# Christopher Chapple > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Christopher_Chapple > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Christopher_Chapple.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Chapple > Source revision: 1350827394 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) American Indologist and yoga scholar **Christopher Key Chapple** is an [Indologist](/source/Indologist) and scholar of the renouncing [religions of India](/source/Religions_of_India), namely [yoga](/source/Yoga), [Jainism](/source/Jainism) and [Buddhism](/source/Buddhism). He is Doshi Professor of Indic and Comparative Theology at [Loyola Marymount University](/source/Loyola_Marymount_University), Los Angeles. He has written several books on the history and [philosophy of yoga](/source/Yoga_(philosophy)), and on the intersection of religion and [ecology](/source/Ecology).[1] ## Life Christopher Chapple received his bachelor's degree in comparative literature and religious studies at the [State University of New York at Stony Brook](/source/Stony_Brook_University) in 1976. He went on to complete his master's degree in Buddhism (1978) and PhD in history of religions (1980) at [Fordham University](/source/Fordham_University).[1] He noted in an interview that he initially struggled to reconcile Buddhism's "emptiness" with Yoga's self-realisation, and commented that the *[Yogavasistha](/source/Yogavasistha)* answered the debate on "the tension between emptiness and consciousness in superbly poetic verse."[2] Chapple advises the International Summer School of Jain Studies, the [Yale Forum on Religion and Ecology](/source/Yale_Forum_on_Religion_and_Ecology), the Ahimsa Center ([Pomona](/source/Pomona_College)), the Dharma Academy of North America ([Berkeley](/source/Berkeley%2C_California)), the Jain Studies Centre ([SOAS](/source/SOAS)), the South Asian Studies Association, and International School for Jain Studies ([New Delhi](/source/New_Delhi)). He founded the Masters Program in Yoga at [Loyola Marymount University](/source/Loyola_Marymount_University), where he is Doshi Professor of Indic and Comparative Theology.[1] ## Reception Reviewing *Living Landscapes* in *Worldviews*, Elizabeth McAnally writes that the book "provides a refreshing perspective on the Earth-affirming dimensions of these traditions, which are sometimes accused of renouncing and denying the physical world." She describes the book as a "wonderful resource", written engagingly and combining scholarship with personal narrative. She recommends it as "an excellent elemental case study" of religions in India, and calls the book "itself a meditation on the elements".[3] Stuart Sarbacker, reviewing *Yoga and the Luminous: Patañjali's Spiritual Path to Freedom* for *[Journal of Hindu Studies](/source/Journal_of_Hindu_Studies)*, states that the "hallmark" of the book is Chapple's skill in navigating both contemporary yoga practice and academic research. Sarbacker describes Chapple as among the United States's most influential yoga scholars[4] Ellison Findly, reviewing the edited collection *Hinduism and Ecology* in *[Journal of the American Oriental Society](/source/Journal_of_the_American_Oriental_Society)*, describes Chapple's introduction as excellent, noting the tension between philosophies that see salvation in leaving the world and those that see the world as the site of "karma and ego-based individuality". The former in Findly's view have no place for caring for the environment, whereas the latter are more concerned and can work towards a "contemporary environmental ethic".