- Associate Professor of Christianity and the Intellectual Tradition
UT Department for the Study of Religion - reid.locklin@utoronto.ca
- Odette Hall 130
- 416.926.2318
Reid B. Locklin is Associate Professor of Christianity and the Intellectual Tradition at the University of Toronto, a joint appointment with St. Michael’s College and the Department for the Study of Religion.
His research focuses on a range of issues in Comparative Theology and Hindu-Christian Studies, particularly the engagement between Christian thought and the Hindu tradition of Advaita Vedanta. He also writes on the scholarship of teaching and learning in theology and religion.
Since completing his Certificate in Indigenous Cultural Awareness at the First Nations Technical Institute in 2018, Professor Locklin has founded a Truth and Reconciliation Reading Circle at St. Mike’s and has been collaborating with a team of student researchers on the resource site, “Teaching and Learning as Treaty Peoples.”
He also serves St. Mike’s as a member of Alway Interreligious Symposium Committee, the St. Michael’s College Faculty Senate and the St. Michael’s College Council.
Off-campus, Professor Locklin has collaborated on projects with the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, as well as serving on the board of the Lonergan Research Institute at Regis College and the Advisory Board of the Intercultural Dialogue Institute — Greater Toronto Area.
Dr. Locklin grew up in Athens, Georgia, completed a BA in Humanities at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga, a MTS from Boston University, and a PhD in Theology from Boston College in 2003. He has taught at the University of Toronto since 2004.
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- Areas of Expertise
- Interreligious and Comparative Theologies
- Hindu-Christian Studies
- Advaita Vendata
- Scholarship of Teaching and Learning
- Christianity and Education
- Theologies of Diversity in the Catholic Church
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- Publications
1. Refereed Publications
Journal Articles
“Beyond Employability: Defamiliarizing Work-Integrated Learning with Community-Engaged Learning” (with H. Brabazon, J. Esmail and A. Stirling), Engaged Scholar Journal, forthcoming.
“Śaṅkara,” Updated Entry, Oxford Bibliographies Online <http://www.oxfordbibliographiesonline.com/>, 26 April 2018.
“A Century of Advaita Mission: Tracing a Lineage and Opening a Conversation,” Journal of Ecumenical Studies 52.4 (2017): 488-526.
“Śaṅkara,” Updated Entry, Oxford Bibliographies Online <http://www.oxfordbibliographiesonline.com/>, 26 April 2018.
“A Century of Advaita Mission: Tracing a Lineage and Opening a Conversation,” Journal of Ecumenical Studies 52.4 (2017): 488-526.
“One Text, Two Declarations: Theological Trajectories from Nostra Aetate,” Theological Studies 78.1 (2017): 49-71.
Editor, special themed issue on “Embodied Spirituality and Hindu-Christian Dialogue,” Vivekananda Review 4.2 (April 2016).
“‘Ritual Dialogue’ and the ‘Dialogue of Life’: The Contribution of Selva J. Raj,” Science et Esprit 68.2-3 (2016): 363-76.
“Paradigms and Styles of Advaita Mission: An Experiment in Interpretation,” International Journal of Hindu Studies 20.1 (2016): 1-49.
“Non-Dual Belonging: Sanskritization and the Dissolution of the Multiple in Advaita Missionary Movements,” Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies 28 (2015): 88-99.
“Teaching Comparative Theology from an Institution’s Mission” (Respondent, with B. Bidlack, M.Brecht, C. Krokus, and D. Scheid), Teaching Theology and Religion 17.4 (2014): 369-87.
“Śabda Pramāṇa and Prophetic Resistance: Barthian and Advaita Perspectives in Dialogue,” The Journal of Religion 94.4 (2014): 485-503.
“Under Construction: Agape as Comparative Category and Christian Criterion of Hindu Truth,” Toronto Journal of Theology 30.1 (2014): 3-18.
“Sacred Orality, Sacred Dialogue: Walter J. Ong and the Practice of Hindu-Christian Studies,” Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies 26 (2013): 80-90.
“Teaching with Complicating Views: Beyond the Survey, Behind Pro and Con,” Teaching Theology and Religion 16.3 (2013): 201-20.
“Śaṅkara,” Oxford Bibliographies Online, <http://www.oxfordbibliographiesonline.com/>, 24 April 2012.
