About the Speakers
Francis X. Clooney, S.J., the inaugural Silber-Obrecht Lecturer, is the Parkman Professor of Divinity and Professor of Comparative Theology at the Harvard Divinity School. He is also a global leader in the developing field of comparative theology. His academic focus is on the Sanskrit and Tamil traditions of Hindu India. Clooney is the author of numerous articles and books, most recently Reading the Hindu and Christian Classics: Why and How It Matters (University of Virginia Press, 2019) and Western Jesuit Scholars in India: Tracing Their Paths, Reassessing Their Goals (Brill, 2020). He is currently working on a memoir, tentatively titled, Priest and Scholar, Catholic and Hindu: A Love Story.
Shubha Pathak, Ph.D., Ph.D., is a historian of religions who interprets epic myths from India, Greece, and Rome. She is the author of Divine Yet Human Epics: Reflections of Poetic Rulers from Ancient Greece and India and an edited volume, Figuring Religions: Comparing Ideas, Images, and Activities. She has a Ph.D. in Social and Behavioral Sciences from the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health and a Ph.D. in the History of Religions from the University of Chicago.
About the Lecture
The endowed lecture, managed and sponsored by ICJS, is held in partnership with five Baltimore educational institutions: Goucher College, the SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University, Loyola University Maryland, Morgan State University’s Center for the Study of Religion and the City, and St. Mary’s Seminary & University.
The Silber-Obrecht Lecture is named in honor of Sidney and Jean Silber and Charles F. and Margaret M.H. (Peggy) Obrecht in recognition of their longtime commitment to improving interreligious relationships and understanding.