CSWR Director: Francis X. Clooney, S.J.

Frank Clooney. Photo: Harvard News Office.

On July 1, 2010, Francis X. Clooney, S.J., became the sixth director of the Center for the Study of World Religions. Clooney joined the HDS faculty in 2005, as Parkman Professor of Divinity and Professor of Comparative Theology, after teaching at Boston College since 1984. He served as acting director of the CSWR during the 2008 spring term and began a long and active relationship with the Center before coming to HDS, participating in many CSWR programs and events.

Clooney's 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.

Clooney's current projects include an exercise in dramatic theology, the reading of Bernard of Clairvaux's sermons on the Song of Songs along with a medieval Hindu commentary on the love songs in Satakopan's Tiruvaymoli. He has written on the Jesuit missionary tradition of scholarship, particularly in India, and also the dynamics of dialogue in the contemporary world. He is on numerous editorial boards; was the first president of the International Society for Hindu-Christian Studies; and, from 1998 to 2004, was coordinator for interreligious dialogue for the Society of Jesus in the United States.

He 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) and The Truth, the Way, the Life: Christian Commentary on the Three Holy Mantras of the Srivaisnava Hindus (Peeters Publishing, 2008). Comparative Theology: Deep Learning Across Religious Borders, his new and insightful introduction to the field of comparative theology, was recently published by Wiley-Blackwell.

"It is an honor, a wonderful possibility, and a great challenge to become director of the CSWR as it moves forward in its second 50 years," Clooney said. "Our world is becoming interreligious in unprecedented and vital ways, and there are many important ideas and insights emerging among living religious communities and in theological and religious studies today. The Center, within HDS and as part of the wider University, is very well positioned to recognize and foster some of the best initiatives by which students and faculty will engage the interreligious possibilities of our twenty-first century. It is a particular pleasure to become director after Donald Swearer, under whose wise leadership the Center has flourished and grown in so many ways. I look forward to working with the Center staff and with CSWR's many old and new friends in continuing this great tradition."

To reach Professor Clooney, please call 617.495.4495 or email cswrdirector@hds.harvard.edu.