“Teaching World Religions without Teaching ‘World Religions’” (co-author, with T. Tiemeier and J. Vento), Teaching Theology and Religion 15.2 (2012): 159-81.
“The Return of Comparative Theology” (co-author, with H. Nicholson), Journal of the American Academy of Religion 78.2 (2010): 477-514.
“Weakness, Belonging and the ‘Intercordia Experience’: The Logic and Limits of Dissonance as a Transformative Learning Tool,” Teaching Theology and Religion 13.1 (2010): 3-13.
“Rewriting the Sacred Geography of Advaita: Swami Chinmayānanda and the Śaṅkara-dig-vijaya” (primary author, with J. Lauwers), The Journal of Hindu Studies 2.2 (2009): 179-208.
“Toward an Interreligious Theology of Church: Revisiting Bernard Lonergan’s Contribution to the ‘Dialogue of Religions,’” Journal of Ecumenical Studies 43.3 (2008): 383-410.
“Integral Samnyasa? Adi Shankaracharya and Liberation Hermeneutics,” Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies 20 (2007): 43-51.
“Buffy the Vampire Slayer and the Domestic Church: Re-visioning Family and the Common Good,” Slayage: The Online International Journal of Buffy Studies 2.2 (2002).
“To Teach As the Evangelists Did? An Experiment in New Testament Theology,” Koinonia 11.1 (1999): 65-102.
Books and Book Chapters
“Ethnography and Theology in the World-Church: Reflection on Vocation, Liturgy and Ethics with Selva J. Raj” (with A. Selak, S. Reynolds, M. Yount), in “All the Ends of the Earth”: Challenge and Celebration of Global Catholicism, ed. Jane Linahan and Cyril Orji (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books), forthcoming.
“Ritual and Ritualization in Hindu-Christian Relations,” in The Routledge Handbook of Hindu-Christian Relations, ed. Chad Bauman and Michelle Voss Roberts (New York: Routledge), forthcoming.
“Hinduism Compared,” in The Blackwell Companion to Hinduism, 2d edition, ed. Gavin Flood (Oxford: Blackwell), forthcoming.
“Ritual Renunciation and/or Ritual Innovation: Re-Describing Advaita Tradition,” in Ritual Innovation in South Asian Religions, ed. Amy Allocco and Brian Pennington (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2018), 91-108.
Editor, Vernacular Catholicism, Vernacular Saints: Selva J. Raj on “Being Catholic the Tamil Way” (Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2017). – Finalist, Best Book in Hindu-Christian Studies – History/Ethnography, 2013-2017, Society for Hindu-Christian Studies
Co-editor (with M. Brecht), Comparative Theology in the Millennial Classroom: Hybrid Identities, Negotiated Boundaries, Routledge Research in Religion and Education (London and New York: Routledge, 2016).
Co-editor (with F. Clingerman), Teaching Civic Engagement, AAR Teaching Religious Studies (New York: Oxford University Press, 2016).
“Migration and Spiritual Conquest: Emplacing Contemporary Comparative Theology in a Hindu Theology of the ‘Quarters’ (dik),” in Strangers in this World: Multi-Religious Reflections on Immigration, ed. Hussam S. Timani, Allen G. Jorgenson, and Alexander Y. Hwang (Minneapolis, MN: Fortress Press, 2015), 11-29.
“Jīvanmukti, Freedom and a Cassette Recorder: Friendship beyond Friendship in the Tradition of Advaita Vedānta,” in Interreligious Friendship after Nostra Aetate, ed. James Fredericks and Tracy Tiemeier (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015), 111-24.
Liturgy of Liberation: A Christian Commentary on Shankara’s Upadeśasāhasrī, Christian Commentaries on Non-Christian Sacred Texts (Leuven, Paris and Dudley, MA: Peeters and W.B. Eerdmans, 2011).
“A More Comparative Ecclesiology? Bringing Comparative Theology to the Ecclesiological Table,” in Comparative Ecclesiology: Critical Investigations, ed. Gerard Mannion (London and New York: Continuum, 2008), 125-48.
“Interreligious Prudentia: Wisdom from Peter Lombard for the Post-Conciliar Church,” in Vatican II: Forty Years Later, ed. William Madges (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2006), 283-307.
