The Fordham Theology 1000 First-Year Experience

Thank you for joining us! Watch the recording of this year's lecture below. We'll see you at the next FYE event.

Enchanted Earth: Addressing the Plight of the Earth by Overcoming Religious Supremacy: A conversation with Rev. Dr. John Thatamanil

Wednesday, October 11, 2023 (event has passed)

Time: 6:15 - 7:45 p.m.

In-person at Lincoln Center
Live-stream at Rose Hill

Thank you for joining the Department of Theology for the resonant conversation with John J. Thatamanil, M.Div, Ph.D., a Professor of World Religions and Comparative Theology at Union Theological Seminary in New York City, where he is also Director of the Insight Project: Theology and the Natural World. He teaches a wide variety of courses in the areas of comparative theology, theologies of religious diversity, Hindu-Christian dialogue, the theology of Paul Tillich, theory of religion, process theology, and ecotheology. Dr. Thatamanil is committed to the work of comparative theology—theology that learns from and with a variety of traditions. A central question that drives his work is, “How can Christian communities come to see religious diversity as a promise rather than as a problem?” 

Professor Thatamanil’s recent book, Circling the Elephant: A Comparative Theology of Religious Diversity (Fordham University Press, 2020) takes up the recent and extensive literature on the Western construction/invention of the category “religion” with the following questions in mind: If “religion” is a relatively recent invention of the modern West, then is the category applicable to non-Western cultures and traditions? Can we really divide the world up into a set of discrete world religions? Does it still make sense to ask if the world’s “religions” are paths up the same mountain or paths up different mountains? How should theologies of religious diversity be reconfigured in light of these new questions and challenges?

At Fordham, Professor Thatamanil's conversation with Prof. Jeannine Hill-Fletcher focused on how religious supremacies and religious diversities are intertwined with the fate of "Enchanted Earth."