Cultivating Humanity through Comparison

April 30, 2015
Cultivating Humanity through Comparison

In this lecture, Nicholas J. Boylston examined the ways in which Francis X. Clooney’s methods of reading in comparative theology may be extended to non-theological work in the humanities. The lecture highlighted some of the issues that face the humanities in the western academy today, including epistemic challenges located in encounters with diversity. 

If the humanities are to remain relevant for the cultivation of us as humans we must engage with the diversity of approaches to humanity’s cultivation that have been presented around the world over time. As a response to this challenge the lecture highlighted a set of attitudes and skills presented in the comparative theological practice of Francis X. Clooney, which may be labeled "virtues of reading."

These virtues allow the scholar to engage with texts from another tradition on their own terms and yet also cultivate his or her own humanity in the process, leading readers of this scholarship in the same direction. In particular, Clooney’s work shows that the project of cross-cultural reading requires the humility to realize one’s biases and read slowly and patiently, the objectivity to understand the text within the world-view of its authors, and the empathy and vulnerability to be affected and transformed by the works we read. Finally, Clooney’s works suggest that this method of reading leads to the vitality of the scholar’s engagement with texts, which can end in an ecstatic point of seeing through the texts toward the ineffable realities that animate them.

The event included a response from Professor Clooney, in which, among other things, he highlighted the context in which the formulation of his method arose, the particularly Roman Catholic audience to which much of his work speaks, and what it is that gives such work meaning. He stressed too what in his view is the enduring theological grounding of his comparative work, particularly in Christian faith and tradition. This was followed by some discussion between the lecturer and respondent, as well as a session of question and answer with the attendees of the event.

Nicholas J. Boylston is Preceptor of Persian at Harvard University and Ph.D. Candidate at the Department of Religious Studies and Theology at Georgetown University. Professor Francis X. Clooney is Parkman Professor of Divinity at the Harvard Divinity School, Professor of Comparative Theology, and the Director of the Center for the Study of World Religions. This event was organized by the Society for Comparative Theology.

—By Munjed M. Murad and Nicholas J. Boylston