August 5, 2009,
7 pm
Prakriti Foundation presents
a talk on "Beyond Compare: the
Idea and Aesthetics of Comparison"
based on the book (Beyond Compare:
St.Francis and Sri Vedanta Desika on Loving Surrender to God)
by Francis X.Clooney, S.J.
Venue: Madras Terrace House
No.15, Sripuram 2nd Street, Royapettah,
Chennai-14
Francis X. Clooney, S.J., a Roman
Catholic priest and a member of the Society of Jesus, joined the Divinity
School in 2005. After earning his doctorate in South Asian Languages and
Civilizations (University of Chicago, 1984), he taught at Boston College
until coming to Harvard. His primary areas of scholarship are theological
commentarial writings in the Sanskrit and Tamil traditions of Hindu India,
and 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, and the dynamics of
dialogue in the contemporary world. Professor Clooney is the author of
numerous articles and books, including most recently Beyond Compare:
St. Francis and Sri Vedanta Desika on Loving Surrender to God (Georgetown
University Press, 2008), The Truth, the Way, the Life: Christian Commentary
on the Three Holy Mantras of the Srivaisnava Hindus (Peeters Publishing,
2008) and Comparative Theology: Deep Learning Across Religious Borders
(Wiley-Blackwell, forthcoming). His current projects include an exercise
in dramatic theology, the reading of Bernard of Clairvaux's sermons on
the Song of Songs along with Nampillai's commentary on Satakopan's
Tiruvaymoli, a study of 18th and 19th Jesuit Indology.