Spiritual but Not Religious? An Oar Stroke Closer to the Farther Shore (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2005).
“Sankara, Augustine, and Rites de Passage: Comparative Theology with Victor Turner,” in Theology and the Social Sciences, ed. Michael Barnes (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis, 2001), 135-60.
2. Non-Refereed Publications
Journal Articles, Reports and Online Publications
“Liberating Saṃvāda: Advaita Vedānta as a Tradition of Ritualized Dialogue,” Prabuddha Bharata, forthcoming.
“Useless Experience: Community Engaged Learning and a ‘Culture of Encounter,’” Critical Theology, forthcoming.
“Women at the Parliament of World Religions: An Enduring Legacy,” (with E. Ursic), Vivekananda Review, forthcoming.
“Introduction: Special Issue on the Parliament of the World’s Religions,” Vivekananda Review, forthcoming.
Reasoning for Our Hope: Catholicism and the Liberal Arts, from Newman to Nouwen – Insights from the John M. Kelly Archives (with E. Graham and other student researchers), <http://www.reasoningforourhope.ca/>, November 2017 – present.
“Core Principles of Interreligious Dialogue in the Recent Magisterium of the Catholic Church,” report commissioned by the Canadian Conference of Catholic Bishops, April 2019, 17 pages.
“Response: Contemplative Pedagogy as Engaged Learning,” Pedagogy Roundtable on Contemplative Pedagogy, Horizons 46.1 (2019): 134-39.
“Teaching Tactic: The (Mostly) Unmarked Quiz,” Teaching Theology and Religion 22.1 (2019): 55.
“Getting Real with Advaita Vedānta: Receiving Bradley J. Malkovsky’s Gifts of Grace,” Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies 31 (2018): 101-108.
“‘Rise Up and Walk’: Psychology, Comparative Theology, and The Oxford Handbook of Religious Conversion,” Pastoral Psychology 67.2 (2018): 205-13.
“Introduction: Theme Issue on ‘Embodied Spirituality and Hindu-Christian Dialogue,’” Vivekananda Review 4.2 (2016): 23.
Review Symposium on Interreligious Friendship after Nostra Aetate (Palgrave MacMillan, 2015), Horizons 43.1 (June 2016): 164-68.
“Nicht-duale Zugenhörigkeit,” Saltzburger Theologische Zeitschrift 19.1 (2015): 84-97 [German translation of an article previously published in the 2015 issue of the Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies].
“What on Earth (or Heaven) is the ‘Francis Effect’? A Response to James T. Bretzke, SJ,” Horizons 42.2 (December 2015): 408-413.
“Personality Integration through Personality Disintegration: A Christian View,” Vivekananda Review 2.2 (2014): 20-24.
“The Two Nostra Aetates: Origins, Receptions, Possibilities,” Eastern Journal of Dialogue and Culture 6.2 (December 2013): 58-73.
“Team-Teaching in Religious Studies: Editors’ Introduction” (second author, with Ellen Posman), Religious Studies News: Spotlight on Teaching, American Academy of Religion, October 2013 < https://www.aarweb.org/node/1609>.
“Parsing Nostra Aetate: Vatican II and the Multiple Foundations of Interreligious Dialogue,”Newman Rambler 10.1 (October 2013): 15-19.
“Intersections: Response to Patricia O’Connell Killen and Eugene Gallagher,” Teaching Theology and Religion 16.3 (2013): 248-50.
“Translating Religion Courses to an Online Format: Introduction” (first author, with Ellen Posman), Religious Studies News: Spotlight on Teaching, American Academy of Religion, May 2013.
“The Really Global in the Really Local: Ritualized Bodies in Comparative Theological Perspective,” Catholic Theological Society of America: Proceedings of the Annual Convention 67 (2012): 75-76.
“The Many Windows of the Wall,” Constitutional Law Review, No. 5 (April 2012): 72-92 [republication of an article originally published in the Journal of Law and Religion].
“Up, Over, Through: Reconsidering ‘Conversion’ as a Category of Hindu-Christian Studies,” Religion and Culture Web Forum, May 2012.
“Intercultural and Transnational Pedagogies: Background and Overview” (second author, with Ellen Posman), Religious Studies News: Spotlight on Teaching, American Academy of Religion, October 2011.
