Christian-Hindu Encounter

Moderated by Ted Ulrich, Ph.D., Professor of Theology, University of St. Thomas Bradley Malkovsky, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Comparative Theology, University of Notre Dame Bradley Malkovsky is associate professor of comparative theology at the University of Notre Dame. In his teaching he focuses on doctrinal and spiritual issues in the relationship of Christianity to Hinduism, Buddhism, and Islam. He earned his master’s and doctoral degrees from the University of Tübingen in Germany and he has studied Sanskrit and Hindu thought at the University of Poona in India. Specializing in the field of Hindu-Christian dialogue, he has been the editor of the Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies for thirteen years. Among his writings are The Role of Divine Grace in the Soteriology of Samkaracarya (2001) and God’s Other Children: Personal Encounters with Faith, Love, and Holiness in Sacred India (2013), for which he won the Huston Smith Publishing Prize. Huston Smith, one of the world’s preeminent scholars of comparative religion, called God’s Other Children “the most interesting and inspiring book that I have read in a very long time.” About the same book, the renowned Hindu scholar Anantanand Rambachan said “Malkovsky takes us on a journey that illumines both heart and mind as he invites our own reflection on the significance of our encounters with people of other faiths.” Anantanand Rambachan, Ph.D. Professor of Religion, Philosophy, and Asian Studies, St. Olaf College Anantanand Rambachan is a professor of religion, philosophy and Asian studies at St. Olaf College in Minnesota, where he has been teaching since 1985. He earned M.A. and Ph.D. degrees from the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom and has been deeply involved in interreligious dialogue, especially Hindu-Christian dialogue, for several decades. He has lectured in many countries and is an active participant in the dialogue program of the World Council of Churches and in consultations of the Pontifical Council for Interreligious Dialogue at the Vatican. In April 2008, Professor Rambachan, at the invitation of the Archbishop of Canterbury, delivered the distinguished Lambeth Lecture at Lambeth Palace, London. His books include Accomplishing the Accomplished: The Vedas as a Source of Valid Knowledge in Sankara (1991), Gitamrtam: The Essential Teachings of the Bhagavadgita (1993), The Limits of Scripture: Vivkananda’s Reinterpretation of the Vedas (1994), The Hindu Vision (1999), The Advaita Worldview: God, World and Humanity (2006), and A Hindu Theology of Liberation (2014), and he has numerous articles published in scholarly journals as well as a series of commentaries on the Ramayana. The British Broadcasting Corporation transmitted 25 of his lectures around the world and he has twice delivered the invocation address at the White House Celebration of the Hindu festival of Diwali