Overview

This autobiography traces Francis X. Clooney's intellectual and spiritual journey from middle-class American Catholicism to a lifelong study of Hinduism. It explains how he came to fashion comparative theology as a way of learning interreligiously that is boldly intellectual and deeply personal and practical, lived out in intersections of his roles as theologian and scholar of Hinduism, as professor and Catholic priest, and over the tumultuous decades from the 1960s until now, in his role as Parkman Professor of Divinity, Harvard University. Clooney sheds fresh and realistic light on the idea and ideal of scholar-practitioner, since his wide learning, Christian and Hindu, is grounded in his Catholic and Jesuit commitments, as well as in a commensurate learning with respect to several Hindu traditions that are most accessible to scholars willing to learn empathetically and in a participatory manner. What Clooney has learnt and written must be understood in terms of a love of Christ deeply informed by a Hindu instinct for loving God without reserve. A fundamental spiritual disposition — intuitions of God present everywhere — has energized his work over his long career, love giving direction and body to his professional academic work.

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9780567710239

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Reviews

Clooney’s memoir is much more than personal background to Comparative Theology, the theological practice of reading and writing across religious borders with which he will always be associated. Informative and absorbing, full of insight, wisdom and good humour, Clooney tells his own story of interreligious learning: how a Jesuit priest became a first-rate scholar of Hinduism and how his experience of Ignatian spirituality, coupled with an impish intellectual daring, led him to deepen his Catholic devotion to the person of Jesus, the Christ in whom all truth becomes radiant and alive, wherever it might be found. As he takes us from Chicago and Boston to Kathmandu and Madras, from the American university world to mandirs and ashrams scattered across India, Clooney emerges as an imaginative teacher and faithful pastor, brilliant writer and hardworking academic. Yet this is no elitist self-justification of a life of privilege; it is very much a story about the providential touch of grace, about one person’s experience of divine call, about the demand always to make an honest human response, and about the need for academics and intellectuals to acknowledge their own limitations and vulnerabilities. By exploring religious borders through comparative study, Clooney holds together a very Jesuit - and very Hindu - conviction of the presence of God in all things. * Michael Barnes SJ, University of Roehamptom, UK * Much more than the life story of a distinguished Harvard professor, Francis Clooney’s memoir offers us a window into ordinary Catholic life in mid twentieth century America. It shows us how an ordinary life can be transformed by a single profound religious experience, and how a love for other cultures and a passion for deep reading can lead someone to rethink the very nature of theology. A very personal and moving autobiography that charts the intellectual and spiritual journey of one of the most influential comparative theologians of our time, Hindu and Catholic, Priest and Scholar captivates both heart and mind. * José Ignacio Cabezón, University of California, USA *

Clooney’s memoir is much more than personal background to Comparative Theology, the theological practice of reading and writing across religious borders with which he will always be associated. Informative and absorbing, full of insight, wisdom and good humour, Clooney tells his own story of interreligious learning: how a Jesuit priest became a first-rate scholar of Hinduism and how his experience of Ignatian spirituality, coupled with an impish intellectual daring, led him to deepen his Catholic devotion to the person of Jesus, the Christ in whom all truth becomes radiant and alive, wherever it might be found. As he takes us from Chicago and Boston to Kathmandu and Madras, from the American university world to mandirs and ashrams scattered across India, Clooney emerges as an imaginative teacher and faithful pastor, brilliant writer and hardworking academic. Yet this is no elitist self-justification of a life of privilege; it is very much a story about the providential touch of grace, about one person’s experience of divine call, about the demand always to make an honest human response, and about the need for academics and intellectuals to acknowledge their own limitations and vulnerabilities. By exploring religious borders through comparative study, Clooney holds together a very Jesuit - and very Hindu - conviction of the presence of God in all things. * Michael Barnes SJ, University of Roehamptom, UK * Much more than the life story of a distinguished Harvard professor, Francis Clooney’s memoir offers us a window into ordinary Catholic life in mid twentieth century America. It shows us how an ordinary life can be transformed by a single profound religious experience, and how a love for other cultures and a passion for deep reading can lead someone to rethink the very nature of theology. A very personal and moving autobiography that charts the intellectual and spiritual journey of one of the most influential comparative theologians of our time, Hindu and Catholic, Priest and Scholar captivates both heart and mind. * José Ignacio Cabezón, University of California, USA * Clooney’s reflective memoir is a gentle, yet powerful recounting of a life that he sees as filled with divine grace. He recounts a life of surrender and commitment; we read about a life of courage, and the quest of a scholar who seeks and recognizes God in the beauty of literature from many parts of the world. Hindu and Catholic, Priest and Scholar is at once a deeply moving yet rigorous book where we are drawn into a journey illumined with the light of vivid and transformative words of poets, devotees, and writers, including those of Frank Clooney. * Vasudha Narayanan, University of Florida, USA *

Author Information

Francis X. Clooney SJ is Parkman Professor of Divinity at Harvard University, USA.

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