“Teaching Religion and Ecology: Background and Overview” (second author, with Ellen Posman), Religious Studies News: Spotlight on Teaching, American Academy of Religion, May 2011.
“The Rituals of Others, and Other Others: Response to Anne Mocko.” Religion and Culture Web Forum, April 2011.
“Teaching for Civic Engagement: Background and Overview” (second author, with Ellen Posman), Religious Studies News: Spotlight on Teaching, American Academy of Religion, October 2010.
“Review Essay: The Many Windows of the Wall,” Journal of Law and Religion 25.2 (2009-2010): 101-25.
“Hindu Christology—Impasse or Opportunity?” Catholic Theological Society of America: Proceedings of the Annual Convention 64 (2009): 98-99.
“Crossing Boundaries, Across Generations: To and from the 1983 World’s Parliament of Religions,” Catholic Theological Society of America: Proceedings of the Annual Convention 63 (2008): 118-19.
Books and Book Chapters
“Constructing Boundaries by Crossing Them: Contemporary Comparative Theology as a Practice of Community Self-Definition,” in Comparative Theology in the Millennial Classroom: Hybrid Identities, Negotiated Boundaries, ed. Mara Brecht and Reid B. Locklin (London and New York: Routledge, 2016), 126-38.
“Introduction,” (with M. Brecht), in Comparative Theology in the Millennial Classroom: Hybrid Identities, Negotiated Boundaries, ed. Mara Brecht and Reid B. Locklin (London and New York: Routledge, 2016), 1-17.
“Sacred Sites and Staging Grounds: Civic Engagement in the Religious Studies Classroom” (second author, with E. Posman), in Teaching Civic Engagement in the Religion Classroom, ed. F. Clingerman and R. Locklin (New York: Oxford University Press, 2016), 23-43.
“Discourse, Democracy, and the Many Faces of Civic Engagement: Four Guiding Objectives for the University Classroom” (first author, with E. Posman), in Teaching Civic Engagement in the Religion Classroom, ed. F. Clingerman and R. Locklin (New York: Oxford University Press, 2016), 3-22.
“Introduction: A Model for Teaching Civic Engagement, in the Religion Classroom and Beyond” (with F. Clingerman), in Teaching Civic Engagement in the Religion Classroom, ed. F. Clingerman and R. Locklin (New York: Oxford University Press, 2016), xiii-xxiv.
“Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places: Agape in Recent Hindu-Christian Comparative Theology,” in Translating Religion, ed. Mary Doak and Anita Houck (Maryknoll, NY: Orbis Books, 2013), 217-24.
“No Weapon but Words: Teaching as Conquest in Ancient and Modern Advaita,” in Weapons of Mass Instruction: Proceedings of a St. Michael’s College Symposium (25-26 November 2005), ed. J. Goering, F. Guardiani, and G. Silano (New York, Ottawa and Toronto: Legas, 2008), 123-37.
“Divine Election as Adhikara and Atma-sva-bhava: Re-Reading the Reply to Simplicianus in Light of a Hindu Text,” in Augustine and World Religions, ed. Brian Edward Brown, John Doody and Kim Paffenroth, Augustine in Conversation: Tradition and Innovation (Lanham: Lexington Books, 2008), 199-226.
“The Cosmic Tree, Creation and Eschatology: Soundings from Gītā 15,” in The Song Divine: Christian Commentaries on the Bhagavad Gītā, ed. Catherine Cornille, Christian Commentaries on Non-Christian Sacred Texts (Leuven, Paris and Dudley, MA: Peeters and W.B. Eerdmans, 2006), 165-90.
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- Presentations
Invited Lectures and Presentations
Panel Member, “Responsible Approaches to the News: Conscientious News Consumption” (with M. Brosens, C. Mulroney, M. Swan), Catholic Conscience, University of Toronto Newman Centre, Toronto, Ontario, 1 May 2019.
“Saying and Unsaying, Silence and Speech,” Pre-Khutba Presentation, Noor Cultural Centre, Toronto, Ontario, 22 March 2019.
“Can We Find Space for Other Religious Traditions? An Interfaith Dialogue” (with K. Hamilton, A. Hussain and D. Rosen), Beth Tzedec Congregation, Toronto, Ontario, 31 October 2018.
