Abstract
It is a particular pleasure to read the autobiography of a friend, whom I have known for several decades, and who has played a significant role in my own intellectual and professional life. Francis Clooney is best known as the founder or father of the modern discipline of comparative theology. Trained as a scholar of South Asian religion and culture and a Catholic priest, he has dedicated his academic life to bridging Hinduism and Christianity, slowly and patiently reading sacred texts across the two traditions and discovering resonances that may serve to ‘expand hearts and minds’ and intensify religious experience and insight. He has also played an important role in training and mentoring the next generation of comparative theologians, supporting and encouraging them, without imposing his own approach or views. In the preface, Clooney generously mentions that the discipline that he founded had ‘outgrown me, as several generations of younger scholars have crossed the border I had reached early on.’ Nevertheless, he will always remain a pivotal figure in the shift from a critical and condescending to an open and welcoming theological attitude toward other religious traditions. And it is therefore fascinating to read how this shift came about in his own life, and in his own heart and mind.
The book illustrates how much a series of contingent events and encounters may only retrospectively suggest the working of divine grace and providence. Born in Brooklyn, and touched by a powerful religious experience at a young age, Clooney joined the Jesuits, studied classics, and was sent to Kathmandu for his regency which ignited his life-long love of Hinduism. Returning to the US, he studied theology and obtained a PhD in South Asian literature and languages from the University of Chicago. He taught at Boston College from 1984 until 2005, and at Harvard from 2005 until now, dedicating his research and prolific writing to the practice of slow reading across religious Hindu and Christian religious texts.
Clooney’s books form something of a narrative thread through the autobiography. He traces the birth of his many books, and the process of moving from one topic or text to another, lifting up some of the passages in the books that touch in particular upon his personal life and experiences, as well as the religious and spiritual impact of his work. Weary of a priori theological judgments as well as generalising theological conclusions, Clooney’s work has always remained a close textual reading across traditions, inviting the reader to draw their own theological conclusions. This has often left readers such as myself with a burning question about how this in-depth engagement with Hinduism has affected Clooney’s own religious life and theological understanding, and how he has come to square his love of Christ with his love for Hinduism. This autobiography does much to allay, or dissolve those questions. It does not offer a conclusive or synthesising theological account, but it does reveal the deep spiritual attunement that has inspired his life and work. His intimate relationship with Christ has remained the source of all his endeavours and the very reason for his fearless openness toward other religions from the very beginning as ‘Kathmandu would be a real test of my resolve to learn without fear, trusting in the truth and beauty of Christ I would learn to encounter everywhere, even if I would not label all beauty and truth as Christian’ (p. 42). Much of Clooney’s connection to Hinduism and its rituals and texts has been intuitive, almost instinctive. Upon visiting a Kali temple for the first time, he states that ‘theologically, I could not explain or justify my deep intuitive openness to a Goddess who expected animal sacrifices. But on another level, I could not deny a sense of connection and harmony, an affirmation of what I was seeing, hearing, touching for the first time’ (p. 48). Many of his later experiences reflect the spontaneity and spiritual openness of that first encounter.
In addition to opening a window to his own experiences with Hinduism, Clooney’s autobiography also sheds light on the ultimate intention of his works. In refraining from theological judgments, his goal is to allow the texts to speak for themselves and to bring about a process of transformation in the reader as ‘theorization may dissipate the phenomenon of interreligious affect, making texts appear only as rather inert sources of information useful in discussions about religion . . . We must, therefore, stay with the particularities of the reading process across religious boundaries and the affective states generated in that process’ (p. 128).
The book offers important insights and lessons for younger comparative theologians, and for theologians in general. It illustrates how a combination of intellectual seriousness and spiritual openness can lead to a life of immense scholarly productivity and importance. But it also points to the highly personal and original direction of each individual’s vocation as the set of circumstances that shaped Clooney’s life journey are of course inimitable. Though by nature reserved, in the autobiography Clooney opens his soul without fear or reservation, letting the reader into some of the most intimate and important spiritual moments of his life. It shows how a powerful mystical experience at an early age infused his whole life with meaning and purpose and with a continuous powerful sense of the presence of God in his own life and in the world.
The title of the book is somewhat misleading. It is clear that throughout his life Clooney has balanced his two identities as priest and scholar. My family has been the beneficiary of his sermons and liturgies as we belong to Our Ladies of Sorrows parish in Sharon where Fr Frank has served for almost three decades. I am sure this autobiography will be a revelation to many parishioners, who have little inkling of his spiritual adventures in India and immersion in Hinduism. But the first part of the equation may suggest that Clooney regards himself as equally Hindu and Catholic. Admittedly, here, as in some of his other writings, he remains a little ambiguous. In one of his quotes, he speaks of his venturing into Hinduism as ‘worshipping in a different place, belonging to a new religion: or is it religious discovery?’ (p. 101). Though he undoubtedly had very profound and meaningful spiritual experiences in a Hindu context, throughout the book Clooney continuously reminds his readers that he is first and foremost a Catholic and Jesuit priest, whose life has been thoroughly shaped by a deep experience of intimacy with Christ. He thus ‘refuses a language of double belonging’ (p. 151).
In this book, Clooney demonstrates how his various identities as Catholic priest and lover of Hinduism, as priest and scholar, have been closely intertwined. He attests that, ‘Though in a rather laborious way, my curriculum vitae, the course of my life in writing, really does tell the story of my soul’ (p. 100). Even so, this autobiography helps a great deal in recognising it and bringing it to life.