JOHNSON, Willard Lyon. Des Moines, Iowa 30.5.1939 — Pauma Valley, Calif. 29.12.2006. U.S. Indologist and Scholar of Religion. Son of the elder W. L. Johnson and Margerie Elta Hackenberg. Studies at Oberlin College (B.A. 1961) and University of Wisconsin in Madison (M.A. 1966), Ph.D. 1972 there in Indian Languages and Literature. In 1970-72 Lecturer in Religious Studies and Comparative Literature at California State University in Long Beach, 1972-74 Assistant Professor of the same, ibid. In 1972-74 also acting director, Program of religious studies. From 1971-79 Lecturer in Religious Studies at San Diego State University, 1979-88 Associate Professor at Del Mar, 1980-81 also Assistant Professor at Oberlin College. From 1988 Associate Professor of Religious Studies at San Diego State University.
Publications: Diss. Into a thousand similes: image and symbol in the Ṛgvedic enigmatic sense of reality, and some beginnings of Indian speculation. Manuscript of 628 p. Madison 1972.
– With R. H. Robinson: The Buddhist Religion: a Historical Introduction. 1977, 3rd rev. ed. 302 p. Belmont, Calif. 1982, 5th ed. 2004.
– “On the Ṛg Vedic Riddle of the Two Birds in the Fig Tree (RV 1.164.20-22), and the Discovery of the Vedic Speculative Symposium”, JAOS 96, 1976, 248-258.
– Poetry and Speculation of the Ṛg Veda. 28+192 p. Berkeley 1980.
– Riding the Ox Home. A History of Meditation from Shamanism to Science. 261 p. Boston, MA 1982.
– Translated: The Bhagavad gita. 23+95 p. O.U.P. 1994.
Sources: Dir. Am. Sch. 8th ed. 4, 1982; prabook.com.
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