Response to Michael Vertin, Lonergan Research Institute Seminar, Regis College, Toronto, Ontario, 18 October 2018.
Panel Member, “Borders of Violence and Visions of Peace: The Religious Landscapes of South Asia,” Co-Sponsored by Coexist House and the Cambridge Interfaith Programme, St. Ethelburga’s Centre for Reconciliation and Peace, London, UK, 7 June 2018.
“Conquering the Quarters, Preaching in Silence: An Interreligious Exploration of Missionary Advaita Vedānta,” Senior Seminar in Interreligious Relations, Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK, 3 May 2018.
“Hindu Monks and Missionaries in Late Modernity: Reflections of a Christian Comparative Theologian,” Collegeville Institute and Jay Phillips Center for Interfaith Learning, St. John’s University, Collegeville, Minnesota, 4 April 2018.
“Hinduism and Christianity in Dialogue,” Hindu Heritage Month Celebration, Mississauga Ram Mandir, 25 November 2017.
“Beyond the Text: Community-Engaged Learning in the Humanities” (with R. Gibbs and C. Berkowitz), 2017 Faculty Institute on Community-Engaged Learning, University of Toronto, 8 June 2017.
“Introduction to Religious Pluralism,” St. Basil’s Church, University of St. Michael’s College, Toronto, Ontario, 29 March 2017.
“Advaita Mission, Christian Mission: A Contemporary Controversy in Comparative Theological Perspective,” Department of Religious Studies, University of Calgary, 3 February 2017.
Moderator, “Religion and Politics: Convergence and Divergence in a Time of Conflict,” Idealogue Forum, Intercultural Dialogue Center, University of St. Michael’s College, Toronto, Ontario, 25 January 2017.
“Paradigms of Advaita Mission? Reflections of a Christian Comparativist,” Department of Christian Studies, University of Madras, 27 July 2016.
“The Importance of Viveka in the Ongoing Encounter of Advaita and Christianity,” Shankara Jayanthi Seminar, Sringeri Vidya Bharati Foundation Canada, 15 May 2016.
“Introduction to Religious Pluralism,” St. Basil’s Church, University of St. Michael’s College, Toronto, Ontario, 9 March 2016.
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Response to Heejung Adele Cho, Lonergan Research Institute, Regis College, Toronto, Ontario, 21 February 2016.
“Religious Pluralism,” St. Basil’s Church, University of St. Michael’s College, Toronto, Ontario, 4 February 2015.
“Intimacy as Interruption: Hindu-Christian Dialogue and the Disruptive Power of Self-Knowledge,” Corpus Christi University Parish, University of Toledo, Toledo, Ohio, USA, 25 March 2014.
“Complicating Religious and Secular Identities,” Who are You at U of T?, University of Toronto Multifaith Centre, Toronto, Ontario, 5 March 2014.
“Forgiveness in Christian Traditions,” Symposium on Forgiveness, Noor Cultural Centre, Toronto, Ontario, 1 February 2014.
Invited Respondent, Methods of Memory – Conference on South Asian Religions, Department for the Study of Religion, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, 2 November 2013.
“Integration of Personality: A Christian Perspective,” Interfaith Seminar, Vedanta Society Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, 14 September 2013.
“Christ the Stranger,” USMC Chaplaincy Lenten Series on “The Other Christ,” St. Basil’s Church, University of St. Michael’s College, Toronto, Ontario, 6 March 2013.
“One Nostra Aetate or Two? Theological Trajectories from Vatican II,” Lonergan Research Institute, Regis College, Toronto, Ontario, 15 February 2013.
“Looking for Love in All the Wrong Places: Agape in Hindu-Christian Engagements,” Plenary Panel on “Interreligious Engagement: Translating Theology and Religion in a Diverse World,” College Theology Society Annual Meeting, San Antonio, Texas, USA, 2 June 2012.
“Interreligious Dialogue as a Practice of Christian Piety,” Bishop Flanagan Lecture, Ecumenical Institute, Assumption College, Worcester, Massachusetts, USA, 11 April 2012.
“Is the Study of Religion Peripheral or Central in the Academy?” Roundtable Discussion, (Not) My Religion: Negotiating Centres and Peripheries, Graduate Student Symposium, Department for the Study of Religion, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, 30 March 2012.
