NAVIGATION

NAVIGATION

AIS | TALKING | Christianity, Hinduism and Islam at the Crossroads | Monday 22 July 2019 | 12noon-1.30pm

[Edited extract from public address]

It may seem that religions are competitors, wary and suspicious of one another. Though each tradition is different, we have in common the challenge to survive and thrive in a secular, pluralistic, and individualized world. How to be a Christian or Muslim or Hindu today? 

But in fact religions all are facing the challenge of secularization, the fact of a plurality whereby no religion can any more be a sole arbiter of a society’s values, and so too the waning of institutions, as faith becomes more private and individualized in many parts of the world.

We do well to learn interreligiously, talking with one another about our futures, the passing on of the faith, the meaning of religious education, and ways of being more deeply religious without violence or fear.

Professor Francis X. Clooney, a Catholic priest and member of the Society of Jesus, will reflect on the American scene, his teaching at Harvard University, and his many years of studying Hinduism, as a start for our conversation.

Speaker Biography
Francis X. Clooney, S.J., joined the Harvard Divinity School faculty in 2005. He is Parkman Professor of Divinity and Professor of Comparative Theology. After earning his doctorate in South Asian languages and civilizations (University of Chicago, 1984), he taught at Boston College for 21 years before coming to Harvard.

His primary areas of Indological scholarship are theological commentarial writings in the Sanskrit and Tamil traditions of Hindu India. He is also a leading figure globally in the developing field of comparative theology, a discipline distinguished by attentiveness to the dynamics of theological learning deepened through the study of traditions other than one’s own. He has also written on the Jesuit missionary tradition, particularly in India, on the early Jesuit pan-Asian discourse on reincarnation, and on the dynamics of dialogue and interreligious learning in the contemporary world.

He is a Roman Catholic priest and has been a member of the Society of Jesus for 50 years. He serves regularly in a Catholic parish on weekends. From 2007 to 2016 blogged regularly in the “In All Things” section of America magazine online, and his current blogsite, The Inner Edge.

In July 2010 he was elected a Fellow of the British Academy and has served as a Professorial Research Fellow at the Australian Catholic University. From 2010 to 2017, he was the Director of the Center for the Study of World Religions at Harvard.

Where: 441 St Kilda Rd, Ground Floor, Melbourne VIC 3004

Cost: Free

Bookings: Online through EventBrite

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Australian Intercultural Society
Address: 441 St Kilda Rd, Ground Floor, Melbourne VIC 3004
Email: events@intercultural.org.au
Website: www.intercultural.org.au