The Classical Ideas Podcast
The Classical Ideas Podcast
Gregory Soden
EP 356: Buddhism and Experimental Music w/Dr. Julian Butterfield
55 minutes Posted Aug 3, 2026 at 6:56 pm.
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Julian Butterfield is a scholar of medieval Chinese Buddhist literature with a special interest in how Mahāyāna Buddhist narratives depict and solicit feeling. His current monograph project recovers the aesthetic and affective dimensions of Lotus Sūtra devotion in fifth-to-eighth-century China, arguing that the transmission of this pivotal Buddhist scripture relied heavily on the cultivation of strong emotions among practitioners. A secondary, public-facing research project investigates the interactions of Buddhist media and musical experimentation from the nineteenth century to the present. Julian holds a BA and MA from the University of Toronto and a PhD in Religious Studies from Stanford University, where his research was supported by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and a Robert H.N. Ho Family Foundation Dissertation Fellowship. He is currently a Lecturer in the Department of Religion at Princeton University.

Read: https://tricycle.org/magazine/eliane-radique-alien-roots/

Visit Sacred Writes: https://www.sacred-writes.org/

Visit Julian Butterfield: https://julianbutterfield.com/