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Ontario, 25 August 2011.
Invited Respondent, Crossing Boundaries: Texts, Traditions, Temporalities – Conference on South Asian Religions, Department for the Study of Religion, University of Toronto, 12 September 2012.
Response to Glenn Hughes, Lonergan Research Institute, Regis College, Toronto, Ontario, 13 October 2012.
“The Vagina Monologues and its Catholic Critics,” Panel and Pre-Performance Lecture, Saint Joseph College, West Hartford, Connecticut, USA, 24-25 February 2012.
“Curriculum Implications of the Conference,” Roundtable Discussion, Dante and the Christian Imagination, St. Michael’s College, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, 11 March 2012.
“The Vagina Monologues and its Catholic Critics,” Panel and Pre-Performance Lecture, Saint Joseph College, West Hartford, Connecticut, USA, 24-25 February 2012.
Response to Glenn Hughes, Lonergan Research Institute, Regis College, Toronto, Ontario, 13 October 2012.
Invited Respondent, Crossing Boundaries: Texts, Traditions, Temporalities – Conference on South Asian Religions, Department for the Study of Religion, University of Toronto, 12 September 2012.
“Self-Discipline and Freedom,” Iftar Dinner, Intercultural Dialogue Institute, Toronto, Ontario, 25 August 2011.
“Sanskritization, (Re)Conversion, Conquest? Redescribing Hindu Missions in India and North America,” Senior Research Fellow Symposium, University of Chicago Divinity School, Chicago, Illinois, USA, 12 May 2011.
“Cultivating Frustration in Teaching and Scholarship,” Wednesday Lunch, University of Chicago Divinity School, Chicago, Illinois, USA, 26 January 2011.
“Mission Among Missions: Christian Witness, Advaita Sectarianism and the 1893 World’s Parliament of Religion,” The Church in Pluralist Contexts, Ecclesiological Investigations Working Group, Bangalore, India, 14-17 April 2009.
“Roman Catholicism,” Lenten Series on World Religions, Christ Church Deer Park, Toronto, Ontario, 20 February 2008.
“From Conquest to Conversation: Discerning the Rough Contours of an Advaita Missiology,” The Church in Pluralist Contexts, Ecclesiological Investigations International Meeting, Kottayam, India, 8 January 2008.
“Conquest of New Quarters: Rewriting the Sacred Geography of Advaita,” Christian Inculturation, Ecclesiological Investigations International Meeting, Thrissur, India, 5 January 2008.
“Spiritual but Not Religious?” (with David French), Sunday Forum presentation and discussion, the Spirituality Centre, Peterborough, Ontario, 30 September 2007.
“Christians, Muslims, Jews: Do Our Sacred Texts Create Religious Intolerance?” (with Dr. James Diamond and Imam Abdul Hai Patel), public panel and discussion sponsored by the Canadian Christian-Jewish Consultation, Toronto, Ontario, 14 March 2007.
“The End of the World as We Know It? Science Fiction as Imminent Expectation,” opening remarks at a public screening of The War of the Worlds, hosted by the Rabanus Project, University of Saint Michael’s College, 15 February 2006.
“Spiritual but Not Religious: Problems and Possibilities,” public lecture at Loyola University, New Orleans, Louisiana, USA, 9 March 2006.
Response to Darren Dias, Lonergan Research Institute, Regis College, Toronto, Ontario, 28 October 2005.
Panel member, “Visions of the Church,” Faith Narratives Consultation, College Theology Society Annual Meeting, Mobile, Alabama, USA, 3 June 2005.
“Toward an Interreligious Theology of Church: Revisiting Bernard Lonergan’s Contribution to the ‘Dialogue of Religions,’” Lonergan Research Institute, Regis College, Toronto, Ontario, 25 February 2005.
“Love in the Christian Tradition,” opening remarks at a public screening of Love Actually, hosted by the Rabanus Project, University of Saint Michael’s College, 23 February 2005.
“Introduction,” opening remarks at a public screening of The Lotus and the Cross by Vishnu Mathur, hosted by the Cinema Studies and Christianity and Culture programmes, Innis College, University of Toronto, 21 November 2004.
