perennial questions related to contemplative awareness, embodied aliveness, beyond-states, and trans-temporality. He lives in semi-seclusion in the forest ravines of Ravinia, Illinois.