Author
Francis X. Clooney, SJ is the Parkman Professor of Divinity at Harvard Divinity School and a pioneer of comparative theology.
Francis X. Clooney, SJ is the Parkman Professor of Divinity at Harvard Divinity School, where he is recognized as a pioneer in comparative theology, teaching courses on Hinduism and the connections he sees between Hinduism and Christianity. A Jesuit priest ordained in 1978, he served as the 2021–2022 President of the Catholic Theological Society of America — the largest professional society of theologians in the world — under the theme "Thinking Catholic Interreligiously."
His path into Hindu wisdom began early. After college he taught for two years at St. Xavier's High School in Kathmandu, Nepal, an experience he credits with changing his life as a religious learner. He went on to earn a PhD in South Asian Studies at the University of Chicago, balancing his Catholic theology with a deep study of Hindu thought.
He is the author of the 2024 memoir Hindu and Catholic, Priest and Catholic: A Love Story (T&T Clark/Bloomsbury) and wrote the foreword to Akhil Gupta's Bridges Across Humanity. A longtime friend of UEF, he has contributed several reflections on reading wisdom across religious traditions.
3 pieces
Lesson
In this course we cover how religious learning unfolds across a lifetime, shaped by practice, travel, and encounter with other traditions. We draw on Francis X. Clooney's journey balancing Catholicism with deep study of Hindu wisdom, his years in Nepal learning from Buddhist and Hindu students, and his path from seminary through Harvard teaching.
Lesson
In this course we cover divine encounters within overwhelming natural forces. Three traditions reveal striking parallels: the Book of Job's God speaking from the whirlwind, the Gospel of Mark's Jesus calming the storm, and the Bhagavad Gita's Krishna revealing cosmic glory to Arjuna. Each encounter transforms fear into humility and readiness for service.
Lesson
In this course we cover poetry across religions as a universal language of the sacred. Poetry speaks to experience beyond doctrine, using spare language and natural imagery to reveal truth. We explore Psalm 139 on divine presence, Tamil Vaisnava light imagery, Rumi's "lamps are different, light is the same," and Tagore's Gitanjali.