“‘That’s How You Are, O Good-Looking One’: Hindu Insights for Theology, Dialogue and the Church,” Institute for Ecumenical and Cultural Research Spring Lecture Series, Collegeville, Minnesota, USA, 2002.
“‘One Who Has a Teacher Knows’: Dynamics of Authority and Conversion in an Interreligious Context,” Institute for Ecumenical and Cultural Research Fall Lecture Series, Collegeville, Minnesota, USA, 2001.
“The Paths of Life and Death in Pluralistic America: Looking to Adi Sankaracarya for Insight,” Indo-American Unity Centre, Shabnam Resources, Chennai, India, February 2000.
“Toward a Wider Communion: Aldo Leopold and Roman Catholic Ecclesiology,” The Institute at Thirty, Institute for Ecumenical and Cultural Research, Collegeville, Minnesota, USA, 1999.
Conference Papers
Panel Member, “Responsible Approaches to the News: Conscientious News Consumption” (with M. Brosens, C. Mulroney, M. Swan), Catholic Conscience, University of Toronto Newman Centre, Toronto, Ontario, 1 May 2019.
“Saying and Unsaying, Silence and Speech,” Pre-Khutba Presentation, Noor Cultural Centre, Toronto, Ontario, 22 March 2019.
“Can We Find Space for Other Religious Traditions? An Interfaith Dialogue” (with K. Hamilton, A. Hussain and D. Rosen), Beth Tzedec Congregation, Toronto, Ontario, 31 October 2018.
Response to Michael Vertin, Lonergan Research Institute Seminar, Regis College, Toronto, Ontario, 18 October 2018.
Panel Member, “Borders of Violence and Visions of Peace: The Religious Landscapes of South Asia,” Co-Sponsored by Coexist House and the Cambridge Interfaith Programme, St. Ethelburga’s Centre for Reconciliation and Peace, London, UK, 7 June 2018.
“Conquering the Quarters, Preaching in Silence: An Interreligious Exploration of Missionary Advaita Vedānta,” Senior Seminar in Interreligious Relations, Faculty of Divinity, University of Cambridge, Cambridge, UK, 3 May 2018.
“Hindu Monks and Missionaries in Late Modernity: Reflections of a Christian Comparative Theologian,” Collegeville Institute and Jay Phillips Center for Interfaith Learning, St. John’s University, Collegeville, Minnesota, 4 April 2018.
“Hinduism and Christianity in Dialogue,” Hindu Heritage Month Celebration, Mississauga Ram Mandir, 25 November 2017.
“Beyond the Text: Community-Engaged Learning in the Humanities” (with R. Gibbs and C. Berkowitz), 2017 Faculty Institute on Community-Engaged Learning, University of Toronto, 8 June 2017.
“Introduction to Religious Pluralism,” St. Basil’s Church, University of St. Michael’s College, Toronto, Ontario, 29 March 2017.
“Advaita Mission, Christian Mission: A Contemporary Controversy in Comparative Theological Perspective,” Department of Religious Studies, University of Calgary, 3 February 2017.
Moderator, “Religion and Politics: Convergence and Divergence in a Time of Conflict,” Idealogue Forum, Intercultural Dialogue Center, University of St. Michael’s College, Toronto, Ontario, 25 January 2017.
“Paradigms of Advaita Mission? Reflections of a Christian Comparativist,” Department of Christian Studies, University of Madras, 27 July 2016.
“The Importance of Viveka in the Ongoing Encounter of Advaita and Christianity,” Shankara Jayanthi Seminar, Sringeri Vidya Bharati Foundation Canada, 15 May 2016.
“Introduction to Religious Pluralism,” St. Basil’s Church, University of St. Michael’s College, Toronto, Ontario, 9 March 2016.
Response to Heejung Adele Cho, Lonergan Research Institute, Regis College, Toronto, Ontario, 21 February 2016.
“Religious Pluralism,” St. Basil’s Church, University of St. Michael’s College, Toronto, Ontario, 4 February 2015.
“Intimacy as Interruption: Hindu-Christian Dialogue and the Disruptive Power of Self-Knowledge,” Corpus Christi University Parish, University of Toledo, Toledo, Ohio, USA, 25 March 2014.
“Complicating Religious and Secular Identities,” Who are You at U of T?, University of Toronto Multifaith Centre, Toronto, Ontario, 5 March 2014.