[5] ## Works ### Yoga - *Karma and Creativity* (1986, SUNY) - *Nonviolence to Animals, Earth, and Self in Asian Traditions* (1993, SUNY) - *Reconciling Yogas* (2003, SUNY) - *Yoga and the Luminous: Patanjali's Spiritual Path to Freedom* (2008, SUNY) - *Living Landscapes: Meditations on the Elements in Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain Yogas* (2020, SUNY) **Edited** - *Yoga in Jainism* (2015, Routledge) - *Engaged Emancipation: Mind, Morals and Make-Believe in the Moksopaya/Yogavasistha* (2016, with Aridam Chakrabarti, SUNY) ### Religion and ecology - *Ecological Prospects: Religious, Scientific, and Aesthetic Perspectives* (1994, SUNY) - *Hinduism and Ecology* (2000, with [Mary Evelyn Tucker](/source/Mary_Evelyn_Tucker), Harvard) - *Jainism and Ecology* (2002, Harvard) - *Yoga and Ecology* (2009, Deepak Heritage) - *In Praise of Mother Earth: The Prthivi Sukta of the Atharva Veda* (2011, with O. P. Dwivedi) ## References 1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-LMU_1-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-LMU_1-1) [***c***](#cite_ref-LMU_1-2) ["Christopher Key Chapple"](https://bellarmine.lmu.edu/theologicalstudies/faculty/?expert=christopherkey.chapple). Loyola Marymount University. Retrieved 7 April 2019. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-Sutra_Journal_2-0)** ["Interview with Christopher Chapple"](http://www.sutrajournal.com/interview-with-christopher-chapple). Sutra Journal. November 2015. Retrieved 7 April 2019. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-3)** McAnally, Elizabeth (23 March 2021). "Living Landscapes: Meditations on the Five Elements in Hindu, Buddhist, and Jain Yogas, by Christopher Key Chapple". *Worldviews: Global Religions, Culture, and Ecology*. **25** (1): 107–109. [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.1163/15685357-02501003](https://doi.org/10.1163%2F15685357-02501003). 1. **[^](#cite_ref-4)** Sarbacker, S. R. (1 October 2010). "Yoga and the Luminous: Patanjali's Spiritual Path to Freedom. By Christopher Key Chapple". *[Journal of Hindu Studies](/source/Journal_of_Hindu_Studies)*. **3** (3): 371–373. [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.1093/jhs/hiq023](https://doi.org/10.1093%2Fjhs%2Fhiq023). 1. **[^](#cite_ref-5)** Findly, Ellison Banks; Chapple, Christopher Key; Tucker, Mary Evelyn (2002). "Hinduism and Ecology: The Intersection of Earth, Sky, and Water". *[Journal of the American Oriental Society](/source/Journal_of_the_American_Oriental_Society)*. **122** (4): 925. [doi](/source/Doi_(identifier)):[10.2307/3217681](https://doi.org/10.2307%2F3217681). [JSTOR](/source/JSTOR_(identifier)) [3217681](https://www.jstor.org/stable/3217681). ## External links - [Interview on Religion and Ecology](https://player.fm/series/environmental-humanities-podcast/interview-with-religion-and-ecology-professor-christopher-key-chapple) v t e Yoga scholars Classical yoga Theos Bernard Hatha Yoga: The Report of A Personal Experience Jason Birch Johannes Bronkhorst Edwin Bryant Gudrun Bühnemann (Eighty-Four Asanas in Yoga) Mikel Burley Christopher Chapple Georg Feuerstein Gavin Flood Shaman Hatley Gerald James Larson James Mallinson Roots of Yoga Max Müller Geoffrey Samuel Alexis Sanderson Srisa Chandra Vasu Bjarne Wernicke-Olesen David Gordon White Ernest Wood Sir John Woodroffe Heinrich Zimmer Modern yoga Joseph Alter Yoga in Modern India Paul Bramadat (Yogalands) Elizabeth De Michelis A History of Modern Yoga Anya Foxen (Inhaling Spirit) Elliott Goldberg (The Path of Modern Yoga) Andrea Jain (Selling Yoga) Amanda Lucia Suzanne Newcombe Yoga in Britain Mark Singleton Gurus of Modern Yoga Yoga Body Norman Sjoman The Yoga Tradition of the Mysore Palace Sarah Strauss (Positioning Yoga) Theodora Wildcroft (Post-lineage yoga) Related Asana Hatha yoga Yoga as exercise Yoga Category Authority control databases International ISNI VIAF GND WorldCat National United States France BnF data Czech Republic Netherlands Norway Israel Academics CiNii People DDB Other IdRef Open Library Yale LUX --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Christopher Chapple](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Chapple) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Chapple?action=history)). 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