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.