“Forgiveness in Christian Traditions,” Symposium on Forgiveness, Noor Cultural Centre, Toronto, Ontario, 1 February 2014.
Invited Respondent, Methods of Memory – Conference on South Asian Religions, Department for the Study of Religion, University of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, 2 November 2013.
“Integration of Personality: A Christian Perspective,” Interfaith Seminar, Vedanta Society Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, 14 September 2013.
“Christ the Stranger,” USMC Chaplaincy Lenten Series on “The Other Christ,” St. Basil’s Church, University of St. Michael’s College, Toronto, Ontario, 6 March 2013.
“One Nostra Aetate or Two? Theological Trajectories from Vatican II,” Lonergan Research Institute, Regis College, Toronto, Ontario, 15 February 2013.
“Weakness and Belonging: An Alternative Model of ‘High Intensity Dissonance,’” Teaching Religion Section, American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, 2008.
“Barmen, Barth and the Liberative Limits of Śabda Pramāṇa,” Comparative Theology Group, American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, 2008.
“High Intensity Dissonance and International Service-Learning: The Intercordia Experience” (with J. Vorstermans), Poster and Resource Sharing Session, “Teaching and Learning Outside the Classroom: Experiential, Community-Based and Co-Curricular Initiatives at the University of Toronto,” 3 October 2008.
“What Conquest? Whither The Quarters? Problematising Swami Chinmayānanda’s Religious Nationalism” (secondary author, with J. Lauwers), Conference on the Study of the Religions of India, 2008.
“Crossing Boundaries, Across Generations: To and From the 1893 World’s Parliament of Religions” (Convener and panelist, with J. Hill Fletcher and C. Anthony), Select Session, Catholic Theological Society of America Annual Meeting, 2008.
“Boat, Barrier and Bridge: Adi Shankaracharya and the Emergence of Lay Vedānta,” World Religions Section, College Theology Society Annual Meeting, 2008.
“Uncomfortable Places, Transformative Spaces: Teachers and Students Learning Together” (with S. Bhattacharyya, J. Brackett, M. Harris, H. Rhee, H. Wiersma), Academic Teaching and the Study of Religion Section, American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, 2007.
“Conquest of New Quarters: Rewriting the Sacred Geography of Advaita,” North American Hinduism Consultation and Yoga in Theory and Practice Consultation, American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, 2007.
“A More Comparative Ecclesiology? Bringing Comparative Theology to the Ecclesiological Table,” Ecclesiological Investigations Section, American Academy of Religion Annual Meeting, 2006.
“Religious Conversion and Hindu Non-Dualism,” Method in Theology Section, Catholic Theological Society of America Annual Meeting, 2006.
“Evangelical Advaita? Teaching as Conquest in Ancient and Contemporary Hinduism,” 8th Annual Saint Michael’s College Symposium on “Weapons of Mass Instruction,” 2005.
“From Theorizing Religion to Interreligious Prudentia: Drawing Wisdom from Peter Lombard,” World Religions Section, College Theology Society Annual Meeting, 2005.
“Hindu Ekklesia, Christian Sampradaya? Prelude to a Conversation,” Society for Hindu-Christian Studies Annual Meeting, 2004.
“What’s the Deal with the Word of God? Revelation, Community and an Interreligious Theology of Church,” Theology of the Church Section, College Theology Society Annual Meeting, 2001.
“Sankara, Augustine and Rites de Passage: Doing Comparative Theology with Victor Turner,” World Religions Section, College Theology Society Annual Meeting, 2000.
“Living the Learning of the Ancient Rishis: A First Encounter with Arsha Vidya Gurukulam,” World Religions Section, College Theology Society Annual Meeting, 1999.
“The Hurt That Heals? Violence As Pedagogy in an Advaita Teaching Tradition,” Annual Meeting of the New England/Maritime Region of the American Academy of Religion, 1999.
“From Education to Election: Exegesis and Ecclesiology in Augustine’s Early Development,” College Theology Society Annual Meeting, 1998.
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- Education
PhD, Theology (2003) — Boston College
MA, Theology (1995) — Boston University
BA (1991) — University of Tennessee at Chattanooga
Certificate in Indigenous Cultural Awareness — First Nations Technical Institute
(Nov 2018)