My name is Alaina Keller, and I am currently a third-year doctoral student at Georgetown University in the Theology and Religious Studies Department. As a cradle Catholic in a large Italian-American family, a long-time student in Catholic schools, and an amateur violinist playing for Catholic Masses, the horizon of my understanding has, for much of my life, been quite limited. Although I will always find a home in a plaid uniform and buck shoes, I have slowly been expanding this horizon through education, first receiving a Bachelor of Arts in East Asian Studies from Gettysburg College before attaining a Master of Theological Studies degree from Candler School of Theology. Such studies have taken me from a Civil War battlefield to Japan to a Methodist seminary in Atlanta, all the while introducing me to different forms of being religious.
My research interests, having returned me to the Catholic school setting, retain this religious complexity as I investigate themes of motherhood, compassion, and material devotion between the Virgin Mary in Christianity and the Bodhisattva Kannon in Japanese Buddhism. While the Maria-Kannon figure is commonly understood in reference to the history of the Kakure Kirishitan in Japan, I find that this concrete connection between Mary and Kannon holds a valuable lesson on religious boundaries and coexistence. Just as the statue poses questions of identity—“Is this Mary or Kannon, both Mary and Kannon, or neither Mary nor Kannon?”—so does our approach to boundaries, to addressing similarities amid distinction, raise practical questions of “us and them, or a unified we?” in interreligious dialogue.
With these interests, I participate in the SBCS as a Social Media and Website Committee member, assisting in the online management of the Society. Such a role has been invaluable for my growth as a graduate student. The opportunity to learn from a wide array of incredible scholars, to witness the fruitful dialogue surrounding Christianity and Buddhism, and to be welcomed into the conversation has further propelled my transition from student to scholar. Because of this organization, my horizon of understanding has continued to grow, a process for which students strive.
How do your research interests relate to the Society for Buddhist-Christian Studies? What are you working on at the moment?
As my research interests compare Mary and Kannon, the Society’s goal to foster comparative studies of Christianity and Buddhism creates an open environment for me to read, discuss, and learn from scholars who have already done such comparative work. Studying themes like compassion across religious boundaries has many precedents within the SBCS. Moreover, numerous articles that discuss Mary and Kannon from different perspectives, such as art or devotion, offer a robust foundation on which to build my own investigation.
From the beginning of my doctoral studies in 2021, this investigation has gradually developed into a theology of the Virgin Mary “as informed by Kannon”: a study of how Mary’s self-identification as handmaid can be understood alongside the figure of the bodhisattva. This long-term research has spawned several smaller projects, one of which being an in-process article on the term “unique” (see Gabriel Moran, 1992) as it regards Mary and Kannon in interreligious dialogue. Another project, drawing on both my interest in Buddhist-Christian dialogue and my studies on Christianity, involves an article in process on John Henry Newman’s thought as a basis for interreligious dialogue.
Contact information: ak1978@georgetown.edu | Georgetown University | Department of Theology and Religious Studies