Founder of Comparative Theology Francis X. Clooney Speaks at Nazareth College, April 11-12

Rochester, NY (04/05/2019) — Touted as the father of comparative theology; he is a Jesuit priest who truly loves the Hindu tradition. Francis X. Clooney, S.J., will present Hinduism as a Catholic - Finding God in Small Things on Thursday, April 11, at Nazareth College in the Glazer Music Performance Center at 7 p.m. The following day, Friday, April 12, Clooney will present Learning Interreligiously in Golisano Academic Center's Linehan Chapel at 1:30 p.m. Both lectures are free and open to the public. Nazareth College is located at 4245 East Avenue, Rochester, N.Y., 14618. For further information, please contact Susan Nowak at (585) 389-2731. Clooney is visiting as part of Nazareth College's Shannon Lecture Series.

In 2017, the Catholic Theological Society of America honored Francis X. Clooney, S.J., with the prestigious John Courtney Murray Award for a lifetime of theological achievement. As he accepted the award, Clooney said, "I had to find a way to be a Catholic theologian and take seriously this vast other world of Hinduism . . . I've had to invent the field to do the work I wanted to do." Hailed as a founder of modern comparative theology, "a discipline distinguished by attentiveness to the dynamics of theological learning deepened through the study of traditions other than one's own," Clooney is the Parkman Professor of Divinity and Professor of Comparative Theology at Harvard Divinity School.Before joining the Harvard faculty, he taught for more than 20 years at Boston College.

Clooney's countless books and articles include studies of the Sanskrit and Tamil traditions of Hindu India as well as pioneering forays into comparative theology. Among his recent publications are Comparative Theology: Deep Learning across Religious Borders (2011), His Hiding Place Is Darkness: A Hindu-Catholic Theopoetics of Divine Absence (2013), and Learning Interreligiously: In the Text, in the World (2018).